Among other games, publisher Gameloft has a couple great iOS golf games, Let's Golf! and Let's Golf! 2. Currently, both sell for $4.99 each. Imagine my surprise last night when I learned that Let's Golf! 3 was out, and it was free! I assumed it was a limited time deal to gain exposure and did the massive 700+ MB download to try it out. I was wrong.
One of the first things I noticed when checking things out inside the game was that it was "free" because it's one of those "spend your REAL money for things in the game" apps, more commonly known as "Freemium" apps. Not that those are bad things, necessarily. I've been enjoying Tiny Tower, in which you also can spend real money for more "Tiny Bux" that you can use to speed up things like construction and restocking stores. But you can earn Tiny Bux easily enough in-game by simply playing it so you don't feel any pressure to buy them, unless you're the really impatient type.
But that's not the problem with this game.
I wanted to play a few holes to try it out. I did pathetic on the first hole. But, the game would not even let me go on to the next hole. Because I did not get par, I had to redo the hole. This is the first golf game I've ever played that forces you to get par to proceed. After another try I got par and "unlocked" the second hole. Which I promptly failed at.
And if that sounds like a lousy way for someone to cripple a golf game, you're right. But that's not the worst part.
After failing hole 2 a couple more times, I went to once again click the Retry button. Only to be told, "You need 1 energy point. Do you want to buy some now?" and best as I can tell, the only way to get more of these "energy points" is to buy them using real money, or wait. The timer in the corner indicated I would get another one in a few minutes so I switched apps to read some articles instead. After a while I came back, saw I had one Energy Point, and replayed the hole.
This time, I got par so I was allowed to proceed to hole 3. Or so I thought. Trying to advance to the next hole game me that same "You need 1 energy point" message, and I would have to wait almost an hour for one to regenerate. Apparently they automatically regenerate at a rate of one an hour, and it costs one point to play a hole. So, assuming my play skill improves and I can pass each hole on the first try, it will take me another 16 hours to complete this 18-hole course. And it's the same thing in the multiplayer modes too. Want to play a game with a friend? Better be ready to buy energy points if you want to finish your game.
Seriously, what were they thinking? In order for someone to play a few full courses without taking a couple days per course, they would have had to spend more money than it would have cost to just go ahead and buy Let's Golf! 2 which is a full, normal game, and doesn't have any of this junk loaded in it.
It probably goes without saying that this game, if it's even worthy of being called that, has been deleted from my iPad.
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