‘PGA Tour 2K21’ is par for the course
“PGA Tour 2K21″ is a fine game, but not a revolutionary one. Yes, that’s standard fare for most sports games, which are often merely iterated upon year after year. But when a title is providing the only serious sim for a sport in a given year, it always leaves me asking a simple question: Why should I buy it when I already have something similar that I enjoy?
The game’s highlights (a strong swing interface that feels great from tee to green, a variety of multiplayer modes to engage with friends) make it enjoyable enough, but its drawbacks keep it from rising to the top of the golf game leaderboard. It’s more Phil Blackmar than Phil Mickelson — worthy of golf-clap praise for making the cut and the occasional win, but short of deserving the roars reserved for legends like Tiger Woods.
In 2010 EA introduced the Tiger Woods golf franchise on the Wii, a massive innovative leap. To me, the Wii versions of that series from 2010 to 2012 provided the best golf gaming experience to date. The motion control tracked a player’s actual swing. It felt immersive and it was even something my dad, an avid golfer, enjoyed. Sadly, it’s now defunct, and playing on analog console controllers doesn’t come close to mirroring the experience. I’d hoped “PGA Tour 2K21” could deliver a push for the analog genre, but alas, it does not — at least from a gameplay perspective.
“PGA Tour 2K21″ does add differentiating features from the Tiger Woods line though, and the standout is a deep and detailed course designer that allows creative types to indulge their inner Pete Dye and build tracks that can meet even extremely ambitious visions. (This feature was also part of HB Studios’ previous golf title, “The Golf Club 2019.”) Users can customize a variety of features like water hazards, bunkers, foliage, the width of fairways, elevation and more by using some sliders to set some key parameters. Want to get into the nitty-gritty? Cruise around the new course and add individual items like trees, ponds or even boats. You can even play a test round to make sure it provides the experience you’re looking for before publishing it.
The course designer is the game’s most unique aspect and could be a reason to pick up a copy if you find the creative process appealing. Outside of that feature however, there’s not a ton of motivating material for players that already own “The Golf Club 2019” or any of the Tiger Woods titles.
Among the analog stick-controlled category of golf games, a second-tier to be sure, “PGA Tour 2K21” stands up but doesn’t stand out. Those who played “The Golf Club 2019,” will recognize most everything about “2K21,” as the main added features are the inclusion of more licensed courses (15 in all, including TPC Sawgrass, with its iconic island green) and a handful of real-life PGA golfers, including Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Kuchar, Tony Finau and coverboy Justin Thomas.
“Golf Club” fans will also notice many of the same features regarding the shot interface and swing mechanics. Distance, tempo, aim, spin — all of them can be finessed with the dual thumbsticks, and are required to execute the perfect shot. Whether it’s a drive from the tee box or an approach shot, it is an intuitive and fun dynamic that is probably the best part of the game. The worst part is found once you reach the green, however.
Putting can be a nightmare when you first play the game. This was true for “The Golf Club 2019” as well, which didn’t include a putting meter and required players to “feel” it out. “PGA Tour 2K21” introduces a putting meter, but a quirky one.
Most golf games use a power meter that is proportional to your distance to the hole. For example, if you were 30 feet from the hole, the power meter may top out at 50 feet and you’d need start your follow through when the meter was three fifths full. If you were 3 feet from the hole, however, the meter may top out at 5 feet, which made for a slower moving power bar and thus made it easier to time and sink the putt. That makes sense when it comes to what should be easier putts. “PGA Tour 2K21” pegs every single putt to a maximum distance, which was almost always over 140 feet. That meant missing the proper spot on the putting meter by a small percentage (equivalent to just a fraction of a second) could send the ball screaming by the hole. And that’s on level ground. Catch a slope and the ball could settle further from the hole than you began.
Midrange putts between 10-20 feet that should have been birdie attempts became nightmares to manage par. Putts in close were trickier than those far away. I’d have to slam the thumbstick forward to get the timing right, which is the opposite of the nice, easy tempo you want to feel when you’re putting both in a game or real life.
This coupled with an apparent bug to provide my biggest frustration with the game. Many times I would draw back the thumbstick to start my swing, only for the motion not to register. My golfer would start to move the club head, then resume his stance over the ball. Between the occasional lack of registration on the backswing and the “Oh-my-God-please-don’t-crush-this-putt-off-the-face-of-the-Earth” timing issues on the greens, it took me several rounds before I could eliminate multiple double bogeys from my scorecard.
