Genre: Sports/Golf
Developer: Hypnotix
Publisher: Global Star
Released On: October 21, 2004
# of Players: 1-4 (mode specific)
ERSB: Mature
Supports: Xbox Live
MSRP: $49.99
Also On: PS2
Website: www.hypnotix.com
Better Than: most golf games
A couple years ago I was browsing the Xbox aisles at the local Blockbuster when my girlfriend requests that we rent a game called Outlaw Golf. I wasn’t too hip on the idea, but when your girlfriend shows interest in playing video games, well, let’s just say you don’t argue. So we rented it, and ever since that day I have been addicted to Outlaw Golf. Admittedly the game never reached star status, but it was always the kind of game you turn on when your friends come over, and by the time they leave they’re hooked. Since it’s release in 2002 we have seen 2 stand alone Christmas releases: 9 Holes of Christmas in 2002, and 9 More Holes of Christmas in 2003 - both distributed through Blockbuster themselves. Also in the summer of 2003 Hypnotix released Outlaw Volleyball, which was actually pretty good. So needless to say the Outlaw franchise has established a foothold in the video sports game department.
So what sets the Outlaw Golf series apart from the other golf games? Well the major separating factor is the game’s adult sense of humor. From the bizarre selection of characters ranging from strippers to bondage queens, to the running commentary provided by Dave Attell (stand up comic, Comedy Central’s ‘Insomniac’), you will know right away that this isn’t your PGA brand of golf (as if the ‘M’ rating didn’t clue you in). The Outlaw series is also known for giving players the option to beat the crap out of their partner, or in this case, your golf caddy. But don’t let these elements fool you - deep down this is still a serious, competitive sports game.
One of the greatest things about this game is the amount of variety it offers. Variety in a golf game? Yes, through and through, from the character selection screen to the courses themselves to the amount of game-types and modes, driving golf carts and tons of unlockable characters, costumes and equipment. There is a lot to see and do here, and that’s not even scratching the surface of the Xbox Live modes, tournaments and whatever downloadable content we might see in the future.
The main component of the game is the ‘Tour’ mode, which gives you a variety of challenges for each available character over a wide variety of courses and play modes. Defeating your computer controlled opponents in these challenges will award you with new costumes, equipment (better clubs, balls, etc.), new characters and of course new ‘Tour’ mode challenges. These vary in difficulty, but for the most part plan on bringing you’re ‘A’ game. If your character is suffering from lack of distance off the tee or poor ball control, you can enter the Outlaw ‘Range’ to try your hand at a variety of golf challenges, from the driving range (distance challenge) to putting challenges, accuracy, etc. Defeating them will award you points to distribute among your character’s various attributes, such as distance, accuracy, composure, fighting, and so on and so forth. Increasing your character’s stats is the key to victory, but not all challenges will be available to you right away - you need to unlock these as well. Some might even require that you wait and come back later with better equipment in order to complete them, such as a new club that hits further for the distance challenges.
Outlaw Golf 2 offers 4 new courses and 4 returning ones, including all 3 from the original game and both 9 Holes of Christmas discs, for a grand total of 8 full 18-hole courses to play on. The courses from the first Outlaw Golf outings (Turnpike Valley, Crusty Leaf, El Diablo and Glacier Ridge) are completely re-imagined and redone, leaving only a hint of their former selves, so OG veterans should expect to relearn them all over again. The new courses are Spooky Hollow (a Halloween themed course in the vein of Sleepy Hollow), Aztec Acres (a bulldozed rainforest) and Mosquito Greens (a swamp land). The final course is called Psycho Sands and can best be described as a life-sized miniature golf course. It is unlike any other, and will have you aiming for targets, avoiding giant spinning beanstalks, and sinking your golf shot into cups that lead to pipes that ultimately lead to the green. It’s extremely challenging. And unlike the other courses, this one must be unlocked one hole at a time before you can play it through.
At the start of play you will be able to choose from 4 pairs of golfers. Returning of course is Summer the NY stripper, Ice Trey the Beverley Hills white gangsta wannabe,El Suave the statue of a man from Mexico (or so he’d likely tell you), and finally Harley the trash talking biker chick. Each character is full of personality and funny things to say, including the 6 unlockable characters (for a total of 10 pairs) which are equally as bizarre. There are also a number of costumes to unlock for each one, which range from ridiculous to outright racy (hellooooo nurse!). Yeah, it’s not hard to see where that ’M’ rating came from.
