When Sid Meier and Will Wright announced a jointly developed title, PC
gamers knew they were going to be in for a surprise. However long
SimGolf has been in development though, it certainly comes at an odd
time. Surely everyone has heard of the smorgasbord of tycoon games,
which I should add, was pioneered into a de facto standard by none other
than Sid Meier himself. In the midst of Ski Resort Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon,
Golf Resort Tycoon and others ad nauseam, SimGolf rolls out with what
superficially looks like a similar design. Perhaps this is a quid pro
quo from EA: buy more Sim titles so we can finally bring you The Sims
Online. In this title, you are let loose on an empty plot of land as
you try to construct your own set of links. However, as you delve into
the game, you will see that SimGolf has a long pedigree. In its focus
on the development of a single golf pro, you are essentially merging a
less technical version of a traditional golf game (of which Maxis used
to produce under the name SimGolf) and the quirky attribute system of
The Sims. On the other hand, its emphasis on transforming landscapes
into a compelling golf course is, in principle, not unlike what we find
other tycoon games, most notably Rollercoaster Tycoon. Furthermore, the
economics model is rather like Peter Molyneux's Theme Park. Although it
isn't as sophisticated, with price setting, stock trading and employer
relations, there are quite a few economic decisions to juggle with
during the course of the game itself.
While other titles of this nature string a loosely connected series of
goals you must achieve, SimGolf has none of this and rests itself on the
naked strength of golf course building. You are given a radial
interface much like The Sims to control finances, terrain landscaping,
building construction and personnel management. To construct a hole,
you don't really need to do anything except to start building. SimGolf
provides ample instructions on what each item actually does and does a
fairly competent job in identifying or explaining terms like a dog leg
right or what the placement of water does to the actual course. Like a
good theme park design, you have to watch your placement of golf
courses. Initially when you cannot field golf carts, you will want to
reduce travel time by controlling the flow of the golf course. I'm sure
even the most casual golfers know how frustrating it is to walk halfway
across a course to get to the next hole. On the other hand, if you make
your holes too close together, there will inevitably be backlog. These
very real concerns are also prevalent in the game and SimGolf challenges
you to find interesting things to solve these problems. Do you risk
shutting down a few award- winning holes or redesign them to reduce
backlog? Do you hire a course marshal, whose salary will be a constant
drain on your budget, to speed up play? Or alternatively, you can build
a snack bar and hope that people will trek there to rest on chairs so as
to make traffic more manageable.
All of these answers are right but some are obviously more right than
others. Because of the dynamic nature of these problems, it creates an
infinite amount of replayability. Certainly, Will Wright's passion to
solve problems manages to crop up here. SimGolf is really a very
subtle title. As I mentioned before, there aren't any artificial
objectives like achieving some sort of money on your balance sheet. You
can still run into debt and get fired by your company's board if you
lose money consistently like a badly run dot-com company, but the goals
and challenges are up to you to set. Like Civilization, you choose the
type of victory that you want. Some people may opt to focus on grooming
a local golf pro. On every milestone you achieve, either in course
building or in actual play, the game will grant you a series of
experience points on which you can add to your golfer. You can allocate
these amongst a wide range of golfing techniques. If you have
constructed an executive or short golf course, you will opt to
concentrate on strengthening your irons. If you have a longer course,
you might want to concentrate on the driving aspect. For a course rife
with tricky greens, putting may be a good option. The actual golf game
is quite intriguing on its own. You can aim for fades, draws, and
backspins. Like in real life, whether you pull it off is another matter
altogether, but that is not to say the golfing is unsophisticated. On a
2D landscape, it certainly looks simplified compared to titles like
Links or the Tiger Woods franchise. However, the usual dilemmas that
confront a golfer are present here too. Do you shoot before a river for
a lay up or do you hope to drive past all the obstacles? Do you risk a
draw to avoid a sand bunker or do you aim for the bunker and avoid the
hassle of your draw getting stuck in the trees? Although this isn't a
golf simulation, it certainly is not a simple point and click affair.
Other than putting and the choosing of clubs, you control your golf pro
to play through the entire course.
As a golfer, you can always do a practice round on your own courses.
Moreover, you can take him to courses that may be downloaded through the
net. You can challenge local pros that usually net you some cash as the
challenges are based on who wins each hole and who wins the overall
game. You can also opt to participate in tournaments. Doing so brings
out the obligatory leaderboard and lets you play a game with an assorted
number of players for an ultimate purse prize with money doled out to
second, third and so on. The more tournaments and challenges you manage
to win, the stronger your opponents will be. If anything else,
tournaments are a great way to get some seed money into your company's
budget.
There is, however, a slightly darker side to tournaments. You will have
to close down your golf course for the tournament to proceed. Due to
the accelerated timing, a lengthy golf tournament can shut you down for
a whole year. In this time, you will not be making any green fees; the
bread and butter for your revenue. Instead, you will have to hope to
land a top spot on the leaderboard or at least recoup your losses for
the year through the sale of amenities. Economics, though not as
sophisticated as titles like Theme Park, are still very much present in
the game. SimGolf also adds a very novel design that really has not
been exploited in any other tycoon games. Companies like Club Link like
to set up housing projects near golf courses. A lot of us will cringe
at the possibility of golf balls crashing through our windows but in
fact, there is quite a real estate market around professional golf
courses; at least the nicely kept ones. SimGolf lets you sell plots of
your land to potential buyers who will construct houses on their dime.
