First Impressions: GOLFTOPIA Is Amazing

I recently heard about GolfTopia, and I got so pumped. I love SimGolf, and GolfTopia seems to be a spiritual successor. The game is currently available on Steam in Early Access, and MinMax Games were kind enough to give me a copy to check out. In short, if you enjoy SimGolf, you’ll probably love GolfTopia.

At its heart, GolfTopia is a simulation game that lets you create your own golf course. You can even play your golf course as well. However, there are plenty of layers on top. You’ll obviously create a variety of holes with different challenges like water features and sand traps, but you’ll also need to make sure that your players enjoy their time. This means you need to balance the difficulty and variety of your holes as well make things look pretty.

Something to keep in mind with GolfTopia though is that there’s a futuristic layer to everything. The golf balls all glow because the course is a 24/7 operation. However, this also means that you have to provide lights for the course not only so that players can see what’s going on, but also to charge the light in their balls. Of course, you have to manage the maintenance costs of everything you add to your course as well.

Overall, the game has been a blast to play. The tutorial is pretty good and doesn’t overwhelm new players too much. That being said, there are some aspects I wish were explained more. I wish that it would explain a bit more about how to make a decently balanced hole. I have a lot of holes that I thought were going to be pretty easy, but have ended up being really challenging. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. My other complaint is that when I customized my character, the customization pieces were a little underwhelming. However, since the main focus is on building the course and not your character, I guess I can overlook this. I also would’ve appreciated a better explanation of the different terrain manipulation controls.

GolfTopia is a fantastic game so far, and while I think there are definitely some areas that the game can improve (like a better hole designing tutorial), the game is only in Early Access and so there’s plenty of hope that it will be improved as it gets ready for its full launch. If you’ve ever wanted to design a golf course, GolfTopia’s a great option so far.