Sid Meier's SimGolf

"A game that is beautifully simple to learn, yet masterfully complex"

Gameplay- 9
Graphics- 8
Sound- 8
Value- 9
Tilt- 9

Overall- 8.6 (rounded to 9)

There is something to be said for good deals. Who doesn't love to save money? It is rare that I find a game that will run on my computer, simply because I have very old computers. Nearly all new games nowadays are out of my price range and wouldn't run on my computer anyways. So when my younger brother came home with a golf game, made by the acclaimed Sim Meier, I was intrigued. The game is definitely hilarious at first and has enough going for it to enable some decent playing time.

Story

The story is virtually non-existent. You are the nephew of a rich uncle who dies and miraculously has a plot of land he intended for a golf course but never got around to building it. Your job as head pro is to design, build and manage your own golf course. I says N/A because this game doesn't need a story. I appreciate effort though. It connects it...sort of. Anyway, this leads us to...

Gameplay

The game concept is brilliant- who wouldn't want to take the difficult and often frustrating game of golf and build their own golf course? Golf is an often inaccessible sport due to its complexity and difficult nature. This game condenses golf into three major areas:

1. Building
2. Managing
3. PLAYING

That's right, you get to play your own golf course. But I'll get into that it a second.

The first aspect is building your golf course. You are given a plot of land from approximately 20-30 locations across the world, from Australia to Scotland. The land you choose will be the first major influence on your course's design. Scotland, for example, is very hilly and builds naturally into a links course (open and hilly). Torrey Pines (New England) on the other hand is very flat and filled with trees.

Building a course is actually very easy. You place your tee box, then your green and you can technically open your hole right there. But every hole needs more than a tee and green, right? You have options ranging from fairways to rough, from water to brush, firm fairways and rocks, deep rough and trees, and many more. If you balance the course (both overall and from hole to hole) between easy and hard, fun to difficult, your members and guests will enjoy your course that much more.

Certain buildings may be built, such as pro shops, putting greens and cart garages which give your course certain bonuses such as increased accuracy for your members, increased putting skill for your members and carts, which speed up the round you're playing. These are well-implemented and all have a noticeable effect.

The editor itself is very easy to use with a very small learning curve, less so for those of us who already golf. The location of paths don't exactly make sense, but aside from that, it's a terrific, versatile and fun to use editor.

The second aspect, managing the course comes in two flavors- managing the fun factor and the skill levels of the individual holes, in the categories of "Accuracy", "Imagination" and "Length". Imagination is definitely the hardest to raise, followed by length, due to the limited space you'll have to build. As people play your course, you will get members who will invite other guests, who may become members, who invite other guests, and so on. At certain pinnacles in the game, you'll receive visits from certain guests who will sell you more land or give you landmarks that increase the fun factor and happiness on holes near it. A good designer will spend a lot of time tweaking the course to make sure it is balanced, and for it to achieve the right results. Your members will become frustrated with holes that are too difficult, complain about holes that are too easy, but they all have different personalities. Incidentally, pay attention to any preachers who play your course. They say some sweet stuff. The skills judge how well your hole plays in those three categories, and the more difficult your hole gets, generally those go up. Trying to find balance between fun and skill is healthy tension for the designer, and is rarely frustrating. Holes may also receive titles such as a "Heroic", "Accurate" or the best, "Classic" hole. There are many more, and your holes will automatically receive names such as "Poppy". This is a little strange but becomes fun after getting used to it.

The final aspect, playing the course is definitely the most fun at first, and the most useful. At any time, your character (who is very customizable, by the way) can play a practice round on your course. Hitting a shot is as simple as selecting a shot type (straight, left to right, right to left, spin or punch shot) and clicking where you want the ball to go. A line will show where the intended ball path is of your shot. There is an RPG element to your character too, as he will gain skills for achieving certain pinnacles in your course design (first par 3/4/5, first Classic hole, etc.) and for making spectacular shots on the golf course. Incidentally, your character can lose stats for making poor shots too, so again, there is a healthy tension between hitting a good shot and bad shot.

The gameplay is extremely fun and balanced overall, and weaves cohesively in and out of each element. Because of the varied course types you'll build, nothing ever turns out quite the same. My two complaints are that your golfers will say a lot of the same things when they see landmarks or cleverly designed holes or such, and that the stories absolutely stink, no ifs, ands or buts. These is relatively minor and should be taken with a grain of salt. 95% of the time, you'll like the feedback from your members. It's one reason why they call these games "God games"

Artificial Intelligence

The A.I. in this game does the job, but little more. Your members will find their walking ways along the holes very well, and usually don't have a problem. The problem occasionally lies in their shot choices, where they will occasionally aim in the wrong direction. This usually only adds one shot to their score, or sometimes doesn't affect it at all, but rarely, you'll see a double digit score because of it. This isn't seen too often though, so it's rarely an issue.

Sound Effects

The sound effects are pretty daggone good. They all sound terrific, except for your members, who sound pretty stupid. Most people won't have a problem with these, and some are actually pretty funny. There are some good ambient effects in this game too.

Music

The music in this game is almost non-existant except on the main menu. The jazz piano music suits this perfectly. In game, it's really quite good when it shows up, except for the slightly annoying theme for stories, which are a pretty pointless part of the gameplay anyways, hence the relative lack of mention above. I would have liked to have heard more!

Graphics

I warn you in advance- these graphics are 2-D, although they converted to 3-D very well. They have some pretty good graphical detail, and the little people are fun to watch. The reason it gets a 9 is because the graphics were intended for people with slow computers. That's also why it has low system specs. I appreciate this a lot, as I mentioned above. The graphics look good and run smoothly, so there's no reason to complain, is there?

Replay Value

It'll take you a long time to get through one game (18 holes take a really long time to build properly), and for most, this game will last about 7-10 hours probably. It's a cheap game, so that's not bad. That's average, but for some it will definitely enrapture. Little SimPeople are so much fun to manipulate :).

Bugs/Glitches

There's only one I've heard of aside from the pathing issue on opponents' golf shots- supposedly if your course gets too full, the game will crash and your saved game will become unloadable. I have never seen this, see GameSpot's review for more details.

Price

I got it used for $5. Absolutely a steal in every respect.

System Requirements

LOW. If you've bought a computer in the last five years, you can run this game.

I recommend a buy, simply because it's just such a fun game, even for non-golf fans. It's very intutive and easy to learn, yet difficult with good replay value.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/13/05