Version Reviewed:
X-Box
Sports games are for the most part very straight forward, so every now and then people need to add an interesting twist to a game. Outlaw Golf manages to take a bland golf game and give a little something extra.
The physics for a golf game are fairly simple; shot power, wind speed and direction and something to judge accuracy of your swing. Outlaw Golf takes the middle road in terms of realism. There are some games such as Mario Golf with a very unrealistic golf engine and others such as Links which try and make the game as realistic as possible. Obviously the objective of the game was to be simple and fun to play, but there also needed to be a degree of difficulty so that at least some skill was involved. Outlaw Golf is quite easy when you first start, but as you progress it begins to get progressively harder. Certain clubs, which hit the ball further and with better spin, are also a lot harder to be accurate with, so a slice or hook is not unusual.
As with real sports there is also a feeling of momentum, when you make good shots usually you follow up with good shots and when you make a bad shot usually you keep making bad shots. In Outlaw Golf this is called the composure bar. If you start to suck you can take out all your frustration in the form of a wicked beating on your caddy. Beating the caddy isn’t very difficult. However there are varying levels of beating and the more you beat your caddy the better your composure will be. This feature is what makes Outlaw Golf fun to play, at least for a little while.
Sound in golf is something you would really prefer not to hear. Usually the course is pretty quiet. Obviously there is going to be some birds and what not and the players are going to have something to say about their shots. Outlaw Golf adds a commentator who is pretty funny at first but after a while becomes incredibly annoying with his extremely limited repertoire of comments. Also the golfers’ commentary is pretty limited and while it’s amusing at first, you just want to skip it after a while. Graphically, Outlaw Golf does nothing outstanding. The courses are well designed and the characters are all very unique looking, but there is still a cartoonish feeling to it all. Also, there are some serious clipping issues in some of the celebratory scenes.
Overall though, this game is not that bad and it has some rather interesting and unique features. While single player may not be worth replaying very much, it can be fun to play against your friends rather than having another game of Halo. So if you happen to like golf and want to play a round or two with some friends who aren’t big fans, I would suggest picking this game up because it pleases all sides.
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