Golf With Your Friends Review

I am not in any way a massive golf fan, but I do enjoy a little crazy golf when on holiday while trying my best to come first, which is rare as I suck at the sport.

We are not having the greatest time right now, are we? 19.05.2020, A lot of us are stuck in the home, watching re-runs, catching up on movies, or watching series after series of that show you have been meaning to watch. If you are lucky enough you might be living in one of those countries unaffected by CORVID-19, or for this review your county has opened up golf courses but with strict rules in place to protect the player from getting CORVID-19, if possible.

So if you are anything like me, playing crazy golf right now is impossible and maybe playing some golf with your online friends seems like a little fun? Well look no further than Golf With Your Friends from Team17 and Blacklight Interactive. The game is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One and PlayStation for around £14.99.

Golf With Your Friends was originally released in early access way back in 2016 on PC through Steam, this has given the developers plenty of opportunity to refine, implement and create a great golf simulator game. It has allowed the developers to read feedback, fix all the bugs and finally launch the game on the 19.05.2020. Hopefully it is everything a golf fanatic might want as a gamer, fun courses, over the top ideas, but most of all, a way for us to enjoy a sporting experience with friends.

Golf With Your Friends takes mini-golf, or crazy golf to all new heights, some courses in this game, you simply would NEVER EVER see in real life, like playing around volcanos, some courses defy everything you know about gravity and even physics on times. The best thing, everything is controlled simply with just a few buttons and analogue sticks. As this is the Nintendo Switch Version of the game, the controls are left stick (up and Down) provides the amount of power behind the ball, right stick controls the angle you want the ball to head in and finally the A button is to launch the ball and pray you get a hole in one or close as possible to the hole.

But having easy controls does not mean this game is going to be easy to play and complete, OH NO you can forget that idea. The first few holes within a course are easy, they welcome you in, but they get steadily harder as you progress to a point, where you look at a course and think to yourself, what mental game developer thought this one out.

Courses include around 18 holes, and here is a selection of them, Forrest, Haunted, Oasis, Space Station, Pirate Cove, and Worms there are a few more courses with a total of 12 to be completed. Each one of them offering up an experience unique to that course, with elements you simply would not expect, like having to fly your ball. There is also different modes of play, you  have the classic version of golf. Dunk Mode which removes the hole and instead adds a Basketball Net. Hockey Mode which sees your golf ball turns into a puck which you need to traverse around the course and shoot past the goalkeeper at the end. Explore Mode which I am going to say is simply bloody fun and Party Mode which adds surprise boxes to the course that provide unique effects, like double jump, and honey slick etc.

I would be rather bored playing Golf in real life I reckon, so having some healthy competition is always a good thing? Maybe? Right? Well, Golf With Your Friends allow up to 12 players online or offline to play a course, and in all honesty, it’s playing with friends that makes this game so much more fun. You get the serious players, that want to get the lowest amount of hits on the ball to get the best score, then you get the fun players that just want to have fun, then you get the outright crazy players that do not have a clue and end up sending their ball in the oddest of places. But all in all, regardless of what type of players you end up with, this game is differently best played with more players.

Sound what Sound?

A golf course is normally silent, with just you are your friends and the sound of nature, its wonderful if you want to relax. The sound in Golf With Your Friends is different, you get the atmosphere and simplistic music, but each and every stage is unique in it own style, especially the worms stage, that is amazing, worms fans are going to love it ‘“HALLELUJAH”, Bloody holy hand grenades.

So you have simplistic, atmospheric, fun sounds and music within each course, along with plenty of courses to dig into, but how do they look? Well the Worms course looks amazing, and if you are a fan of the franchise then you will be a huge fan of this course. That’s not to say every other course has the same level of love put into it, because it does not, they are good enough, but you can really tell that Team17 jumped in on their franchise course and stepped it up to another level. This is not me saying all the other courses are badly designed, in no way, they all look and feel great for what the game is, you can just feel that Team17s franchise course has been worked on with more love.

It is a shame you can not create your own courses, but you do have the ability to design your unique GOLF BALL, what fun this is, sarcasm at its best. Pressing L after choosing offline or online game, you can customise your GOLF BALL with hats, colour, its tail and floaties (lifebuoys/life rings) all have to be unlocked by playing the game.

The worse thing you will have to experience is the super, duper long loading times on the Nintendo Switch, which can take to long on times, and this happens regardless of the course. Then there was the slight glitch here and there, which seen my ball go out of bounds and the game deciding the glitch out and reboot for some reason. This was rare, very rare, but it happened twice, see how rare that was.

Final Thoughts?

Golf With Your Friends is fun with friends, playing solo is more or less a way to get better at each course before you head online or take on your friends or other players. The GOLF BALL customisation is OK,  some will like, some will not, but it does add to the already over the top courses present in the game. With so many courses already available within the game, and I have no doubt there will be more added over time, there is plenty to dig your teeth into with plenty of hours of fun and frolics to be had.

I can recommend this game to not only golfers looking for some less serious fun, but to gamers in general that like a pleasant challenge.

Golf With Your Friends is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC

The game is developed and published by Team17 and Blacklight Interactive.

This review is based on the Nintendo Switch version of the game which can be purchased here for £14.99.

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