Golf With Your Friends

baaketball

If you're looking for a chill game to play with pals, this might be it. Paradoxically, if you're looking for a simple but kind of competitive game to play with your pals and strangers, then this is also it. I'll start by saying Golf With Your Friends is typically not the sort of golf game I would choose to play. When the itch for a golf-style game is there, I think there are probably more fun and deeper options available. But when it comes to a golf game that is incredibly easy to pick up and play, and with a stronger social aspect, Golf With Your Friends is pretty much standard. From what I can tell this game doesn't have in-game voice chat, and that is a bit of a shortcoming. It has a Discord, if you're into that sort of thing. Personally I see no point to Discord, and prefer to have an in-game option or to just use Steam voice chat to at least talk to my pals while I play this game. And that last option is what we always do. GWYF, which I'll refer to it as from here on because it's an arthritis-full to keep typing out the full name of, does include text chat in-game. If you're playing on keyboard you press "T" to bring up the text box, if you're playing on controller it's like Right joystick or something. This is pretty convenient and people use the text chat often during matches. It has basic pre-made responses you can select, but you can also type whatever you want into the box - you'll need a keyboard for that, of course. But one caveat with the in-game texting is that the text chat box disappears when nobody is using it, so you need to press the text chat button to bring up the latest dialogue again. The game loads and runs well, and doesn't seem to take up too much power, which I love. Controls are pretty simple and straightforward. I usually play on controller, but sometimes play with the keyboard and mouse. Both work out alright. Only thing I will say is, if it's been a while since you've played, or you go from using one control method to another, it might take you a minute to remember how to adjust your power and hit the golf ball. So this is miniature golf, but there are no "turns". Each new hole begins, and everyone can just start hitting their ball at any time, and at the same time. You aren't waiting for people to take their shot, you're constantly taking your turns as is everyone else. This only becomes a waiting game once most of the players have gotten their ball into the hole, and the last couple of players might be struggling to make a shot. This is also where people will sometimes make mean or rude comments to slower players, or people who aren't as good at this game. Quick aside, I am not very good at this game. I usually have the highest score, (a bad thing in golf) and spend most of the game trying to pull ahead, hoping other players will screw up and I'll not come in dead last place, lol. One thing that's worth noting is that you will never see a golf club in this game. You "are" the golf ball, it serves as both your ball and your player representation on the screen. And that part is kind of cool and refreshing. You can choose your ball's color, or equip it with different hats, textures, and ball trails you acquire through unlocking them randomly or buying them in a bundle pack. If you play the game with your friends, it might be a bit more relaxing and low-stakes like it is when I play with my friends. I usually enjoy this laid-back style of play more. Not as much stress, who cares who wins, you know? Just something a bit easy to play while talking over voice chat. If you play with strangers, know that some of the regulars on this game are a bit more competitive, and may have preferences for certain game modes or enabling or disabling certain features in their games. People will critique you, they will expect you to make use of "braking" to speed up the rounds, and they'll get mad if you take too long to complete each round because they want to move on to the next one. The actual courses and holes in the game are mostly the same thing. They have different "themes", but most holes are straightforward to get to. That said, you'll probably come to like some themed courses more than others because some holes are more complicated than others and might have annoying parts that cause you to take numerous extra shots to complete. Overall a fun and social-centric miniature golf game that is simple and straightforward to play, with occasionally frustrating holes to play through and impatient regular players who are quite skilled at this game by now.