It’s been a while since I played a Golf game the last time
and I was a bit on the fence at how I would fare and get
along with the complexity of golf games in general,
this is me remembering back to the old days of Golf games,
Links 386 and others which weren’t the most welcoming at times.

But I am glad to inform you that PGA Tour 2K21 is one of
the most welcoming games, even if you are a total newcomer
to Golf. There is a plethora of advice, tutorials given
to you as you start the game, everything from how to swing
and get going.. with a set of difficulty levels too from
Easy to Golfing I know what I am doing levels..

I love the fact that there is a Create your Player also
before you kick off the game, giving you the sense that
it’s just not a bland pre-selected person swinging the
club around from course to course, there is actually quite
a lot of customization you can do with this, from eye colors
to hair styles, you name it.. and as you progress in the game
earning XP and price money, you can buy gear and apparel
for your player from brands such as Adidas, Callaway Golf
and even Polo Ralph Lauren to name a few, and make him stand
out even more as you traverse the PGA courses.

One of the things that needs to be pointed out, that there is
no microtransactions in the game to get quicker clothing
or any shortcuts, it’s all earned honestly by playing the game
and then purchasing the things you want to deck your player
out with, the items range from pants to sun glasses and
everything in between to choose from, there is a lot,
and I mean a lot of items you can grind towards for..
specially if you want to own them all.

The game consists of several different modes, not only your
personal PGA career as a golfer, but you have the option to
do training, join online societies for golfing rounds, private
matches, or matchmaking online for a challenge with another
golf minded person. If that is not enough, you can also take
a spin with the Designer feature, creating your ultimate golf
course.. and then share it with the world, this designer has
a lot of depth to it, and if you have the patience and
love designing golf courses you definitely will like the
feature and have a ton of fun playing around with it.

By adjusting the settings in game, to be on par with my
current skill level, it’s a ton of fun to play, you don’t
feel like you are getting completely hammered in score,
unless you really mess up and take about 5-6 or more shots
at each hole you play. Still here in play is factors though
that emulate real life playing, depending on how you hit
the ball, can and will create curvature on the shot, the
wind factors will play into the shot as well, so even if
you are playing on a skill level to your par, there are
all these factors you have to take into account, which is
simply brilliant, that even if you lower the difficulty,
basic functions that make golf what it is, is not affected.

And the more you play, the more you will get a feel for
the game itself, and eventually you can turn of certain
guides that I left on in the beginning, just to remind me
of things. One of the hardest things in the game to learn
and you really feel like a million dollars when you start
to catch onto how the putting game is played, with elevation
on each hole and tilts, setting the proper distance and put
speed, will take time to learn, unless you absolutely nail
all the initial shots and get within 2 feet of the hole
(then you are a pro!).

One of the things that I like about playing your career PGA
mode, is that during matches, the game chooses to show different
players / rivals occasionally when they’ve had a nice shot
or a close call, this brings an additional feel to the game
that it’s just not about you, and gives the other players
also a face to remember, not just a name.

Graphics and overall performance

PGA Tour 2K21 looks fabulous with all the settings turned
up to high and beyond, the PGA courses are all modelled to
exact likeness, and is pretty sweet to look at all day long.

For my review rig which is the i5-9400 and 16GB-3200 Ram,
with an RTX 2060-6GB, you are looking at over 100fps using
these settings, making it a totally smooth and joy to play
with no dips in performance. The game it self is not a large
title, as most titles today, and installing it on a SSD
definitely is worth it to cut down on loading times.

Anything odd?

The game as much as I have played it so far, has been a
stable rock, and there has not been any weirdness such as
crashes or performance issues like I said above, but there
was some odd bugs, that I could not turn off an advice screen
once or twice.. I’m sure this will be ironed out, but the biggest
grief I can think of is that you do not have the ability
to remap keyboard keys, being in Europe with a Nordic keyboard
layout, certain keys don’t easily come to mind and it was a bit
of a guessing game to find the correct one.

Audio

I’m not an audiophile, but I can say that the golf sounds are
authentic when it comes to hitting the ball, and the audience
sounds are true to life, the commentators are pro commentators
in real life, and they do a good job with only so many lines
or comments you can put into a game. Absolutely no complaints
here, though after 6 months maybe you can start to feel a bit
vary if the same lines occur.

To showcase some gameplay here is an earlier stream of me
playing PGA Tour 2K21 for the first time.

Final word

PGA Tour 2K21 is Golf at it’s finest, it’s a game with a lot
of modes, gameplay that fits any skill level who is interested
in golf. It’s easy to get into, but hard to master, and for anyone
who enjoys golf and has the Computer to play the game, I strongly
recommend you check the game out, it will keep you occupied for
a long time to come, and is only made better if you have friends
to play with.

9
Out Of 10
Pros
  • PGA Tour is back
  • Easy to get into / hard to master
  • Runs smooth
  • Game modes & creator
  • Pure fun
Cons
  • Few tiny bugs
  • No keyboard remapping

Thank you to the publisher for the review code. PGA 2K21 is out now on Steam PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4. See your local store or digital store front for geographic pricing.

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