Links 2004 review (Xbox)

Hitting a tiny ball as far away as you can, then finding it, only to hit it away again? Mad. Still, a lot of people seem to like it. I’ve always preferred the digital versions myself and have had a go at golf on everything from the CPC464 on upwards. I have to say I was very much looking forward to this latest version of the Links franchise. The wait for this, Microsoft’s own Xbox exclusive answer to EA’s Tiger Woods games, has been quite a long one, but does it disappoint?

Hole in one?

The first thing that will strike you about Links is the rather plain looking menu system. At first glance the presentation isn’t fantastic and indeed even when you get further into the game the menu systems are not flashy; they simply don’t have the smoothness of the Tiger Woods equivalents. Behind all this lies a reasonably intuitive set of menu choices, though.

Tiger’s latest EA game was applauded for having almost infinite design choices when creating your characters. Alas, Links does not have anything approaching the same scale of character building, but there are more than enough choices available for those who like customisation. Six character types are available and each has a huge amount of clothing to pick through, so there’s a bit of scope for fitting your “style”. Controls have been “borrowed” from Tiger, with the swing method being employed for controls rather than the tap-tap-tap of other golfers. Unlike Tiger, your shots cannot be adjusted in the air; if you fluff a shot, that’s it.

Eagle

Links 2004 is broken into several areas. There’s the main meat of the game consisting of the full course competitions and then there are individual challenges to approach. The challenges are very varied and consist of such events as “closest to pin”, longest drive and dealing well with water hazards. As well as this, there are challenges that force you to replicate famous real-life wins. All of these challenges are approached in a manner not dissimilar to Project Gotham Racing 2, with players aiming for Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. Success in these challenges release funds with which players can upgrade their character’s abilities and also unlock better equipment that also improve skills.

The main tournament portion of Links is pretty basic stuff if you’ve ever played a recent golf game, really. Players take part in stroke, skins or matchplay games (don’t worry if you don’t know what these are, the tutorial mode is very good indeed and explains all). Success in these will once again release funds and will progress the character through the ranks of amateur right up to seasoned pro. Progression throughout these ranks requires severe determination, as although you’re given guides as to where your ball will end up in any given situation, these are no more than basic outlines and as such you are required to put quite a bit of cerebral effort in.

Bunkered

The graphics in Links really set it aside from previous golf games, with seemingly limitless draw distances and extremely well rendered real-life courses. The character animation is very well realised and they all feature superb texturing (as do all the graphical elements) and decent enough lighting. The weather effects are nothing special but provide a nice bit of variation from the plain old courses. Sound is a pretty decent affair with reasonable crowd and background effects, but the commentary leaves a lot to be desired. It’s not bad, but it could be a lot better. Custom soundtracks can of course be used and this makes up for any shortfall in the music (and there are plenty).

Birdie

So far, Links is overall a little worse than Tiger Woods, so you may be asking why the high score? Well, it all comes down to that sneaky “Live” business again. Microsoft’s use and promotion of Live is really helping to pick some already good games and thrust them up to the realms of “must plays”. In Links, the Live integration allows for straight-up play against up to three other players at a time and the multiplayer works superbly well, with the slow pace of the game lending itself perfectly to those who like to chat.

Obviously lag is not really an issue and if you’re worried about having to wait for people to finish their turns, the host can set up a “fastplay” match. In this, everyone is playing as if just in a single player game, but everyone can see everyone else’s balls (oo-er) and the scores are still compared at the end of the match. XSN Sports integration has been handled fairly well too, allowing play-off competitions that can start with over 100 people.

Downloadable content is promised for Links 2004 too, but the decision to charge for this content has led to some grumbling from those who are all too used to getting downloads for free.

Weekend hacker?

Overall this is a quality title. Without the Live integration, I’d have put this just behind the latest Tiger Woods offering. The game’s not any worse per se, but it just doesn’t have that trademark quality EA finish, and for all the dissing that EA get at the moment, no-one can deny that they know how to present a product. If you have a Live account, then for me it’s a no-brainer: Links wins hands down and this is why the score stands as it does. If you don’t have Live, I’d simply recommend looking at whether Links or Tiger Woods is going cheaper on the day you choose to buy.