Sid Meier's SimGolf

"If you build it, they will come... even when you charge them outrageous price for the privilege."

There are millions of golf simulation games out there. Some are good, and some are bad. But they all take on the same mould, it's all about you being the golfer, you being hauled in to play on whatever course that the game designers have designed. Very seldom do you get a chance at being the golf course maestro, designing your own 18 holes course, managing it, and playing on it. Sid Meier's SimGolf lets you do just that.

Plot

Let's ignore the plot altogether as it is non-existent and completely irrelevant. But if you must know, your rich relative has died from God-knows-what and he just so happened to leave a huge block of wasteland and a pile of cash for you. Instead of turning it into the next hottest retirement village on the planet, or selling it to the highest bidder and be done with it, you decided to open a golf course. The rest, as they say, is history.

Gameplay

Building a golf course is very much like building a city in Maxis' other classic, SimCity. Instead of building roads, power plants and water pipes, you build a tee, a green, a fairway and anything in between.

Initially, there are 16 different locations around the globe that you can choose from. Each place has its own characteristics. Some might be green hilly pastoral, while others might be hot barren desert. Upon choosing a location, you are ready to be the golf course maestro. Building is as simple as putting a tee and a hole some square tiles away. Technically, you can now open the hole for play. But it would not be much fun. Golf is much more than just a tee, a hole some few hundred yards away, and some manicured grass in between. It is here that SimGolf excels.

To make the hole interesting, you can raise or lower the terrain to create hills and valleys. But to make your golf course more interesting, you need to lay obstacles between the tee and the hole. There are many different options to choose from, ranging from rough to deep rough, water hazard to sand bunkers, tall trees to shrubs, fairways to green, it is up to you to make the hole challenging for Tiger Woods, and at the same time, not too difficult for Tiger Woods wannabes.

Designing a golf course is a fine art. Don't make the course full of Par 5 holes. Not only will you run out of space quickly, your patrons will complain because it takes too long and, more often than not, too difficult to play. By the same token, don't make it so easy that anyone can finish 18 holes in under an hour. Either extreme is undesirable. After all, these are the people who pay the greens fees. The happier they are, the more likely they will spend their hard earn cash in your little golf resort, thus increasing your revenue that you will reinvest back into the course to make it better and more attractive to high flyers.

Your golfers will pay the greens fees for each hole they played on depending on how happy they are at the end of the hole. So naturally, you will want them to be as happy as possible.

As you progressively build your hole, you can use the shot analyser tool to help you design it in such a way that it will reward those who have a certain type of skills, and penalise those who do not.

Each hole is judged on three factors, 'length', 'accuracy' and 'imagination'. And as you improve the hole, and increase its rating, the hole may become a 'Classic' hole, the creme de la creme of golf.

Length refers to how far the golfers can hit. The longer it is, the more satisfying it will be for the long hitters, but not so much for the average golfer.

Accuracy refers to the need to be accurate when playing a shot. An extra wide fairway doesn't need much accuracy as players can afford to make a few mistakes, but the pros may find it less challenging.

Imagination refers to the golfers' need to play some 'trick' shots in order to overcome an obstacle. The best way to increase this is to create a hole that forces your golfers to be creative about their choice of shots. Maybe the players need to play a hook shot to get around a tree, or they need to put a lot of back spin to avoid the sand pit just behind the green. The more imaginative it is, the more fun it will be for your members.

If the visitors are happy with your course, they might join your golf resort as a basic member. As you develop the resort, these members might upgrade to higher level of membership, thus bringing other players and more revenues for you.

Every so often, your course will get a visit from Big Shots who, if they like what they see, will provide you with more land for your course expansion, or a landmark to beautify the course. Keep them happy all the time and you will see your golf course thrive in no time.

There are facilities that you can build to develop your patrons' game, such as the pro shop, putting green and driving range, all of which will earn you money for when your patrons use these facilities. But then there are other buildings and facilities that are there to impress. Maybe your patrons like to fly in just for a round of golf? Or maybe they like to stare at the celebrity who has just moved in across the fairway on the 12th?

During a round of golf in real life, it is probable that you will strike a conversation of sort with your golfing partner, whether it is business, or something best left untold. In SimGolf, they are called SimStories. SimStories are just conversations between a pair of golfers as they play on your course, their stories will progress according to their mood. Guiding them to their blissful conclusion, and they will leave your course a happy chap, and that will only lead to good ratings for you.

