|| REVIEW || PGA Tour 2K21 (Xbox One)
Developed By : HB Studios Published By : 2K
Category : Sports, Simulation
Release Date : August 21, 2020
Ever since I was a little kid, I enjoyed all kinds of sports games. Some of my very first gaming memories are from playing Ice Hockey on the NES with my dad in his living room. There was an even greater chunk of my childhood devoted to all the Madden games on SEGA, and even up to the present where I've amassed a collection of literally any NHL game I can get my hands on. From the serious simulation games to the cartoony ones, I've played or tried to play them all.
However, one sport that's been more sparse than others in library is golf. It's not that I don't enjoy the games, I always have. It's just not a sport I even remotely keep up with so there was no reason to keep up with the latest and greatest games that dropped for it. Getting a chance to cover PGA Tour 2K21 would be getting my hands on a PGA game for the first time in a handful of years, as well as my first 2K sports game in just about as long. So will this game be a clean drive off the tee? Or will it fall short in a hazard?
Teeing Off
As is the case with just about all sports games nowadays, the big pull and focus in here is the career mode. You can create your golfer and mold him or her however you'd like. Want them to look as much like you as possible? Or want to see what sort of abomination you can create? Every piece of the face and body has a sculpting slider that can be used to perfect or...distort your career player. On my channel we have a knack for making more creature-esque players so...naturally we went with the latter option as you can see below.
For your career you're able to pick one of four leagues to join, each one presenting you with a different objective or set of objectives you'll need to meet. These focus entirely on your performance in those leagues, required points for you to earn, how well to place in tournament rounds, things like that. From what I saw these don't really get checked off and marked as "completed" so you can continue to rejoin the same leagues and help level up your player.
Finding the Green
No matter what mode you're playing, whether it's embarking on your lengthy career, or setting up a quick round to play, or anything in between, the core gameplay of PGA Tour 2K21 is exactly the same. Before stepping up to your first tee, you can customize a lot of the options for the game such as the difficulty of your swing mechanics, your opponents difficulty, and if you're playing in a tournament you can adjust how many rounds should be played for each event.
The swing mechanics offer a wide range to accomodate players from the more serious side of things all the way down to those who just want to smack the ball and get it into the cup. The more advanced your settings are will require you to be a lot more precise with everything you do. On the bottom of the screen will be a power bar that has a white section and a red one. The white section will be where you want to try and time your transition from upswing to downswing, while the red area gives you the potential for a little extra power at the risk of losing some accuracy.
You also have full control over every aspect of your shot, not just the swing. Your bag is full of all the clubs you'll need and you can change them out whenever. Depending on where your ball is lying you can also adjust the type of shot you're taking. If you're far away from the green give it a full swing, but if you are lying closer you can consider changing it to a pitch, chip, or splash to give your ball a better chance of staying where it lands and giving you a better putt. You can even fully sculpt your shot, adjusting your contact point on the ball so it will hook or slice through the air, or land with a little bit of spin to encourage more or less distance on the carry.
Sinking the Putt
Like I mentioned, I haven't played a golf game in about half a decade, nor have I played a 2K sports game in even longer. Without a doubt though, HB Studios absolutely nailed this title and it's very deserving of it's spot under the 2K crown. The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is extremely smooth, and for the first time in a while I've found myself extremely excited about a golf game and have had difficulties putting it down.
One feature that jumped out at me as being really unique was the ability to make your own custom golf course, as well as play on others course creations too. Again I haven't played a golf game in a little while so this was something brand new to me, while it has apparently been a feature as of late with The Golf Club games. This was an area that I didn't spend a ton of time in before writing this review, but it's intrigued me plenty and I'll be spending lots of time there in the near future.
The only thing that was a little up setting about this game for me was the lack of mini-games. In the past, a lot of the sports games I would play featured some sort of "fun" variation to dive into that wasn't the main simulation focus of the game. Even in the golf games, you could visit a driving range filled with targeted greens, scoring points for how close you landed to a bullseye. There were no such features here in this game, but it doesn't take away from how amazing the game is still.
Whether you're an avid golfer on the course, or just one behind the controller, PGA Tour 2K21 is a great time and really fun. The courses are absolutely stunning, the customizations you can unlock are numerous from the clubs to the clothes. The controls are fully customizable as well, giving yourself an extremely authentic feeling experience, or tone them down and let your kids jump in a game with you. I totally did this last part and it was fun. It's out on all platforms, so tee this game up and knock it down the fairway.
Game Rating : 9.5 / 10
Pick up the game HERE on the Xbox Store
Also available on Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch,
PC and Google Stadia. Game is available in both
physical and digital forms.
A code for this game was graciously provided to the
site for the purpose of a review
