House of Golf 2 Review – Mini-Golf Within Chaotic Courses

Mini-golf can be a lot of fun and excitement for all the family, unless that family is the one that has to tidy up the place after the rounds in House of Golf 2. This Unreal Engine 5-powered sport through over a 100 holes has good intentions, but somehow it fails to deliver on the fun aspect and ends up short of being as entertaining as it could be. It can be interesting with a few friends around or simply to beat some challenges, but that doesn’t make up for a certain feeling of not quite fulfilling its potential.

A Messy House

In the name of amusement and golf, you’ll go through various tournaments where the courses are comprised of anything you may find in a household, from blocks to books, toy ramps, and a lot more. But the course design is bound to make some fans but also some haters, as there are countless opportunities for out of bounds play, and visibility can also become an issue due to the size of some obstacles and barriers – while there are transparency effects at work, sometimes the camera doesn’t work as expected and our view is hidden by a large block, resulting in what is pretty much a blind shot, forcing some unwilling readjustments to the camera angle. Since every shot counts to get the gold, silver, and bronze trophies to unlock further tournaments, this can be frustrating.

On the other hand, we have the option to unlock the camera to fly around and inspect the course, and while a full map could be useful, the occasional verticality would make this a tougher feature to offer in a game that is expected to be simple and easy to grasp.

The default control mode for taking the shots involves pressing the left mouse button and moving the mouse forward and backward to adjust power. It takes some getting used to but works well overall. However, House of Golf 2 is a bit shallow in terms of possibilities, with nothing under your control but the shot strength, not even a spin effect which would be extremely useful to work around some corners and obstacles – you simply aim and select the desired power, and hope for the best. Naturally, timing is important as there are some moving obstacles, and there’s a score feature for air time, bumps, and more, along with a limited number of ball resets per tournament.

Besides trying to finish each course with the always coveted par, birdie or eagle, not to mention the rare hole in one, you can shoot for medals that are scattered around. These allow you to unlock and use new golf balls, most of them quite quirky such as cats and tires, purely cosmetic and without affecting the shots in terms of physics.

Speaking of which, there’s something that doesn’t quite feel right in House of Golf 2. The ball seems to roll the same in every surface apart from the very noticeable puddles here and there, stopping quite abruptly when rolling on wooden floor or carpet all the same. It may be a feeling that the ball is slightly heavier than it should be, but I can’t shake it and this somewhat seems to cut some shots shorter than expected. There’s also very little in the way of interaction with physical items apart from a few blocks, which is underwhelming, as it results in a rigid playground where even a castle of cards is for some reason made out or iron instead of actual playing cards. There isn’t much scope for experimentation within the courses apart from the endless ricochets.

With no online play, a 4-player couch coop option could somewhat encourage some gatherings, but doesn’t feel like a real way to make up for the lack of an online mode.

Fun in Small Packages

House of Golf 2 is a good shot at mini-golf, looking good and playing nicely, but not quite on par with the best of the genre. The courses could do with a little more clarity and it’s quite easy to get our view blocked by a larger object, transparency effects not fully working as they should. The lack of physics at play with the course items is also underwhelming, same going for the way the ball seems to be heavier than it looks, even on different surfaces.

There’s still some enjoyment to be had in this house, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of game you’ll be returning to very often, as some unfortunate frustrations keep it from being a hole-in-one.

Score: 6.5/10

Pros:

• It plays a nice game of mini-golf… sometimes
• Over 100 holes to discover

Cons:

• View gets blocked often during the shot
• Some courses are difficult to grasp
• No spin effect
• Course physics are barely used, and the ball seems to perform the same way in various surfaces
• No online play, only local

House of Golf 2 review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.

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