The makers of Pro 18: World Tour Golf trumpeted on their online site that they wanted to make a game that made players feel as if they were "watching a TV golf event."
Be careful what you wish for.
Thanks to its photo-realistic golf-course backdrops and video-filmed players, it is indeed like watching golf on TV. However, its flawed user interface and slow-paced yet challenging gameplay will bore frustrated gamers and prompt them to go channel-surfing instead.
What would make a golf game that unplayable? Well, don't blame it on the game's golf-course graphics. The game's makers used a complicated terrain-mapping system - along with tons of photography - to re-create three professional-level courses: Royal County Down in Ireland, The Lost City in South Africa, and the Coeur d'Alene in the United States. The results are remarkable - at first glance they look as if they were stolen from a TV feed. The golfers themselves were made from digitized video of eight actual pro players from the PGA and LPGA, such as Tom Lehman and Vijay Singh. The digitized golfers are a bit less convincing, since they "freeze" in their swing animation after a ball is hit. It just looks odd.
Although the game does offer an overhead view of a hole, there are no fly-bys or walkthroughs as in other golf games, so you must play a hole to learn it. There is an option to look ahead or around, however, but the computer must redraw each new view chosen, which slows down the game a bit - a sacrifice for better-looking backgrounds.
The game takes its greatest gamble on the swing control. Most golf games offer a three-button-press meter: one to start, two to determine power, three to determine accuracy. In this game, the length of time the third button is held down determines whether the ball will veer left or right as it is hit. The meter moves so quickly, the game becomes a great challenge to master - a plus or minus depending on your playing preference. Frankly, an option to turn it off might have been beneficial to beginners.
Perhaps the game's biggest flaw is that it sticks to its TV-quality realism so much that it sacrifices playability. This is especially evident with half-power strokes and putting. Rather than use the aiming stick to indicate what equals 100-percent power, you must do the math in their heads to determine how much power they need to hit a shot, based on the maximum hitting ability of the club in hand. Definitely real, but not exactly fun - especially when other golf games spoil you with optional trajectory arc views of a planned shot and putting aids. In this game, gamers will need to take plenty of practice shots to get a feel for how each hole is played.
However, the game may move too slowly to keep gamers interested, since the PlayStation continuously loads up new screen views on every shot. While it isn't too bad when playing in a tournament (when you're the only one playing), it gets irksome in four-player games against computer opponents, such as in the skins and strokeplay modes. Golfers are forced to watch computer opponents - and there really isn't any way to speed up that process.
The rest of the game measures up to standards. The create player feature has some nice touches, such as club- and shaft-type preferences, which seem to have a marginal effect on gameplay. The game also offers practice, fourball team play, and shoot-out modes - nothing revolutionary, but welcome additions nevertheless.
Pro 18: World Tour Golf isn't necessarily a bad golf game - it's just that so many other PlayStation golf games make the experience more fun. Since the game's control is tough to master, and its slow pace makes the game difficult to complete, only the most dedicated and patient of golf enthusiasts will find any joy from playing it.
