I played a bit of this last night with my brother. The service is merely OK in my opinion. You're given only two free courses to play with, which feels pretty limited. There are currently 8 pay-to-play courses in addition to the two free ones, which range from a $1 to a $1.50 per greens fee to play a round. You can't just buy a single greens free though, you must purchase a points package in quantities of $10, $20, or $40.
Each player comes with the same base equipment. If you want any upgraded clubs, golf balls, or clothing, you must purchase it with either real-world cash or virtual cash that is earned in-game by golfing. Obviously, the better equipment costs real-world cash, but you can at least upgrade your base equipment just by playing the game. The clothing give you XP and cash modifiers so that you can upgrade your character faster.
Currently, the selection of goods in the shop is pretty damn limited. However, the biggest detractor to this system is that every item in the shop is limited in use, be it purchased with real-world or virtual cash. For example, there is a club in the shop that costs $1.20 in real-world money. You are limited to 15 rounds with that club before it disappears. If you want to use it again, you must purchase it again. It appears that right now, items that are purchasable with real-world money are all limited to 15 rounds. Anything purchased with virtual money are limited to 5 rounds.
They also have a monthly and yearly subscription options, but all these will do is basically take away the greens fees and gives you access to any course at any time. You'll still have to pay extra for anything in the shop. Basically, the system is set up so that if you want the best equipment, you'll have to pay for it. Luckily with golf, you don't necessarily need the best stuff to compete, but I guess it always helps to have the clubs and golf balls that help with power and accuracy.
The game itself is perfectly fine. I'm not a golf expert, far from it, but the gameplay feels fine to me. I like that when you're playing solo on a course, they have markers and ball trails for other people playing on the same hole so you can see how others are doing without them being intrusive. You can turn this off if you don't like it. You're also entered into a general chat room for the particular course you're on with everyone else on that course at that time.
One thing I didn't like is when my brother and I tried to hop into a round so we could play together, I didn't see any option to create a private matchup. You can create your own session, but it simply opens up a public room that anybody can join. Luckily, other players can just view a list of currently forming sessions, so my brother and I coordinated where he just hopped into my room immediately after I created it and I just kept the other slots closed.
I didn't initially see any way to fully customize your golfer, which was disappointing. You basically had 4 faces to choose from and that was it. The clothes you have to buy with virtual money, but those are pretty much just solid colored shirts and stuff. No options for height, weight, facial features, left/right hand, etc. If it's there, I completely overlooked it. You can upgrade your golfer as far as stats are concerned, and it looks like it will take a ton of time on the course earning money to get your golfer anywhere near decent for the longest tees.
Overall, great concept so far, but I don't think I'll partake because of the pricing structure. It seems like at this point that console owners can buy the yearly game and get way more bang for your buck.
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