Dangerous Golf Review – PGA x Battlefield

Dangerous Golf Review

Away from the pristine greens of PGA and into the dark cellars and perfectly placed dinner rooms of Dangerous Golf, it came as a welcome surprise that putting one into the hole is not the main objective here. Instead, destruction is the primary goal in Dangerous Golf from the 11-man team at Three Fields Entertainment. This twist on the sport of golf focuses on the utter annihilation of the many environments the game is set in. Statues, tables, boxes, and the like stand in your way of getting to the top of the leaderboard.

Dangerous Golf has you competing in arenas off the course, such as classical living spaces and dreary storage rooms, in order to attain the highest possible score by smashing as many objects as possible. The core gameplay consists of aiming and firing your ball into structures proceeded by steering said ball – via the smashbreaker ability – and it’s a lot of fun once you get the hang of things. The ball physics are a bit floaty and hard to control at first, but it adds a level of complexity and has the player contemplating on what path of destruction they should take instead of just easily hitting all of the objects.

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“… at its core, Dangerous Golf is about the apocalyptic destruction your golf ball causes”

More levels are then unlocked in the 4 different regions: Australia, France, England, and the United States. Each level has a few different environments from their respective areas. American back alleys and, although a bit more appropriate, French wine cellars aren’t necessarily what the two nations are known for nor are they good play spaces. And with Australia rounding out the locales alongside England, you get the same sort of architecture with minimal differences. How about a course in the Amazon or a putt at the Taj Mahal? The courses aren’t large by any means, but even a backdrop to more fantastical locales – within or outside the four locations – could make for a far more engaging play experience. After seeing the same bland structures time and time again, the lasting appeal of Dangerous Golf starts to wear off.

But players can enjoy a variety of game modes as well the ability to play with others. Seeing friends leaderboard scores is great, but when the person is on the couch right next to you, the pressure is intensified as you try to steer your ball to knock off that last goblet on the shelf or, with the help of the Flyby hint ability that reveals the best route, try to get the highest score in one fell swoop. The player can also turn on additional hints that make scoring objects glow. Coming back to the modes, they too are best suited for co-op play with my favorite being the Splatoon-like ‘Caught Red Handed’ that has you smashing jugs of paint into expensive items thereby raising your score. Co-op players can create their own playlists from select modes and have to pass the controller over in a fun twist that sees the environments stay as they are after Player 1 finishes their turn. This forces the second player to have to think on their toes if they are to beat their rivals score.

Dangerous Golf succeeds in giving the player a simple and predictable suite of controls to mess around with although the environments you are presented with are less than stellar and don’t warrant playing through more than needed. Although at its core, Dangerous Golf is about the apocalyptic destruction your golf ball causes and developer Three Fields Entertainment over delivers in that aspect. Seeing, hearing, and feeling the vibration of exploding objects makes for a satisfying gameplay loop as crackling fire and smashed structures paint the battlefield of your once pristine course. Battling against friends both online and through couch co-op is how Dangerous Golf feels like it’s meant to be played and it makes for a great pickup title, ignoring the initial learning curve that is.

*** PS4 code provided by the publisher ***