When the game works as it should, and once you’ve acclimated to the putting timing, “PGA Tour 2K21” does provide an enjoyable experience as you chase down your competitors, whether in qualifying school, on the Korn Ferry developmental tour or later, the PGA circuit. The actual ball-striking and shot-shaping is a fun exercise that requires you to do more than simply use the default club/distance/aim setting prescribed by the game. It’s not a new dynamic among golf games by any means, but “PGA Tour 2K21” gets it right.
Player progression in the game’s career mode is likewise unoriginal but enjoyable. Winning earns players experience points and currency, which can be used to purchase in-game items like clothes and equipment for your golfer, including some name brands like Adidas and Bridgestone. You can also buy currency via microtransactions. Some items are purely cosmetic, but most of the clubs (some of which are unlocked by completing various achievements during your career) amplify certain attributes at the cost of others — a TaylorMade driver may offer more distance but be less forgiving on mistimed swings, for example. Putters appear to offer no bonus to your game, however. Given the difficulty, that was disappointing, particularly since players cannot improve individual attributes like distance, short game or putting, like you could in the Tiger Woods series. The only way to improve is to buy better gear and learn to master the shooting mechanics through repetition and training.
The game’s other high points are multiplayer modes that let players enjoy popular real-life formats beyond stroke play (match, Stableford, four-ball, alternate shot, scramble and skins) and build communities for online tournaments or events through “Online Societies,” another feature brought over from “The Golf Club” series. (The name “Online Societies” does make me think I’m enlisting with the Freemasons, though).
A passionate community is part of the game’s strength as well, with user created courses living indefinitely on 2K’s servers and providing limitless options beyond the somewhat disappointing course list in the game. While it’s fun to play a number of the TPC courses included with the game (Deere Run and Boston stand out), world-renowned tracks like Augusta National, The Old Course at St. Andrews and Pebble Beach are not included. A spokesman for the game stated there’s an intent to add more licensed courses after launch, however. Maybe there’s hope.
Those missing courses were one of the factors that made me more nostalgic for the old Tiger Woods series rather than excited to embrace a new golf title. The other was the lackluster commentary and presentation of tournaments via broadcasters Luke Elvy and Rich Beem. The occasional one-liner injects some humor into otherwise bland chatter, but most of the time it doesn’t land. A lot of the talk states the obvious (“You’ve arrived at a Par 4”) and/or makes a repetitive generic statement (“This is a putt they’d like to have”) rather than providing analysis about how to approach shots or pointing out unique features of certain holes. The broadcast teams in the EA games would provide history lessons about The Old Course. In “PGA Tour 2K21,″ I received some tidbits like that, but most of the commentary seemed redundant, echoing what’s plainly visible on your screen. If a putt is 25 feet away, Elvy would throw it down to the course reporter, HB Studios developer John McCarthy, who would tell you, “It looks to be about 25 feet away.”
“2K21” also interjects highlights from other pros into the broadcast during your PGA Tour rounds, a feature I quickly disabled. I respect the effort to mirror an actual TV production. I also just don’t care. TV highlights are fun because a real person did something cool. Game highlights of bot players are lame because they’re predetermined by a code. Oh, there’s a highlight from the course? Let me guess, some AI player holed a shot. Let me know if there’s a highlight of a gator attacking Ian Poulter. Otherwise, don’t bother.
While it does play well, the overall package of HB Studios’ “PGA Tour 2K21” simply isn’t as pretty as the game EA last put out in 2015 either. The course renderings are sharp, but they’re not exactly breathtaking, and sometimes appear odd when the ball is in flight, like the camera is zooming in on a pop-up book. The visuals from “Rory McIlroy PGA Tour” may have looked more “game-like” but I find them more captivating head-to-head.
If you’re searching for a good golf game, one that can help get you out onto the virtual links during a pandemic and provide a good experience on the whole, “PGA 2K21” will fill that need. This is particularly true if you’re a creative type who enjoys dreaming up and building idyllic golf holes. However, if you’re a longtime golf game fan with an old version of Tiger Woods laying around the house, or better yet, a Wii, you’ll probably find more fun dusting it off and relishing that nostalgia. This new golf game really isn’t that new.
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