Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 – PSP – Review

Long time readers of GameZone and
of golf reviews in general, will note that of all the sports games out there,
I will play none of them unless it is a golf game. Again, because I would
rather play the sport in real life, with the exception of golf because, its
too costly, too long and I stink at it. But give me a video game version of
golf and now we have a decent chance of me wasting hours on end trying to
master it. Now, that being said, I have played some stinker golf games in the
past, but for some reason, I hold the Hot Shots series in the highest regard
(even more so then the Tiger Woods series) for its addictive gameplay, fun
style and seemingly unlimited items to unlock.

Now, to understand what makes the
Hot Shots games so much fun, is a combination of different things. First, the
golf mechanics have essentially remained the same throughout the series with
minor tweaking here and there, but the upbeat and enjoyably simple gameplay is
still there. Line up the shot, and using a zoom camera, you can get a good
idea of where the ball should go. Play the wind and the weather and then hit
the "X" button to begin the power gauge of the swing, hit the "X" button on
the downside of the same gauge to hit for accuracy. If everything comes
together then you will have a fine shot, mess up and it’s water city, fella.

"Dude, you can’t act like that on the
course, save it for the raquetball game later."

So you pop the game in and get
another one of those pesky firmware updates (update 3.96 to be exact) – if not
in this game then somewhere else. The updates are a simple fact of life if you
game and like others, it can take a few minutes. So at this point, get
yourself a cold drink, e-mail your Mom and let the dog out to go to the
bathroom because once you are a go, you won’t want to stop for quite a while.
Hot Shots is set up for you to select from one of two initial characters, the
young man or the young woman. From there, you can enter into the single-player
competition where you play against other CPU characters in either a tournament
style "9" hole course or against a single player in match play, where you see
if you can outplay an opponent in 9 holes or win three holes to secure the
win. Doing these competitions allows you to do several things. One being you
begin unlocking items – some items aren’t that flashy, like hair styles or
wardrobe accessories. But other items may be better golf balls or clubs.
Beating a player enough times will allow them to be selectable in the game.
Additionally, playing as the same character also increases your loyalty to
that character and you will begin to level up the more you play as that
character, this will increase the characters innate abilities.

While I wouldn’t say the game has
all sorts of big, new features, I will say there is one that I found to be
quite entertaining. That being the scavenger hunt, which is pretty cool. It
works like this, as you play the courses, you can use the flight camera to get
a good lay of the land. Well, while you are doing that, sometimes a bush or a
tree with sparkle momentarily, if you zoom in on that item, then you can find
hidden things around the courses. While cheesy, it still provides some
additional fun because the Hot Shots games are all about finding and
collecting items. I don’t know why its fun, but it is and the addictive
gameplay that surrounds it provides an almost addictive gaming experience.

"How come when I play golf, there is no
bullseye?"

The visuals of Open Tee 2 are
exactly what you expect if you have played a game of this nature before. The
characters are all wonderfully colored with bright smooth textures and pretty
clean lines; oh, and of course their oversized heads, is a staple in the
series. Interestingly, after the completion of each event, there is some
filmed footage of some sort of nature scene like a bee in a flower or some
other like footage. It is kind of out of place, but each new version of the
game gets better as do the basic graphics. Slight improvements in an already
well produced title is nice to see, and I am glad Clap Hands (the studio that
made the game) tries to up the ante with each new iteration. In my mind the
previous games were all highly enjoyable and near perfect, but to add little
tweaks that don’t diminish from the game is a feat unto itself.

Now for the first time you can go
online and play against others the way the Internet had intended. Getting a
game going isn’t that difficult as I would have thought and there are people
playing right now as the series is popular. The thing to note though is how
steady the connection can be, a couple of times I found longer load times and
some dead spots while playing – nothing to be real upset about, but you should
know. I think as time goes on, the online capabilities will be tweaked and
streamlined.

The game’s sound is a light, wispy
almost-subtle sound selection. The caddy’s that are available have several
canned phrases that can sometimes be humorous and while playing against
others, you can use the hackling phrases to shake your opponent. This is a
good time to use the well-worn phrase "less is more." The game simply does not
need a lot of sound to be enjoyable and the developers learned this long ago.

Gameplay: 8.7
You can charge up your ball, curve it around trees, chip in from the
bunker and do all sorts of other things you could never do in real life. For
me, I don’t play a game for a few minutes; when I play, I end up going for a
couple of hours. I like this game.

Graphics: 8.5
Another success in the Hot Shots
franchise. Yes, I know the game isn’t much more improved over the last one,
but the folks at Clap Hands clearly love what they do and try and one-up
themselves as the games come out.

Sound: 8.0
The game doesn’t need a lot of
music and sound effects to make things hum, subtlety is a strength here and I
appreciate the effort the developers exercised in restraint.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
The game starts out easy enough,
but as any veteran of the series will tell you, the courses and the
competition get insanely hard, throw in some really rough weather and you can
be up to your eyeballs in trouble.

Concept: 8.0
Adding the scavenger hunt to the
game is a neat addition to a really well-developed game.

Multiplayer: 8.5
Playing online or ad-hoc is an
enjoyable experience.

Overall: 8.5
I love this game, and I would like
to thank the developers for providing me with countless hours of gaming
goodness.