To further spice things up, Outlaw Golf 2 offers numerous ways to play the game. There’s the traditional ’Stroke’ play, having each player fight for the fewest strokes off the tee throughout the 9 or 18 holes of play (whichever you choose: front 9, back 9, or all 18). Then things start to get interesting with ’My One And Only’, a mode that has you choose one and only one club to take with you along with your putter. My favorite mode, however, is ’Baseball Golf’, which will have you trying to score runs with the bases loaded at the bottom of the 9th... hole. A par is a single, a birdie is a double, and an eagle or better is a home run. Your runners’ positions are displayed onscreen via your standard baseball TV broadcast diamond. There’s even a ’Vegas’ mode that has you ante up and place bets on each and every shot, much like a poker match. And the list goes on - 13 modes in all, ranging from 2 to 4 players.
Controlling your shot can be a bit tricky at first, and unfortunately this is where the train derails for some players, not so much due to the interface as much as the composure system (which I will explain below). Since the game is pretty much a mockery of golf, you might not be expecting the game to be as deep as it is. But this isn’t some kiddy point-and-shoot golf game, no sir. A successful shot requires that the player pay attention to several factors including club selection, aim, wind direction/speed and the slope of the terrain you are aiming for. To actually swing the club requires a quick down-up motion of either of the two analog sticks, and by "up” I mean press up as straight as humanly possible to avoid hooking or slicing your shot (left or right respectively). This is the part people seem to have a hard time getting used to, because if you don’t press up as straight as you can your ball will go in an undesired direction. It’s not as hard as it sounds though, and keeping your composure in the green will make it a lot easier.
New to Outlaw Golf 2 is the ‘Ghost Ball’ option, which allows you to view a preview shot from anywhere on the course at any point during your turn. This is a very helpful addition, because it gives you a glimpse of what your shot will look like (after taking into consideration wind and landing slope) if you manage to hit your shot straight and with the specified amount of power behind your swing, allowing you to make minor adjustments to your next shot. It’s very similar to the putting shot previews except that it gives you a 1st person 3d look at the ball’s path, and you only get one per hole as opposed to putting and 3 previews per put attempt. Combining the use of the ghost shot with the game’s terrific controls and informative HUD, and it’s not impossible for a seasoned player to chip a long shot into a cup or even get a hole in one on some of the shorter holes. Pretty cool stuff.
Wait, back up a second here. Composure - what’s that? The composure system is the on-screen indicator that tells you if your golfer is hopelessly frazzled or swingin’ large and proud, and is a trademark of the Outlaw series. 9 times out of 10 after you hit your ball, the composure meter will come on the screen and either increase or decrease depending on the skill of your last shot and where it landed. Hitting a long drive or landing a chip shot onto the green will yield you positive composure. As a result your ball will travel further than normal and you will be given a wider “sweet spot” for which to hit the ball with. (Translation: The better your composure, the easier it is to hit the ball straight.) Likewise, hitting your ball into the rough or a sand trap will take some of that positive composure away, yielding in an increasingly narrow sweet spot and ultimately a rough game. Keeping your composure in the green is absolutely critical, and the better you get at the game, the easier this will be to accomplish so don’t get too frustrated. But don’t despair: hitting the ball straight isn’t the only way to keep your composure up. Like in the first Outlaw Golf, players are occasionally rewarded with “beating tokens” that allow them to take their frustrations out on their helpless caddy, and at the same time earn some positive composure. In fact, if you manage to thoroughly beat your partner to a pulp you are given a full green composure meter. Not bad, eh? New in Outlaw Golf 2 are the cart driving challenges, which can be bought with the same tokens as the beatings. The cart challenges are random and vary from driving through gates, launching off ramps through floating hoops and even running over spectators - all within a given time limit. If you manage to complete one of the driving tasks you are rewarded with the “flaming perfect shot”, giving you the ability to land your next shot exactly where you aim it, no matter how hard you hit or how straight. It’s a great addition to the game in theory, but the cart’s unfortunate controls get the better of this addition. I have been within a second or so of completing a few challenges, so I know they’re possible, they’re just flippin’ hard.
