As I mentioned when I reviewed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein on Sega CD, Psygnosis was a company that could always be trusted to squeeze every last drop out of a piece of hardware, and the Playstation was where they showcased some of their most graphically amazing work. The WipeOut and Colony Wars games still look impressive even today as do games like Chronicles of the Sword and Psybadek. Unfortunately, while their games almost always looked amazing, the gameplay tended to be much more hit-and-miss. Their only attempt at golf Pro 18 World Tour Golf was definitely a miss.
All the advertising and the box art talked about was how true to life the courses looked, and they were definitely right to point that out. The three courses offered (the Royal County Down, the Lost City, and Couer D'Alene) all look amazing. The stills show incredible detail. Wait, stills? That's right; the courses look photographically real because they ARE photographs. The courses were rendered and then snapshot. Why? Did Psygnosis think the courses couldn't be rendered by the game engine? The golfers are video as well. I thought these cheats died with the CD-i. Luckily, disc access is very quick, making the use of these cheats not as irritating as with older CD-based golf games.
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However, using those cheats instead of actually rendering the courses in real time makes the game unbelievably frustrating to play. The aiming cursor works well, much better than the way Links on the Sega CD handled aiming. However, you're still limited to just that method to aim because there is no onscreen course map anywhere. With older golf games without controllable cameras, the course map was a vital tool which eliminated much of the aggravation. Why was it left out here? Even more unforgivable is the lack of an elevation grid on the putting green. When coupled with the terrible angled putting view like in PGA Tour 97, the putting game becomes terribly frustrating. Turn on the mulligans to preserve your sanity.
Of course, you'd want the mulligans on anyway because the shot mechanics are absolutely dreadful. On the surface it looks like the traditional three-click method, and the meters thankfully don't go too fast or too slow. However, in a boneheaded move, the third click has to be held until the second meter at the bottom hits the center to ensure a straight shot. Again, why? Would it have killed them to include that in the main meter like almost every other golf game that uses the three-click mechanics? Couple that screw-up with controls that are so slippery that even changing clubs is annoying, and you have one of the worst playing golf games ever.
After trying to play Pro 18 World Tour Golf (emphasis on "trying"), I have to wonder if Psygnosis had ever played a golf game before. At least Links on the Sega CD had the excuse of the technology being new. Yes, Psygnosis made Pro 18 look good, but with games like Hot Shots Golf already out by that point, there was no excuse for Pro 18 to play this terribly. It may not be as wretched as Links on the Sega CD, but it comes damn close. Drive this game out-of-bounds, and leave it there.
