There’s plenty of talk about cosy games these days. For me, few gaming experiences are as cosy as grabbing my digital golf clubs and playing through 18 holes of virtual golf.
So in this chaotic world, I couldn’t be happier to welcome PGA Tour 2K25, the most satisfying golf simulation in the series to date and the finest entry in the genre for at least a decade.
Down To A Tee
Golf games live and die by how it feels to swing your club. Developers HB Studios have been incrementally improving their swing mechanics since 2014’s The Golf Club. With the new EvoSwing system, the team have finally reached their potential.
Your swing is built around four inputs as you pull and push on the analog stick — contact, rhythm, transition and swing path — and you’ll need to nail all four to successfully approach the green. Thankfully, the results of each swing are indicated on screen in a clean UI, so you know what to adjust if you’re repeatedly ending up in the rough.
A wide range of difficulty and accessibility options means you can customise everything to your liking. When I was starting out with my lowly-rated golfer, I decided to switch off the rhythm portion of my swing so I could focus on getting better at the other mechanics. Switching it back on later meant I could gradually build my skills without putting myself through needless frustration.
Also new to PGA Tour 2K25 is the Perfect Swing system. This input method essentially boils down swinging to just flicking your right analog stick in the direction you want the ball to go. It’s a very accessible option for more casual players and while I personally found it overly simplistic, it’s a great inclusion to broaden the audience for this game.
A Hole Lot of Modes
PGA Tour 2K25‘s traditional MyCareer mode remains my preferred way to pass the time. This time, you have more options to customise your character and this, as well as interactions with media and other players, give your avatar a teensy bit more personality.
The inclusion of Dynamic Rounds means that you can play a series of key holes in each match instead of the full length. It’s a clever way to help you progress through your career faster with a massive amount of flexibility in the options to choose exactly how long you want to play for or what you’re comfortable leaving up to the CPU.
Where this game gets addictive is enhancing your MyPlayer. Not only do you have your standard attribute points to boost, but there’s also a skill tree in which you can unlock shot types and boost particular strengths in your repertoire. On top of this is a system where you can enhance your golf equipment by attaching stat boosts into slots. Imagine a golf version of Final Fantasy VII’s Materia system. The surprisingly deep RPG-ification of PGA Tour 2K25 found me spending more time in menus fleshing out my player than actually out on the course.
The roster of playable golfers is pretty disappointing at 11 (or 12 for the more expensive edition, if you count Christopher McDonald vaguely resembling his Shooter McGavin character from Happy Gilmore). To be honest, actual golf is such a mess at this point with LIV’s disruption of the sport. My personal desire for an extensive roster of real golfers feels less vital than ever.
Quest John Daly
One of my favourite additions to PGA Tour 2K25 is the Quests system. Anybody who has spent five minutes in a live service game will know what to expect. The game features daily and weekly quests as well as a wide variety of other challenges to complete. Ticking these off rapidly boosts your character and progresses you through PGA Tour 2K25’s equivalent of season passes, the ‘Clubhouse Pass’.
I was initially skeptical about this as I felt like extra live service hooks would be to this series’ detriment, but the quests do an excellent job of forcing you to engage with every mode the game has to offer. I was more motivated to explore the ranked online and I’m now hooked on playing strangers in a way I’ve never felt compelled to before.
Picking up a sports game often finds me looking at the main menu and just feeling in a bit of a rut trying to decide what I want to do. The Quests system provides the right amount of motivation and guidance to create an addictive golfing experience.
In The Rough
Where this game grates on me is the continual insistence on incorporating VC, or “Virtual Currency”, a plague across all 2K sports titles. While the implementation is nowhere near as egregious as the NBA series, the reliance on an online currency makes navigating through menus a slog as the game is constantly pinging to servers for almost everything you do. Add to this the inevitably that this game will one day lose most basic functionality when the servers are shut down — which we’re currently witnessing with PGA Tour 2K21 – and it’s just disappointing that this trend seems here to stay with 2K’s titles.
The game’s graphics won’t blow anyone away; this series has never been a graphical showstopper, but it’s serviceable. After initially jumping back and forth between my home computer and Steam Deck, I settled into really enjoying the game on the handheld, as the graphical compromises were worth it to quickly bash out a couple of matches after a busy day.
The game’s commentary is dry and the menu music is sometimes obnoxious, but these have never been strong suits of the series. I’ll admit that I’m quite comfortable muting this game to chuck on a podcast and I don’t feel like I’m missing out.
Swingers Par-ty
HB Studios feel like they’ve been tweaking the formula of their golf games, constantly pushing themselves in search for the perfect golf simulation. Whether it’s by virtue of not being a large marquee sports franchise, or releasing on a cycle of every two years instead of one, these games have been given the room to slowly blossom into a compelling product.
I often yearn for the glory days of more arcadey golf games like my all-time favourite, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005. While PGA Tour 2K25 offers a far more sedate and challenging golf experience, this is definitely the most addicted I’ve been to a golf game in the last two decades.
Despite 2K’s awful monetisation tactics being a routine disappointment, the impressive core gameplay and the wonderful Quests system make PGA Tour 2K25 an easy recommendation to anybody seeking a stroll along the virtual fairways.
Quest Daily scores PGA Tour 2K25:
8.5/10
PGA Tour 2K25 is now available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
A review code for PGA Tour 2K25 was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.