Once you think you have mastered the art of the aim and composure systems you can log into Xbox Live and challenge some real competition with any of your unlocked and upgraded characters. Outlaw Golf 2 has a long list of Live game modes and options to play with, including all offline game types for up to 4 players. One of the nicer features allow the host to specify that the game be played simultaneously, which speeds up the process considerably and is ideal for large games. You can still talk to the other players and see the trail of their shot, you just won’t have to wait for your turn to hit. Otherwise, playing 18 holes of golf can take quite a while depending on game size and player skill, but it’s still an option if you want it. Speaking of time, the host can also specify a shot timer to keep players from holding the game up too long, and it too can be disabled. It’s also worth noting that lag is very minimal. There seems to be a bit of a delay though, so you might hear your opponent cheering a half second before you see them sink a put, but it’s easily forgotten. Players can also take part in online tournaments, and higher ranked players can even set up their own. The tournaments themselves aren’t as extravagant as something found on XSN Sports; they’re more like the weekly challenges found in RSC2, and since players themselves can create their own there are lots of them to choose from for any given week (so far anyhow). OG2 also supports downloadable content, and if the past is any indication, we could very likely see a couple new characters or even a new course. However Hypnotix has yet to officially announce anything. And as an added bonus, OG2 is "Live Aware", meaning you can play the single player game while connected to Xbox Live and receive friend invites and such during offline play. Sadly, however, there is no option to save your progress mid-game, so you might find yourself declining a lot of invites.
It’s really hard to tell if the graphics have changed a lot since the last game. Like before, OG2 was created using the Renderware platform, which really isn’t a bad thing anymore (Burnout 3 anyone?). I always felt that the first Outlaw Golf had pretty decent graphics, and the new version is at least as good looking as before, including new character models that look closer to Outlaw Volleyball in terms of quality. The courses are lush and colorful, sport some nice looking grass shaders and light maps, and like all Xbox games, boast some impressive looking water effects. Not much can be said about the sound effects - it uh, sounds like golf? And actually, many of the sound effects seem to have been borrowed from the first game, but then again there’s not a lot of room for improvement there. And if you are familiar with the other Outlaw games you will recognize the character’s voices right away, and each voice actor did a great job as usual. Including Dave Attell, the announcer, who might not always be as laugh-out-loud funny as his predecessor Steve Carell, but if you have seen his show ’Insomiac’ you know exactly what to expect: a little crass and a lot of sarcasm. Rounding out the sound effects portion of this review is the music, and let me tell you something, OG2 sports a terrific soundtrack with music ranging from rock to hip-hop to funk. It’s all here, and it’s all excellent. A few tracks even sound like some of my favorite bands, like Soundgarden for instance, but a quick check in the instruction book tells me it’s not them - still great songs though regardless. In fact they’re so good that I wish I could get a copy of the soundtrack somehow (hint hint). There’s even one rap track done by Outlaw Golf’s very own Ice Trey, rapping about his "thug life" in Beverley Hills, sounding much like Eminem. It’s pretty damn funny and oddly catchy. And if for some reason you happen to grow tired of the game’s music, there is also custom soundtrack support.
So that’s the game in a nutshell, and while Outlaw Golf 2 is an absolute blast, I can’t recommend it to everyone. If you’re not a fan of golf, or don’t have a grasp on the concept of ball rotation and club selection, then chances are you’re still not going to have a lot of fun with Outlaw Golf 2, regardless; It is a golf game first and foremost. If you think you might be even remotely interested in what this game has to offer, I urge you to try it as it could very well become one of your favorite games (*waves hello*). And as for the golf fans themselves, they’re absolutely going to love this game - price notwithstanding ($19.99!).
The Good
+ Colorful commentary by Dave Attell.
+ Lots and lots of courses and gameplay modes.
+ Flawless online multiplayer.The Bad
- Somewhat steep learning curve.
- Menus could have been more streamlined.
The Stupid
? Having to unlock Psycho Sands one hole at a time.
