OK Golf review
:: ON PARPrice: $2.99
Version: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPad Air 2
Graphics/Sound Rating:
User Interface Rating:
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Overall Rating:
OK Golf is a pretty straightforward golf game that uses a diorama-style aesthetic similar to Hitman GO. Other than its looks though, this game seems to be exactly what its name implies. OK Golf is fun enough, but it's otherwise a merely ok game.
Tee off
As complicated as golf games can sometimes get, OK Golf keeps things very simple. There's no club selection, ball spin mechanics, or timing-based swing meters.
Instead, players just tap and drag to line up a shot, and then release to send the ball flying. If you pull back on the screen far enough, you'll be able to initiate a power shot that involves some timing to hit accurately. Aside from this power mechanic though, OK Golfis a purely a very simple pull-and-release golf game.
Par for the course
OK Golf offers four courses with nine holes on each one. These courses start with a fairly standard-looking golf course and moves to more exotic locations like Japan and Hawaii. On each course, players can play one of three modes. Free Play is the game's standard mode that lets you play through all nine holes of a course at your leisure, while the Championship Mode and Timed Modes offer some more challenging restrictions to the same basic gameplay.
In addition to looking great, the holes in OK Golf are designed so that players can approach the green in different ways. This addition does a lot to boost OK Golf's replayability, especially considering there's almost no other variables in the game to make things feel different when you replay a hole.
Handicap
There's something to be said about presenting a streamlined experience, particularly on mobile, but OK Golf's pared down version of golf feels a little too thin for its own good. You can finish everything the game has to offer in one sitting pretty easily, and there's not much different about the experience when you replay it.
The golfing here isn't bad, but without upgrade mechanics, weather conditions, or any other random elements, you'll always have the same shot capabilities every time you play the game. This ends up making OK Golf feel pretty flat and sterile.
The bottom line
The basic concepts in OK Golf are sound, but I wish there was more built around it. The game looks great and plays well enough, but once I finished it, I never felt the need to revisit it. Much like a diorama, OK Golf feels like a miniaturized golf experience that looks great, but is ultimately pretty lifeless.