Normally games that make you cry aren't particularly appealing, but we have to hand it to the Outlaw Golf 2 crew, in this case we're just gluttons for punishment. You end up trying harder and harder, and the game keeps raising the bar just out of reach. So when (if) you finally get that meter back on the sweet side with a sweet shot, children around the world cheer and the sun beams down from behind those rain-clouds. By bullying the player and exasperating existing inadequacies, it toughens up all comers so when you're good, you know it, you deserve it, and you can become hideously complacent and a bit slapdash as a result. With a full composure metre, it's much easier to hit the perfect shot, and you
can totally rest on your laurels.
When you put that formula into the context of multiplayer it's just genius. The winning player gets permission to be a smug git, whilst the loser gets kicked while they're down, both by the game, and (we would hope) all human spectators present. And then when they think it can't get any worse, it does. It's all totally unfair and we love it. It gives everyone the opportunity to indulge in that 'off-piste' argy bargy where psychological battles ensue between players trying to psyche each other out on the sofa. Obviously, if you're the one who never quite gets the knack, well, you'll hate OG2 more than George Bush in a Marmite and anchovy dressing. And that's our main reservation with Outlaw Golf 2: although most fans of golf games will enjoy this, it has the capacity to be odious in the extreme. Initially, the game does seem to have a more casual approach than he standard golfing fare and so might unfairly manage to seduce gamers not normally into the genre. And although the majority will get right into it, there'll be plenty of people who dislike it intensely. It is really mean. You've been warned.
But if your golf skills aren’t enough to get you back on track, OG2 still has a few other wonderfully gimmicky extras that can put your player’s composure back on the good-side. Carried over from the original, you can earn tokens which are used to instigate a caddy-beating mini-game. If you time all your thumps correctly, your composure fills up to the max. Similarly, you can start up the golf cart and rampage around the fairway, toppling unsuspecting spectators in exchange for composure. Scientifically speaking, we’re not sure that such Jackass activities would actually make you any more ‘composed’, but it’s still a good giggle and it certainly helps elevate OG2 above its sober, plus-four-wearing competitors.
