Dangerous Golf

What is Dangerous Golf? Well imagine Burnout but in the form of a golf game. Well if you take the Crash mode from the Burnout games and use Golf aesthetics instead of cars then you’ve pretty much got the entire idea. Players are tasked to cause as much damage as humanly possible within certain areas littered with masses of breakable items and other objects that look cool when they’re destroyed. Players will be taken to some of the fanciest dining rooms in France to a random gas station filled with thousands of tins filled with paint in the middle of the Australian outback. There is a ton of objects to destroy and the aim to make a splendid job of doing it and rack up as many points as possible.

Similar to the nature of Burnout’s crash mode, there are multiple ways to increase your high score from hitting multipliers, finding secrets breakables, trick shots, signature shots (hitting certain items in the most fabulous way) and much more. It may seem daunting as players will only have two shots to take and this includes getting the ball into the hole. Yes, there is actually a hole you must get the ball into. But another mechanic that helps greatly is the burn meter. Again as aspect heavily inspired by Burnout’s own crash meter, this allows the player to control the ball which is now set alight and can cause further damage.

What you’re reading may make this sound like a gem of a game and in most respects it is. I love the over the top nature to the game and some of the limitations do help the sense of challenge seem greater and encourages player skill to develop with some trial and error in the process. This of course increases the sensation of reward and gain. I loved the locations which houses hundreds of small items with little touches to make the experience the most entertaining it could be. There are also a line-up of different modifiers that change certain rules and mechanics in the game. Such as glue to make the ball stick to different surfaces, the bomb feature and pistol aim. These do help bring in some more life into the game as sadly the main campaign can get a little long winded.

There are around 100 challenges over four locations. Which is a lot for a game this size and it’s great to see a lot of work put into it from such a small team. But a large number of maps are shallow, rehashes which seem to lack the complexity or fun factor as many others. While the game has some fun perks such as the glue and bomb features, they’re not used enough or to a greater advantage to create even bigger, more spectacle displays of destruction. The game will go at the same pace throughout and at times have a level or two that’s brilliant, only to go back to a rather more mediocre sense of destruction.

There is also the factor that some of the challenges or aspects to make the game more difficult are a little unbalanced. An example would be the maps that have “hazard” spots where the ball can’t touch. Interesting idea if the object you can’t destroy is in the centre of the room, but in another map the game forces two thirds of the floor to be an instant fail if touched. Not a big problem until you consider the golf ball physics are so erratic, it’s difficult and infuriating when the ball goes out of control and there’s nothing you can do about it.

It didn’t help this matter further when certain helpful features would backfire at the worst possible time. There are levels with triggers that would cause an instant fail. Placing a small portals in a level can be useful but when the ball is spewed out in a hideous manner, causing the ball to fly off and hit the one place it shouldn't (repeatedly) then maybe the physics need toning down. What also doesn’t help is the limited two putt stroke that only infuriate in larger areas. While there is little sense of navigation and plenty of terrible camera views for when the ball goes completely off key, loosing your sense of control while all of this happens in the most obscure view imaginable. Overall the game begins to feel as though is relies heavily on luck rather than player skill as these little problems mount up. Sadly the one element which made Burnout's crash mode so enjoy and gripping was how it relied more on player skill.

The Multiplayer side of things goes in the same direction as Burnout yet again, with a player vs player and party vs game modes on offer. Players will compete to cause the most destruction over a course of several levels and those who cause enough will win. That’s it really. There’s no further complexity to the multiplayer yet it’s simple, engaging and just like Burnout, it’s very competitive and above all fun.

I like this game and what the experience it intended, but overall it falls a little too short of reaching a higher mark. It can be great fun by yourself for short periods of time but the impact comes more when you’re playing with friends. The campaign has moments of brilliance where the game shines at its full potential yet has more filler which drags down the experience. It becomes long winded with lesser moments later in the campaign to keep the game refreshing and ending up repetitive and often a stressful drag. Yet Dangerous Golf is highly energetic and displays wonderful destruction that is admirable and worth checking out for the spectacle factor.

+ Awesome spectacle of destruction
+ Good fun for multiplayer
+ Engaging and competitive

- Many of the maps just fill like shallow filler
- No compelling components to keep you engage for long play times
- Some aspects of challenge feel unbalanced

An Xbox One copy of Dangerous Golf was provided by Three Fields Entertainment for the purpose of this review