Building the golf course is engaging and fun. You are not just being confined with designing holes after holes. It is an extremely satisfying experience seeing the little sim golfers taking their shots, only to see it ditched into the evil water hazard that you have placed just in front of the green, or just being impressed at the sight of your fruition as your resort slowly takes shape. By the time you finish building your last hole, you might want to go back to your earlier holes and improve them, because your members might have improved their skills as well. So there are constantly things to build and rebuild. Much like SimCity, it is never ending.

So how do you know if your golf course is any good? What's a better way to find out than to play the course yourself? You can place your on screen alter-ego, Gary Golf (who is highly customisable), through a practice round or two around your course. He has a number of shot types in his arsenal, ranging from straight to a punch shot. Hitting the ball is very simple. There is no power gauge, club selection, etc. Just choose a shot type and point to where you want Gary to hit the ball. The rest will take care of itself.

You can develop Gary's abilities much like that of an RPG. Whenever your alter-ego hits a good shot or a bad shot, his ability will be adjusted accordingly. So during the course of the game, you will find yourself constantly putting your character thru his pace, trying to improve his abilities. When you are confident in his mad skills, you can enter into tournaments where huge prize money awaits.

Graphics

SimGolf, even though its resolution is only limited to 800 x 600, boost a colourful and detailed environment. Everything is crisp and clear. Features around the course varies and easily identifiable. You can easily tell the difference between a firm fairway and a normal fairway, or a bunker from a sand pit.

Scenic bridges, landmarks, benches, trees, flowers etc. are all very detailed and distinguishable. Colour used is bright, solid and mix well with the environment. The golfers themselves are smartly dressed. At least the colour combination does not clash with the fashion police.

The animation is smooth and well animated. You can see the happy golfers jumping in joy when they hit a particularly good shot, or see them stomping their feet in frustration when the ball is lost in the bushes. You might even see a few wild animals running around the course.

However, sometimes you might find it hard to navigate your way around the course, especially if you are playing on someone else's course. The limited resolution inevitably makes the interface feels cluttered.

Sound

Sound effects in SimGolf is somewhat lacking. You get to hear the sim golfers mumble 'simlish' among themselves, or ambient outdoors noise, or a little snippet when you open a hole for play, but music is virtually non-existent.

It would have been better if there is some soft music in the background, but as in real golf, you don't really listen to your iPod while playing, do you?

Replay value

There are literally thousands of ways to 'finish' SimGolf. The most straightforward way is to build a golf course, keep the patrons happy and rack in millions and millions of cash. But SimGolf is more than just that. You can play a golf course as your alter-ego, or let your imagination run wild in sandbox mode.

Once you have finished a golf course, and are absolutely satisfied with the result, you can export it and share it with friends, or just some stranger on the internet. And then it's onto the next course somewhere else in the world. Maybe this time you will build all Par 3's pitch and putt, or all really tough Par 5's? It's all up to you.

One thing I absolutely love about SimGolf, and any other Sim games, as for that matter, is the ability to import other people's creative work, be it a championship golf course, or SimStories, or their alter-ego, they can all be imported into your own game. You could be playing on someone else's golf course while being... someone else. It is probably not as satisfying as playing on your own course (and will take some time to familiarise yourself with someone else's golf course), but you can get some really good ideas and apply them to your own.

You can even write your own SimStories (using nothing other than notepad), and watch it being told by two helpless golfers as they sink their balls into the water just behind the green.

Overall

SimGolf is an endless adventure. There are always so many things that you can do, both on and off the field. It is not just about building a golf resort. It is about designing the best 18 holes; it is about building up your alter-ego to be the best Golf Pro; it is about sharing your work with other people around the world; it is about feeling good about yourself, knowing that you still have the flare to be creative.

You don't even need to like golf to enjoy this game. It is complex enough to keep the players engaged, yet simple enough so that anyone can play. SimGolf is glamorous, addictive and superbly done. Now if you would excuse me, I am off to Hawaii for my next golfing adventure.

Good:

* Different modes of play
* Lots of replay value
* Great graphics / animation
* Addictive gameplay
* No two holes is the same, No two course is the same

Bad:

* Screen size limited to 800 x 600
* Interface can feel cluttered
* Lack of sound / music

Score (out of 10)

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 8
Sound: 3
Replay: 10

Overall: 9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/19/09

Game Release: Sid Meier's SimGolf (EU, 07/12/02)