If you’re looking to pass the time with a calming golf sim, then Pro Putt by Topgolf will not disappoint.
Golf games are such a perfect fit for VR, however, With a year now under the belt for the Oculus Quest, it’s a surprise there has only been just a few golf sports games available on the portable VR platform. With the release of Pro Putt by Topgolf, Quest owners now have a new alternative golf game to play, one that’s a little more straight and narrow.
Partnered by Topgolf Entertainment Group, it’s developers, Golf Scope, have created a lightweight (in realism) yet enjoyable virtual golfing experience on the Quest. Featuring three separate locations to visit, each with their own Pro modes, the main campaign in Pro Putt encourages you to collect stars by sinking your golf ball into each green hole, on or below Par, to earn enough stars to unlock and progress on to the next course location.
After a brief tutorial of the game‘s simple yet intuitive controls, I choose to dive straight into the Pro Putt’s campaign mode. Here is where I played through the seven holes in the first available course, collecting stars and unlocking the second of three available course locations. The first location is a calming beachside location, with lapping waves, palm trees and sunshine beaming down onto the green. You can almost feel the coastline breeze and the warm sunshine on your face.
Putting the ball is as easy as it is in real life. You simply look down at the ball, pull the trigger to switch the ball from its practice ghost mode to a solid ball that can be hit with your putter, and then swing for the ball. If you want to cheat a little bit, you can press the controller’s grip button to not only see the green’s topography, but also see the best path to hit the ball along. Thankfully you’re not told how hard to hit the ball here, so there is some level of skill needed to not send the ball ending up in the rough or flying into a sand bunker.
Putting the ball into the hole gives you a satisfying explosive burst of particles, and if you’ve managed to get the ball down the hole below Par, you’ll be rewarded a chest that, once struck with your putter, will unlock courses and custom golf ball skins, all of which you can immediately equip or visit without any friction of returning to the menus to customise your ball to change course.
Your second location sends you to a desert landscape. This particular course feels a little more fictional than the first location, especially when there is a spinning sand tornado spinning idle close by! The third and final course brings you back to reality, by taking you to a forest location, with pine trees, mountains, a wandering deer, and a huge running waterfall. Each of the three locations contains numerous greens within them, however, a few extra locations would have been most welcome, instead of them being reused for the game’s pro-level courses.
In Pro mode, each of the course’s Par level is reduced and the ability to see your path is removed. Considering this helpful guide only shows up if you closely follow the path on the green, it isn’t such a punishment in the game’s Pro mode, as you are used to not seeing anyway. The reduction in strokes to Par does make it harder to earn stars, and as a result, and you’ll soon find that you’ll be selecting the Retry menu button more often.
Once you’ve had your fill with the campaign modes, you can take yourself to the Putting Lounge to sample Pro Putt’s more arcade-like modes. With the bustling background sounds of people talking and the kind of sounds similar to a very busy crazy golf course, you feel that you’re in a much less calming location than on the beach, in the desert or surrounded by mountains. It’s quite the contrast, almost distracting in fact.
Ahead of you is a giant scoreboard, and depending on the arcade mode chosen, there is either a single or a group of zones that you are meant to hit the ball towards to score points. This mode feels well suited for multiplayer or party play, as the environment around you and the type of golf being played here sums up the appeal of the Putting Lounge.
Once you’ve proven your skills in the single-player campaign or you’re tired of filling in your scorecard in the Single Round mode, you can see how you fare in the game’s multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, you can only face one other opponent here. It would have been nice to play with a group of friends, but like in real life, having to wait for more than one other person’s turn can be a little dull, or frustrating if your opponent is terrible at the game. Having one other human to play against does make it fun and enjoyable, whilst you both walk the green and pass the time in VR together.
Retailing for £14.99 on the Oculus Store, Pro Putt by Topgolf is a welcome addition to the few sports titles we have on the Quest. It’s certainly one of the best golf titles, and I hope it’s developers are encouraged by its launch success, to enhance the game with further courses and arcade modes. If you’re looking to pass the time with a calming golf sim, then Pro Putt by Topgolf will not disappoint.
