[Reviewed on Xbox One]
There are a lot of things Dangerous Golf could do better, but being more fun isn’t one of them. It could be tighter, more varied, faster and so on, but despite a few shortcomings, it manages to deliver in the engagement and hilarity stakes. Dangerous Golf joins a stable of light, easy-going experiences this generation that demand little from the player in terms of skill or dedication, but delivers plenty in terms of reward and exhilaration.
The term ‘playable’ has to be one of the most unhelpful and nondescriptive terms used about a game we could think of, but it keeps coming to mind. Dangerous Golf is very playable. By which we mean it’s a comfortable sort of challenging. It’s a satisfying kind of simple. It has just the right combination of skill, luck, puzzling and experimentation to keep it compelling. And it has just the right amount of tinkering with game modes and styles to keep itself fresh too. The deeper you get into playing Dangerous Golf, the more you’re likely to want to keep playing it; it will have its hooks in you.
The only thing really likely to throw you from the thrill ride is some of the technical limitations of the game and the overall lack of depth. Loading times weren’t great at launch, but some of that is being addressed and optimised. Given the amount of physics-propelled objects every stage has to render with each visit, we can understand why this would be the case, but it did slow the momentum of the experience. And the original concept of smacking a golf ball around highly destructible environments only has so many permutations. This isn’t a game that’s breaking boundaries or showing something that feels truly revolutionary. It’s compact and confident, and that’s enough.
As Dangerous Golf begins to build on its core mechanics – causing as much damage and mayhem as you can before putting the ball in a hole to bank your score – it continues to deliver a fresh take on the concept. Leaving sticky bombs behind you as you propel the ball from wall to wall for instance, or multi-hole speed rounds that demand a little precision as well as quick strategic thinking about the order you should work in. And the levels themselves, while few in number and repeated heavily, are kept interesting by a new assortment of objects, hazard zones you can’t touch, warp points and more. Three Fields has worked within limitations of time, tech and resources and still managed to squeeze this mad concept for all it’s worth. Sometimes it shows the signs of those limitations and that’s all that’s holding it back, but it remains a game we recommend.