The principle is simple: if you want to raise cash fast, this is about
as quick and lucrative as putting your company out on IPO. The land you
sell is a one-time profit although you can reclaim it any time.
However, not all pieces of land are worthy for sale. Some places will
require a substantial amount of money to level out the terrain or remove
trees. But in general, lakeside resorts and cabins within woods present
the highest value. The higher the value of your land goes, the more
chance you have in attracting celebrities or stars that increase the
profile of your golf course. Obviously scenic landscaping will enhance
the value of your land but there is always the question of whether you
want to cater to your real estate projects or your actual golf course
because more often than not, their interests do not coincide with one
another. If your golf course looks as crowded as a public housing
project from SimCity, your golfers will gripe and complain about the
lack of scenery.
You can minimize griping by pairing up prospective golfers together.
SimGolf only allows a party of two, so there is an emphasis on mixing
and matching chemistries not unlike The Sims. You can also hire a
variety of people and build facilities to enhance a golfer's experience
ergo the fact that a tennis court, driving range or putting green will
help shift your operation's focus to a resort instead of a golf course.
You can hire club greeters or golf celebrities to help raise the moral
of your golfers. Where to place groundskeepers and refreshment vendors
is another factor to take note of. These work great and although the
model is much simpler than Theme Park, it is still acceptable except for
one point. SimGolf does not allow you to set an employee, a
groundskeeper for example, on autopilot to patrol your entire course.
Instead, he/she will provide coverage within a circular radius.
The denizens of SimGolf speak Sim-lish; no surprise there, although
translations of their dialogue will pop up above their heads. This is a
good thing but it also creates quite a mess especially when you have a
massive golf course operation. SimGolf is a very subtle game and though
on the surface, it is just like every other 'Tycoon' type game, no other
developers have sought to refine or extend the original motif. SimGolf
adds little stories through golfers. A good golfing experience will let
these stories play out and they include 'will you marry me' stories to
the conclusion of defense or weapons contracts. SimGolf's heavy dose of
sarcasm also extends to the actual names of people. A rich female donor
is called Ivana Richman. Celebrities are called Mel Gifford or Jerry
Signfeld. For those who are into golf, some of the tournament players
include Sirius Pak and your local celebrity employee is by default known
as Chi Chi (Rodriguez, I'm sure).
SimGolf manages to draw upon Will Wright's other Sim franchises. One of
these is the addition of statues or monuments similar to the latest
incarnation of SimCity. Some of these have bonuses that radiate from
them. For example, a certain statue could lead people to putt well
within its vicinity. SimGolf also features a hefty amount of
customization. You can construct your own courses and upload it to the
SimGolf website. You can download other people's courses to use your
locally developed golfers on. SimGolf also allows you to install
certain themes, which can potentially add characters, terrain graphics
or a mix of everything. Certainly, this is a nod to the extensive
overhaul people have given to The Sims.
In essence, the SimGolf title betrays the actual substance of the game.
SimGolf is so simple to grasp, that it is not really about golf. It
works more like the usual Tycoon games albeit with a lot of extras that
differentiate it from the recent Tycoon mold. It has elements of The
Sims as well. Unfortunately, it carries over a little too much. For
example, the anemic camera system in The Sims is still present in
SimGolf. This isn't bad, per se but in a constant 800x600 resolution, I
didn't expect the game to shutter when scrolling around the map,
especially on the closest zoom level (the view you will be using most of
the game). The inability to have your view track golfers, including
your own, is another major drawback. I'd like to see how these stories
play out and how my golfer is doing but there is no provision to do so
even though it wouldn't appear to be much of a stretch for the current
engine. SimGolf also suffers from some debilitating crashes, especially
in the tournament mode but a patch that remedies this is already out and
relatively painless to apply. On a more positive note, SimGolf is
perhaps one of the best titles for people with dual head displays. It
easily supports task switching and you can work on a second pane without
worrying about disrupting the game itself.
The lack of multiplayer is really not a concern. Like The Sims, the
developers have chosen to integrate the net and connectivity in a
different way. Some people who aren't interested in golf will think
this is some hard-core golf game. It is, in fact, not that at all. Its
open- ended nature lets you mold the game into whatever you want it to
be. If you don't like golf, you can focus on developing valuable real
estate properties alongside a mediocre golf course. If you think the
golfing is too shallow, you are under no obligation to play through all
the tournaments or challenges. I started playing this game one night,
not really excited because my editor had told me this wasn't a
revolutionary title. It was easily four hours later until I actually
looked at the clock. The only thing hindering SimGolf may actually be
the golf moniker itself. The combination of Will Wright and Sid Meier,
though, is a fait accompli. The design in this game is nothing short of
an exercise of a craft, perfected by two of the most innovative and
creative visionaries in the industry. It does not deviate much from the
status quo but does so much to extend what has already been laid out
(and in most cases by the two famed designers themselves). Surely there
are flaws but they do not obfuscate the fun when we consider the entire
corpus. I sincerely hope it demonstrates to the millions of me-too
tycoon and Theme Park clones that this is, ex cathedra, how one of those
games should be. Emphasis on humorous sarcasm and subtle but in-depth
design kicks EA's 2002 off with another stellar release.