I've been playing this series for over 15 years now, since it was first released for the PlayStation. I was hooked after playing the demo of Everybody's Golf 2 and while not a lot has changed from one incarnation to the next, I've always anticipated the next game and made sure I had the new titles when I've upgraded my Sony console. They truly kept us waiting for this one. It's been many years since the last EB Golf title and the first one on the PS4.
The Good: The gameplay has always been the series strength and it's the same here. An easy to pick up, but hard to master (particularly when you play online and your opponents are scoring eagles almost every hole) mechanic has been kept. The three button press swing method, with spin, wind and a lot of mathematics being key to avoiding bogeys. There are some fresh online modes such as Turf War where a team plays frantically over a number of minutes over a number of holes to score the most points to be victorious. This is where the addition of the golf buggy comes in handy. There is also fishing, if that's your thing. I haven't tried it yet.
The Bad: The pop ups/notifications! Jesus! I have complained in the past about racing games that don't let the gamer skip cutscenes, like the story is that important, but here it's worse. They're everywhere. After hitting almost any shot you are informed multiple times of experience you've gained. To play a VS mode in solo mode, the BS before you get to play is incredible, (I don't care that you're one of the ES Girls, and I've just beaten another member of your crew)....There are many before the golf quizzes as well! It's infuriating. I don't understand who thought it was a good idea to not include a skip button, or an option to disable them.
The lack of courses and the need to replay the same ones so many times in solo mode to progress is bewildering. There are only 5 courses, plus 2 as DLCs (which I haven't bought). It really isn't enough for the amount of times you have to play them to progress further. I'm guessing there will be even more courses to buy as DLCs in the future.
As mentioned earlier, that while there is the Turf War mode, there doesn't seem to just be a chance to play a round against others online that doesn't involve having to watch them play as well. It takes forever playing this way! I was able to do this in the PS3 EB titles, so I have no idea why it's not here. The developers added fishing, but they left great aspects out that the series already had...
If you love the series you won't be displeased with this. While it's a touch easier than the older games in the series as they seem to be pretty kind when putting (a shot that would just miss in older EB titles seems to roll in here), it's enjoyable, infuriating and challenging as the series has always been, it's just disappointing that it's missing a couple of features that had either been in the series in the past, or that with the years taken to develop this, a few more courses couldn't have been designed.
Gameplay 4.5/5
Graphics 4/5
Sound 4/5
Difficulty 4/5
Originality 3/5
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