For as long as there have been game consoles there have been golf games.  From the long standing franchises to the forgotten, most companies have tried their hands at it.  House of Golf is no different, save that their spin on the concept is less full courses and more mini-golf set up throughout the run of an entire home.  The question is if the novelty of the setting is enough to set it apart from the rest of the pack to let it stand alone.

You can watch our stream of House of Golf here:

The first impression of the title is that everything looks slightly better than most others in the genre.  The camera is also much closer to the ball itself as there is no player present taking the shot.  Graphically it is simply a ball and a power indicator on the course; from time to time a directional indicator might pop up to show where the ball might go, but that is all.  It also runs at 60 frames a second, which is always a nice addition to things.

The next thing that is quickly picked up on is that the entire lack of player makes the game quickly start to feel like an odd game of pool/bumper pool; possible an odd game of Monkey Ball where the player isn’t allowed to continue rolling.  None of this is bad, just that the game itself feels strange without a player model that has been present in almost every other genre defining title. This doesn’t take away from the mechanics of the game, but it makes it feel odd.

The mechanics themselves, can be infuriating at times.  The main game mode drops two players in, so for anyone without a second person next to them while playing, will have the experience of playing the same hole twice. This has the hidden effect of showing that the seemingly same amount of power, direction, and ball can produce entirely different results for seemingly no reason.  In one case on a par four a hole in one was achieved with almost no effort.  Directly after the same shot was attempted and the ball simply went flying off the table, even though the first ball came nowhere close to that.

House of Golf is a great game to be played with friends, mainly because the game can be unpredictable enough–as is real golf– to swing in favor of either player at a moments notice. For those without friends, possibly look elsewhere for a golf fix. That said, buy the game on a sale as the asking price is slightly high at 10 dollars.  The game is great with friends, but can be frustrating and repetitive by yourself.