I bought this game as a complete newbie to both the Tiger Woods video game series, and the sport of golf. Going in, I felt that golf is not a real sport. I still have my doubts after months of playing this game, but I feel that this has done more to educate me about golf than any number of hours watching it on TV, reading about in books and magazines, or playing lessons.
This game is as easy, or as hard as you want it to be. Luckily, playing on the easiest level is only detrimental to those of you who care about the create-your-own-golfer Career mode, as you will be unable to build up skill levels as quickly. For those of you who are merely looking to unlock the legendary players as quickly as possible, this is a godsend.
The real gem of this game is the Legends of the Majors mode, which is where those legendary players can be unlocked. For player licensing reasons, there are gaps for those die-hard fans out there (for you Tom Kidd and Greg Norman fans, you're out of luck). For people like me, it did a great job in walking me through the history of the sport, from one of Young Tom Morris's Open Championships at St. Andrews in the 1800's, to Rory McIlroy's 2012 PGA Championship.
This "history lesson" is split into six sections, and you can choose which section to start from, leave off at for another, etc. Each "lesson" has different goals for a given event in time, such as duplicating or bettering a player's score during their entire 18-hole greatest game, or replicating a defining shot that won a career-defining championship. What is unlocked after completing each section can be a mixed bag, ranging from just practice courses from a certain era of time, to a legendary player or three unlocked at a given time. In the case of the Big Three (Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus), you can unlock two different versions of each, at different eras (young and strong, or old and accurate, though in Nicklaus's case, his older self has the better skill set).
Now, for the cons: the pay-for-play expansion stuff, namely additional courses, can kill the joy of this game really quickly, especially for those of you who are playing the Career mode mentioned earlier (fewer chances to boost player stats). One set costs $40 for 14 courses, and even then, you'll be missing 4 other courses that you have to shell out another $10 for in an additional set, for a total of $100 or more for a golf game. I'd recommend passing on those expansion packs, unless you have a geeky interest in learning the layouts and differences in golf course design over time (1934 Augusta National vs. 2013 Augusta National, for example). Paying for player boosts would probably be cheaper for those of you needing additional opportunities to build your custom player. This is the major reason for the docked star, since the game isn't cheap to begin with.
Also, if you already own a Tiger Woods game within the last three years, a lot of this has either a been-there/done-that feeling, or can turn into a complete let-down (significantly longer load times, and less vibrant graphics were the biggest knocks, based on demo plays of earlier games). It'll take more than a history lesson to cure that sense of golf-game burnout that you might have.
Shot mechanics are great for newbies like me in showing how modifying swing motion (back-to-front vs. diagonal in either direction), and where to hit the ball other than directly in the center can change a shot. Burnout Tiger Woods vets have seen this already, and so this game isn't for you.
So if I haven't already made it clear by this point, golf game veterans will continue to trash this game as a big money grab, with some merit to their argument, unfortunately. For those of us looking for a Golf-for-Dummies/Rosetta-Stone-of-Golf, it is a perfect tool for learning the basic concepts, and a decent foundation of golf history to boot. Just be sure to double-check the information, since I've noticed that events depicted tend to be off by a year, and some of the events are actually combined from separate incidents in a player's career, for dramatic effect.
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 6, 2014
Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 28, 2013
Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 26, 2021
Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 10, 2017
Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 4, 2013
Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Sharon Rouse
I was blown away by the immaculate condition the product was in for a used item.
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 10, 2021Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Sagar D.
Three Stars
Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on June 27, 2016Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
馬場 丈典
買って損は無いゲームだと、思いますよ。
Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on June 15, 2021Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
ojima
硬派なゲームです
Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on June 10, 2015Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Amazon カスタマー
これも一長一短……
Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on October 9, 2017Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
