Cursed to Golf takes my guilty gaming pleasure – the simple golf game – and mixes it up with rogue-like elements, randomly generated courses, and power-ups that can literally change the game. It’s tough, but a hell of a lot of fun.
The short introduction sees us take the role of a Golfer about to finish a seemingly incredible tournament. Acting as a brief tutorial as well as story explainer, we learn to use the three different clubs on offer – a simple system of choosing shot power, then angle of swing – before they are killed by an unfortunately timed lighting strike. As they wake, we find ourselves in Golf Purgatory, greeted by The Scotsman – one of four helpful allies/opponents found within, and the founder of Eterni-Tee, the store that we’ll visit often to spend our hard earned cash.
It he who teaches us the rules and dangers found within Golf Purgatory on a short course before letting us loose in to the game proper. While there are lots of diversions from the real game, the biggest one we need to know from the off is that each hole begins with a five count on the score board. Each shot deducts one, and we must make to the hole before we get to zero – failing to do so sends us right back to the first hole again. This is where the rogue-like elements come in; it’s not just a battle to survived each hole, but all 18 in one go.
Easier said than done when holes are randomly generated each round, and often take upwards of fifteen shots to clear! To help us out, we’re granted a selection of Ace Cards. These take many forms, but feature such things as allowing us a mulligan (or two), turning our ball into ice or fire, rocket propulsion, or adding shots to our counter. We get an assortment to begin with, but along the way we can buy more from the Eterni-Tee or find them in chests in between holes as we travel the map. Single use items, it’s key to save them for an ideal time, though it’s not always as easy as we might like; using the rocket ball, I planned out my route ahead of time only to whiff it on the first corner and set myself further back than I started.
These make what can be an initially daunting looking maze of nooks and crannies possible to finish, and add to the game in a great way. The variety on offer, as well as their potential application, can mean the difference between a short and sweet round or starting from scratch.
There are also Idols dotted around for us to aim for. Smashing these gives is either two (silver) or four (golden) extra shots, though the golden ones tend to be tucked away rather well. It boils down to risk/reward as all good rogue-likes do, and for me this has been one of my favourite implementations of this aspect so far.
We’ll need all the help too, as the courses feature many hazards and obstacles to overcome. Deep lakes, spikes, TNT, vines, fans, and many more are there to trip us up throughout. Those Ace Cards come in handy though, as usually at least one of them will be a counter to an obstacle (ice balls, for example, will freeze water so we can glide across, while fire balls might just burn some foliage).
Initially I was a bit disappointed to learn the courses would be random each time – I’d like to learn and perfect a course usually – but in reality they are all brilliant fun to play, and don’t feel like they been bodged together randomly like some other titles I’ve played before. While I’ve failed plenty, there’s never been a moment where I felt that the random design screwed me over. If anything, it’s actually very fair, with several routes and options available on most courses that will also benefit from having the right Ace Card to hand.
Golf Purgatory is split into four biomes, and each is capped with a boss fight against that area’s character. These I’m not so keen on, mind. It’s a race to the finish, with each of us taking turns to hit. They are far better at this than us, so in order to balance things out we can hit Stun Idols, making them miss a turn. Again, Ace Cards and shortcuts are the key to winning, but the actual rounds go on for too long in my eyes. We can fast forward any time we’re not taking our shot, but even then, with 20+ shot rounds, they can feel like a bit of a drag after a while. Especially if we fail to beat them right at the end…
Conclusion
Overall, I had a great time with Cursed to Golf. The golfing mechanic is simple to learn, but between the random course layouts, hazards, and Ace Cards, actually beating a hole is anything but. Constantly fun, with the only drag being the boss battles, this is an easy recommendation.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
