Title: PGA Tour 2K21
Developer: iLLOGIKA
Publisher: 2K Games
Website: pgatour.2k.com
Genre: Action Role Playing
Available On: Steam, Xbox One, PS4, Switch
Release Date: August 21, 2020
Version Tested: Xbox One
In the world of sports sims, you life by realism or die because of lack thereof. I’m happy to report to you that PGA Tour 2K21 brings realism, in spades.
What it doesn’t bring, unfortunately, is a ton of new things. Of course, if you’re someone who is just looking to step into the shoes of a professional golfer and see if you can make your way up the top of the PGA ranks, then this is the game for you.
2K Sports has made quite the name for itself over the years as being one of the best in the world when it comes to sports sims. Anyone who has been a gamer for any length of time has likely heard about the NBA 2K series. That was such a juggernaut in its field that it actually killed off EA’s NBA Live series.
Of course, when it comes to NBA 2K, fans haven’t been happy about what is essentially a $60 roster update. The same has been said for Madden for years.
The good news with PGA Tour 2K21 is that this is actually a return to the series after a bit of a layoff. Because of that, even if the game doesn’t bring a ton of content that’s never been seen before, it offers enough to people who love golf sims that they can spend hours saying hello to an old friend.
Build Your Career In PGA Tour 2K21
If you are someone who wants to spend a goodly amount of time on the virtual links, then this is the game for you. The career mode in PGA Tour 2K21 is quite immersive.
A nice touch is that it’s no so immersive that you’re going to spend hour upon hour just making it to the bigs. You can start out on one of the minor leagues of professional golf and see how fast your move up to the PGA.
If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, you can also just decide to get right into the big leagues off the bat. There’s no bonus or punishment that I can see for taking either avenue.
It just appears there’s a way to prove that you really are good enough to make it, if that’s how you want to work.
That doesn’t mean that everything is awesome when it comes to career mode.
Say what you want about the modes in MLB The Show and “Face of the Franchise” in Madden. Sometimes it’s real annoying to have to go through fake conversations with the computer in order to “immerse” yourself in the sport.
Other times, it would be nice if you had a little scene in PGA Tour 2K21 where you’re talking to a few of the real pros. Maybe a short back and forth where you trade jabs with Dustin Johnson or Rory McIlroy. They could have added that and made it feel like you were really in that fraternity. They didn’t go that route.
The PGA Tour 2K21 Graphics Are Decidedly This Gen
While the scenery in this golf game is nice to look at, there are some hitches here and there. Those glitches tend to remind you that this is most definitely a game at the end of the generation.
I don’t mean the game will have issues loading, or have people walking through trees or on water. Nothing that bad. To their credit, things seem pretty ironed out, on that front.
Where the game falls short is the realism of the people. A close up of the person you create to be “you” just isn’t going to look that good. I’m not entire sure why, other than they felt rendering a person’s face to be totally photorealistic wasn’t a huge priority.
To be fair, you’re not going to be zeroing in on someone’s face all that often. The focus is on playing golf, not seeing how close you can get your avatar to look like you. Still, when you do zero in on a person, it’s a reminder that there are better-looking games out there.
Verdict: The game has a lot going for it, especially if you’ve missed having a really good golf sim game on your consoles. There is another mode outside of the career path that allows you to design courses and the sport’s aficionados among us are going to spend hours on that one.
It’s hard to pin down what exactly makes this game far short of blowing me away, other than it doesn’t offer a whole lot that hasn’t been seen before. 2K Sports does everything it needed to do with PGA Tour 2K21 but it doesn’t really go above and beyond.
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