App Review: GolfStar by COM2US Corp

The premise for Golf Star, when it was first released earlier in 2013, was that it would be the ‘greatest golf game you’ll ever play’. That was a pretty big claim given that the game is up against the likes of Tiger Woods Golf and several other golf games that have their own converts.

So after giving the game the once over, how does GolfStar actually stack up?

Availability: GolfStar is available for iPad, iPhone and iPod (iOS 4.3 or higher required) as well as a number of Android devices. This means that the app has wide appeal across the broad range of mobile devices.

Cost: Golfstar is available to download for free and is playable for free, however there are extensive in-app purchases which can (or need) to be made in order to make playing the app both functional and worthwhile. In app purchases can cost anywhere from just a pound or two, to well over £30 for some of the more expensive options.

Premise of the Game: In GolfStar you take on the role of a new golfer setting out on a career in the GolfStar world. Once you have decided upon the look of your golfer, your aim is to complete a series of challenges to ‘level up’ your golfer. In doing so, you improve his skills and unlock better abilities, equipment, clothing and more all of which can help you shoot lower scores.

Each level is subdivided into a number of different challenges and undertaking each of the challenge costs you a number of ‘hearts’. Once you have run out of hearts, you need to wait until you receive some more free over the next day or two, or purchase additional hearts in game.

In addition to purchasing hearts to take challenges, players can also purchase in-game coins which allows them to buy lots of additional items, bonuses, equipment.

By completing challenges, improving your skills and equipment and progressing through the game, you will eventually become a professional golfer. There are also extensive options to play online against other users via the server and there is also widespread support for social networking via Facebook.

Graphics, Sound and Animation: The graphics in GolfStar are generally very good. They are bright and the actual mechanics of hitting the golf ball and the representation of the course and green are very good indeed.

The main screen however does look cluttered and is not easy to navigate initially, though you do get used to where certain aspects of the game are located fairly quickly.

The sounds in the game are a bit of a disappointment, particularly the sound of the ball dropping into the cup as it sounds more like a ball being dropped into a quartz crystal decanter than hitting the bottom of a golf hole.

Animations are smooth and well represented and there are no glaring problems with this aspect of the game.

The Problems: While GolfStar does have lots of good features, such as the graphics and gameplay, there are several major drawbacks to the app.

The first is that this is a game, that has not been designed with being a true and accurate representation of golf in mind, in the way Tiger Woods PGA Tour has. Instead, while playing golf on GolfStar is enjoyable, you just know that this game has been designed with a view to first maximising the profits for the design company and then to provide a golf app for users.

There are far too many in-game purchases required to make this game playable at an affordable level. While many purchases are only relatively small in cost, the sheer number you need mean that this game can soon become very costly to play indeed.

Instead of being a little add-on to a golf game, it feels like the golf game is the add on to the purchasing module and that is never a good thing as it gives the player the impression that they are being fleeced.

The other problem is with the server, many players have documented real problems logging into the server to play the game and this lack of reliability is a key issue.  Why pay for a game that you are not going to be able to play for long periods because the server is down?

The sheer number of options, purchase upgrades, and buy ins to tempt users into parting with real cash to improve their golfer in the game mean that there is too much emphasis on that and not enough on the golf.

Conclusion: GolfStar looks pretty and can play well, but only for a limited time. As a free app, it has very limited scope, as an app you pay for, it is too expensive and time consuming to really be worthwhile playing for the long  haul, especially when compared to other games on offer for Apple and Android devices.

This is a shame as GolfStar shows great promise in many areas, but until the emphasis of the game changes from in-app purchasing, to golf simulation, then this will only detract from its overall appeal.

Rating 2/5 – Potentially very good, but unnecessarily fiddly, very expensive when considering in-app purchases and unreliable server issues hold this game back.

All Images Taken In Game by Gorilla Golf Reviewer