The sport of Golf is a test of patience, a practice in control, and something that may be better experienced in video game form than in real life. Most gamers have at least had a small exposure to the genre, whether it be in Wii Sports or perhaps a Mario Golf title. Well, the style of game is still alive and well, as Golf Club Wasteland is set to release in 2021. This is far past the release of latest entry in EA’s Tiger Woods franchise or even a more recent Rory McIlroy title.

Set on a dilapidated, ravaged Earth, Golf Club Wasteland has you shooting for par across a post-apocalyptic setting that gets more complex as you traverse from hole to hole. As you progress, the challenge intensifies, as holes take place in a bevy of environments including a torn-down apartment, a musty motel, and much more across 35 levels. There’s a designated par for every course, and one mode demands you meet it before you continue onto the rest of the story.

Golf Club Wasteland pulls no punches in its toughness. As I sped through the first dozen courses, I wondered how the game would last the 3 to 4 hours that was advertised. Then came some environmental hazards that proved to be a true struggle. In one particular level, the only obstacle that stood between me and an easy Eagle was a cow that would eat the golf ball if it got too close. Of course, it was directly in the trajectory of the perfect first shot, so I had to plan accordingly to avoid the spotted monster and manage a par on this course.

It is these obstacles that make Golf Club Wasteland anything but a breeze. Thankfully, there’s a backbone to the game that makes powering through more interesting. You’re tuned in to Radio Mars throughout your playthrough, getting a sense of what happened to cause the Earth. You get clues as to how it got to its ruined state thanks to some callers giving their background in between some dreamy dystopian songs that make up the Golf Club Wasteland soundtrack.

As a narrative title, I feel that Golf Club Wasteland falls a bit short. While its story is told from a unique perspective, my brain was too focused on securing a good score in painstakingly difficult golf gameplay to fully soak in the doomed-Earth story that accompanied it. If I weren’t so distracted, the plot may have materialized better, but that is an impossibility considering the precision it demands in its gameplay.

Adventure gamers may revel in Golf Club Wasteland as a new medium in how to tell a story, but I can say with certainty that it isn’t a game for everyone. My playthrough was complete in under 3 hours, and I have a feeling that it won’t stick in my mind for a few reasons: every level had the same bland colors, the world ended predictably, and if there really is anything to remember, it’s how hard I tried to get par on hole 24. This is a prime example of a great concept with lacking execution.

A PC Review copy of Golf Club Wasteland was provided by Untold Tales for this review.

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Golf Club Wasteland

$9.99 USD

5

Score

5.0/10

Pros

• Excellent Radio
• Novel Concept

Cons

• Lackluster Environments
• Poor Controls
• Frustrating Level Design