‘Cursed To Golf’ (PS5) Review: A Blessing To Play
Within five minutes of playing Cursed to Golf, you just know it’s something special. After half an hour, you begin to realize it’s one of the best indie games of the year. In the hours that follow, you may even think it’s the greatest golf game ever made–the type that makes you wish the real-life sport worked in precisely the same way.
Following in the footsteps of the marvelous What the Golf?, Cursed to Golf is proudly “ruining” the sport as we know it–but in reality, it’s doing quite the opposite. This quirky indie adventure from Chuhai Labs and Thunderful Games has found yet another niche between its competition, whether that’s your classic, big-budget, realistic PGA Tour 2K21, the charming RPG take of Golf Story, or the anarchy of Golf with Your Friends.
On paper, it shouldn’t work. Combining 2D platformers, roguelike elements, and Scotland’s greatest contribution to sport, Cursed to Golf may be one of the weirdest gaming propositions of 2022. And yet, despite its chaotic look, it’s a simple idea done brilliantly, beautifully and, despite some stiff competition from small studios during 2022, it may well be a frontrunner for indie game of the year.
The game starts by combining a super-light tutorial with an introduction to our character: a golfer who’s about to triumph in the Eternal Golf Championship. As you learn its basic controls and your simple selection of three clubs–a driver, iron, and wedge–clouds roll over the once-pleasant 18th hole, inevitably culminating in your grisly fate: being struck by lightning just as you’re about to sink the final, tournament-winning putt.
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Soon, you find yourself in Golf Purgatory, in the company of a humongous, kilt-wearing golfer known as the Scotsman, who gregariously introduces you to your challenge: to complete four zones, each one culminating in a boss battle, to escape limbo and return to the real world. The only problem is that once you run down your Par Count–a limited shot clock you can top up by breaking statues–you’re back to the very start.
Cursed To Golf’s real strength lies in its pacing, which perfectly encapsulates its roguelike roots. Like stablemates HyperParasite and Hades before it, it offers a new and ultimately accessible take on its genre, introducing a whole new audience to enjoyable punishment.