There are a lot of Golf games out there. In fact there are probably more golf video games than any other sport. Psygnosis is the latest company to throw their hat into the ring with Pro-18: World Tour Golf for the Sony Playstation.
Pro-18 is not a grand effort to make a revolutionary golf game, but it does have its moments. Pro-18 features real life golf pro's which are motion captured into the game for more realism. This is where Pr0-18 succeeds. The players look clear, and life like. In some cases you can see the players pants blowing in the wind. The problem is this is only a small portion of the game which lasts about as long as it takes to swing a golf club. There are no more player animations here.
The courses are video captured images . So the back drops match well with the players. The sound quality is good, but its the quantity of sound bytes that is missing from this game. Featuring dual announcers who provide quiet commentary don't share their thoughts with the playing audience nearly enough. The games only other alternative sounds to listen to are the courses wild life noises. Birds are singing, crickets are chirping, it can all get so silent...a little too silent.
Pro-18 offers 8 real life professional players and 5 fully accurate courses. The control is suppose to be a new revolutionary four click system swing system to make any novice golfer a Tiger Woods instantly.
However this "revolutionary" system is no different than what EA Sports' PGA TOUR has been using for years. This is not a bad thing, its the only way to play Video Golf, its just nothing new. Pro-18: Word Tour Golf is a not a fantastic game in the golfing world, but it is a good one. Pro-18 lives up to its title . It is made for professional golfers who want a True Golf simulator.
Pro-18 is not revolutionary, great, or even terrible. Its just there. Pro-18 will not be remembered by any means. It make its spot in Playstation history as an alternative to the PGA Tour series.
PUBLISHER: PSYGNOSIS
GRAPHICS: 7 MUSIC & SOUND: 4 CONTROL: 5
SECRETS: N/A ORIGINALITY: 3 FUN & REPLAY: 4
OVERALL: 5