PGA Tour 2K21 (2020)

I enjoy the game of golf, but I'm not a sports gamer. I would've probably never played this if it wasn't the free PS Plus game of the month.

The most important part of a golf game is that the golfing feels good. As you may expect, this game goes the very realistic simulator route. There is lots of things you can manage with your swing such as the angle and loftiness, and there's a bit of skill involved in making sure you swing straight with the analog stick. That bit of skill can be a bit of a trick to master as the margin of error can be narrow and for me at least, pulling and pushing perfectly straight back on the analog stick is a trick. Luckily the game is still approachable to us casual types as there's lots of ways to tweak the difficult in the settings to make the game the right amount of challenge for you. It adds up to this game feeling good to play.

Now, golf is very much one of those games that's fun to play, boring as shit to watch. This game is both a bit slowly paced, like golf is, and edge of seat exciting. Sending the ball sailing down the fairway is soothing, missing a "sure thing" putt for the 3rd time is infuriating. I am a master at the "so close" putt that has ruined many of a birdie-able holes.

The career mode has you playing through the PGA Tour, gaining sponsors to make money & unlock better clubs or new cosmetics. There's a rival system that just gives you more goals to reach. It's a career mode, not a story mode though. The most characterization you get is from the color commentators, which they are enjoyable. One's kinda goofy, the other's more of a typical golf announcer. They comment on your shots, keep track of your score, and occasionally show highlights from you or the other golfers. I turned off the highlights from other golfers as the game couldn't load them very well.

The multiplayer is a bit of a joke. The quick match playing a hole or three with some randoms works fine, but you'll always have at least one guy drop out after the first hole. Due to the nature of it being multiplayer, your default settings are overridden by a general difficulty, which means you are boned if you aren't ready for it. I tried playing a round in a private match with my sister and the game refused to connect and actually work, which does hurt half the purpose of this game.

The game also looks very beautiful. The golf courses are all real and look pretty. Most of them do all start to run together, with only a few that stick out for being in unique locations. There's a good selection of real clubs and some novelty ones, like a hockey stick putter. Clothing is also pretty varied, there's the standard modern polo & dress pants, but you can also dress up as a 1920s golfer, which of course I did. The music is what you'd expect from a golf game, but still good. It's classical music, because golf is a gentleman's game, but with a dubstep remix, because it's modern. I actually muted the music and put on a playlist of big band music. That mixed with me looking like Mr. B really made me enjoy this game a whole lot more. I'd love an actual old time golf game to nail that Bagger Vance or Stroke of Genius feeling.

All in all, this game nailed playing golf and they created a beautiful world to do it in. It's a game best played in little bursts, an event here or there. There's no pressing story that makes you feel a need to complete the whole PGA career in one sitting.

Played through Q-School and a couple custom courses

My thoughts:

I don't normally play "realistic Sports games", but this is one I can get behind considering I play a fair share of arcade golf games. The biggest change to me is the "Flick-stick" control scheme (Tilt back to set power and Tilt forward quickly to swing), which feels different than the 3-click scheme (Press a button to start the swing, press again to set power, and press once more to set accuracy and swing). While there is no course music unlike many arcade golf titles, I do enjoy all of the live commentators and how highlights are transitioned seamlessly like an actual sports commentary.

I can see myself coming back to play this game every so often because of the massive amount of content there is to play! On top of the official PGA courses that are in the game by default, you also can play on fan recreations built with the in-game course creator tools! So far I've played both Kasumigaseki Country Club (course used in Tokyo Olympics 2020) and Aloha Beach (from Hot Shot Golf 4). It's the Mario Maker of golf games, on top of an already meaty base.