Golf Club: Wasteland is definitely one of those indie oddities that aren't too good in gameplay, but still manage to come up with great atmosphere and a storyline you wouldn't expect. If you were just looking forward to simple golf entertainment in an innovative setting, like me and it seems quite a few did, you might want to replay and capture all the details you might have missed in the experience.
The game itself isn't more complicated than playing Bowmasters. You aim via a curved arrow and set the intensity with your left analogue stick. The courses of Golf Club: Wasteland incorporate future Earth's ruins, so you have to place your shots on platforms, use switches and have to pass mechanics like automatic doors or conveyor belts. Like in Worms you can zoom and scroll the map to plan how to reach the target.
I understand it can be frustrating in some stages, when you miss and have to find your way all over again, especially if it takes a while for the protagonist to catch up. On the other hand, that contributes to the depiction of the environmental condition we are indeed creating today.
Golf Club: Wasteland isn't exactly pointing a finger by sketching out a possible apocalyptic scenario where mankind had to evacuate Earth to live on Mars and only the rich can use our planet's remains to play golf. It's kind of a retro futuristic melancholy, woven into a radio performance that complements the protagonist's longing for home.
The game asks us to put on headphones to fully embrace the isolation accompanied by a brilliant score (downloadable via qr code) and informational talking bits (English with a selection of Subs available).
Then, strolling the ruins of our future, Golf Club: Wasteland tenously confronts us with the now meaningless achievements of mankind, not without the word Weltschmerz being brought up.
Serbian Demagog Studio announce themselves as a transmedia operation and seem to have expanded on this universe now with Highwater and The Cub that I both don't know yet despite from trailers.
Both games seem to incorporate radio stations and especially The Cub looks like a possible puzzle platformer sequel to Golf Club: Wasteland, which I'm highly interested to check out after this somber, almost satirical world building.
Included with Golf Club: Wasteland also comes a set of about 50 art panels further describing the story's background. To me, that's a greater bonus than the diary entries you unlock as achievements and possibly have to replay maps for, when you needed more shots than required. Even those small texts have something to add, but it doesn't motivate me enough to master the courses I struggled with.
The golfing to me is something to keep your fingers occupied in an interactive art performance to immerse yourself in for almost two hours. It's more like the unique moveset for a puzzle platformer and with its expedient graphics Golf Club: Wasteland even unfolds its qualities just like it could be a late successor of Inside. The game won't unleash a wave of post-apocalyptic golf games for sure, but for this instance it works out.
I really appreciate how Demagog create a depth of layers they risk to lose some players with by being too enigmatic with uncommented bits of putative chatter. Golf Club: Wasteland is also depending on what you bring to the experience on both an intellectual and emotional level.
That way it's the sophisticated version of a simple mobile game especially for those being aware how close to the edge we actually are. And then it will probably be narrowed down by the required gallows humor to nihilistically dwell in the future wasteland we could actually try to prevent during that same time.
Golf Club: Wasteland is not just the random post near future apocalypse, it's about a future nostalgia for Earth by people who had to escape the inhospitable environment whose emergence we have to witness with bitter acceptance of the fact we might not be able to turn around.
It feels a lot more tangible due to latest findings, the lockdown situations we just went through, the war and because Golf Club: Wasteland is more based on feelings of desperation in a conceivable refugee scenario rather than a more abstract fictional one with aliens or other external threats. It just leaves the question who of us might even hope to make it to another planet once shit finally hits the fan.
The game itself isn't more complicated than playing Bowmasters. You aim via a curved arrow and set the intensity with your left analogue stick. The courses of Golf Club: Wasteland incorporate future Earth's ruins, so you have to place your shots on platforms, use switches and have to pass mechanics like automatic doors or conveyor belts. Like in Worms you can zoom and scroll the map to plan how to reach the target.
I understand it can be frustrating in some stages, when you miss and have to find your way all over again, especially if it takes a while for the protagonist to catch up. On the other hand, that contributes to the depiction of the environmental condition we are indeed creating today.
Golf Club: Wasteland isn't exactly pointing a finger by sketching out a possible apocalyptic scenario where mankind had to evacuate Earth to live on Mars and only the rich can use our planet's remains to play golf. It's kind of a retro futuristic melancholy, woven into a radio performance that complements the protagonist's longing for home.
The game asks us to put on headphones to fully embrace the isolation accompanied by a brilliant score (downloadable via qr code) and informational talking bits (English with a selection of Subs available).
Then, strolling the ruins of our future, Golf Club: Wasteland tenously confronts us with the now meaningless achievements of mankind, not without the word Weltschmerz being brought up.
Serbian Demagog Studio announce themselves as a transmedia operation and seem to have expanded on this universe now with Highwater and The Cub that I both don't know yet despite from trailers.
Both games seem to incorporate radio stations and especially The Cub looks like a possible puzzle platformer sequel to Golf Club: Wasteland, which I'm highly interested to check out after this somber, almost satirical world building.
Included with Golf Club: Wasteland also comes a set of about 50 art panels further describing the story's background. To me, that's a greater bonus than the diary entries you unlock as achievements and possibly have to replay maps for, when you needed more shots than required. Even those small texts have something to add, but it doesn't motivate me enough to master the courses I struggled with.
The golfing to me is something to keep your fingers occupied in an interactive art performance to immerse yourself in for almost two hours. It's more like the unique moveset for a puzzle platformer and with its expedient graphics Golf Club: Wasteland even unfolds its qualities just like it could be a late successor of Inside. The game won't unleash a wave of post-apocalyptic golf games for sure, but for this instance it works out.
I really appreciate how Demagog create a depth of layers they risk to lose some players with by being too enigmatic with uncommented bits of putative chatter. Golf Club: Wasteland is also depending on what you bring to the experience on both an intellectual and emotional level.
That way it's the sophisticated version of a simple mobile game especially for those being aware how close to the edge we actually are. And then it will probably be narrowed down by the required gallows humor to nihilistically dwell in the future wasteland we could actually try to prevent during that same time.
Golf Club: Wasteland is not just the random post near future apocalypse, it's about a future nostalgia for Earth by people who had to escape the inhospitable environment whose emergence we have to witness with bitter acceptance of the fact we might not be able to turn around.
It feels a lot more tangible due to latest findings, the lockdown situations we just went through, the war and because Golf Club: Wasteland is more based on feelings of desperation in a conceivable refugee scenario rather than a more abstract fictional one with aliens or other external threats. It just leaves the question who of us might even hope to make it to another planet once shit finally hits the fan.
2 Comments
@FallenGrace Have fun! I hope we can expect your review then?
FallenGrace
11 months ago