Full review of the superb Walkabout Mini Golf from Mighty Coconut on PSVR2! Covering the Whole-In-One bundle which includes all additional DLC to date.
Walkabout Mini Golf from Mighty Coconut is a well-established title on other headsets which has now made its way to PSVR2, but does it end up being a hole-in-one or a double bogey? Let’s find out.
First up thanks to the developer for providing me with a review key for the game but as always the opinions presented here are entirely my own.
Walkabout was one of a handful of Quest titles that I was always a little envious of, the others being Puzzling Places and Demeo. With Puzzling Places having been released on the original PSVR and more recently the PSVR2, and Demeo being a PSVR2 launch title, it seemed like Walkabout was destined to remain the only one out of reach. As a result I was massively hyped when they announced it would be coming to PSVR2 and the day is finally here so, can my headset envy finally be put to rest? Well, the answer is a resounding yes. In short, Walkabout is a great port and a fantastic package.
So what’s it all about? Well there’s no real story as such, aside from the little intro text for each course on the selection menu. This is mini golf after all, we’re not here for the backstory. I’m not going to explain mini golf in detail as hopefully you get the gist of hitting balls with sticks to try and get them into holes as quickly as possible.
The game’s very easy to get into, with some basic tutorials and a practice green and driving range accessible from the main hub island, which you’re free to walk around and explore at your leisure. Once you’re ready you choose your course from a selection in the golf shack, where you can also modify settings, customise your avatar and pick a ball and putter.
As standard the base game comes with 8 courses. Each of those courses consists of 18 holes which you can either play in full, or for a quicker round you can opt to play just the front 9 or back 9. Each course is also uniquely themed, ranging from zen gardens to windy cliff-tops and spooky castles to outer space and there’s a lot of creativity on display when it comes to the layouts of each hole.
The developer regularly releases DLC courses to expand the game and at the time of the PSVR2 launch 10 of these are already available. They can be purchased separately but there’s also a Whole-in-One bundle consisting of the base game and all currently available DLC. This is an absolute bargain as it works out at less than a couple of pounds for each course and I wholeheartedly recommend you go for the bundle from day one if you decide to pick up the game. The DLC courses include a tie-in with the 80s film Labyrinth, one based on the original Myst game, and a whole range of adventure themed courses which are often even more intricate and involved than the base courses.
The game feels great to play and provides a solid and believable physics model, so the ball generally behaves as you’d expect it to. But playing golf isn’t the only thing you’ll be doing. Each course also contains hidden balls, one to be found near each hole, which once discovered get added to your collection for you to use in the game. By finding a certain amount of missing balls on a course, or by finishing it under par, you’ll unlock a Night Mode version of the course. This mode is harder than the regular mode and often includes cosmetic and layout variations for each hole. As if that wasn’t enough you can also pursue treasure hunts following a series of cryptic clues on each course to unlock unique putters, which again will be added to your collection to be used in the game.
As with the main hub island, you’re free to roam around each course as much as you like. This makes it super easy to explore each hole from all angles to prepare your next shot and also helps with hunting for lost balls and secrets. If you wander too far there’s always a small arrow to help guide you back to the current hole, or even simpler you can just click the trigger button to instantly teleport back to your ball. It’s even possible to leap up into the air and fly around for a birds-eye view of things, or to get to places quicker.
At this point I haven’t even mentioned Walkabout’s other big selling point, and that’s the multiplayer. The game is entirely playable and enjoyable as a single-player experience but also includes multiplayer options for 1v1 quick matches with a random other person, or private matches with up to 8 players, where you can invite people based on sharing a simple room code. It’s cross-platform so will benefit from the huge existing audience on other headsets and finding a match should never be a problem. If you’re struggling to fill out your own private match then there’s an active community out there and you can check out the Discord server for regular room codes to join a match with others. In multiplayer matches you’ll see other players’ avatars floating about with some funny lip-synching for voice chat and you can enjoy a civilised round or alternatively try and distract your opponents whenever possible, or even just run off to search for lost balls in between taking your shots. It’s actually a great social platform and a good way to relax and catch up with friends, or enjoy a few rounds with strangers (otherwise known as friends you haven’t met yet).
Graphics go for a colourful, low-poly style, so you won’t be blown away if you’re looking for the latest in photo realism, but they have a lot of charm and do the job well with each course having its own distinct look. I was particularly impressed with some courses like the Labyrinth DLC, where the characters and settings are beautifully recreated and instantly recognisable even given the low poly count.
Speaking of the Labyrinth DLC, if you’re of a certain age like me and have fond memories of that film then I can’t quite express how cool it is to wander around that course spotting all the familiar scenes and shouting out the characters’ names every time you turn a corner and see them. The same goes for the Myst DLC. It’s basically a full representation of the entire island from the first game adapted into a mini golf course. Having played the original pre-rendered Myst back in the day it’s kind of mindblowing to now be experiencing it here in all its low-poly VR glory inside another game. It even includes some light puzzle solving and interactions but in the spirit of no spoilers I’ll let you discover that for yourselves. And yes, I know there’s a proper VR version of Myst, but I can’t knock balls around with a stick on that one, can I?
One very minor complaint with the visuals is that although it looks sharp there does appear to be some slight ghosting, which suggests either the game is running at 60fps with reprojection or exhibiting some persistence blur. It’s not a huge issue and is only really noticeable if you’re looking for it, for example if you focus on a palm tree against the blue sky and move your head from side to side. If it’s caused by reprojection then potentially the devs could switch to a native framerate to improve this but perhaps that’s something they already tried and decided this was the best compromise. If it’s persistence blur then you might find it’s improved by turning down the brightness in your headset.
Audio consists of a nice range of ambient sounds and the usual plinks and plonks you might expect from a golf game, with encouraging cheers from an invisible audience whenever you send the ball to its home on or under par. Each course also has its own themed background music drifting in and out of earshot which adds atmosphere and gives you something to listen to without being too distracting.
Controls are straightforward as you only need to use a single Sense controller (once the game is loaded the second Sense controller can be turned off by holding the PS button for 10 seconds). There are loads of options for controller configuration, comfort settings, physics and so on. Teleportation, smooth locomotion, click turning and smooth turning are all supported. The game can be played seated or standing but there doesn’t seem to be any way of manually adjusting your height. As far as I can tell you need to have set your play style and boundary and be seated or standing before starting the game so that it can then auto-adjust your height based on your position. Regardless of your height the putters cleverly retract and extend automatically to make sure you can comfortably reach the ground and make contact with the ball. Controls are very responsive and feel great with some subtle haptics. My only gripe with the controls is more down to a limitation of the hardware. When you’re taking a shot it’s natural to try and hold your putter with both hands and as you’re only using a single Sense controller the temptation is to place your off-hand on the ring of the controller. Unfortunately doing this means you cover up the tracking sensors and the game loses hand-tracking, causing the putter to freeze. It’s quickly remedied by removing your hand from the controller and can be avoided by learning to put your off-hand elsewhere, like holding your wrist instead. To be fair this issue is actually covered in the developer’s FAQs for the game for other platforms so it’s not unique to PSVR2.
For the trophy hunters there are around 20 trophies, including a platinum, available for achieving various goals based mainly around completing a certain number of courses or finishing holes in a certain number of shots.
I really can’t come up with many negatives aside from the previously mentioned graphical ghosting and controller issue. If anything, the only other thing I didn’t much care for is the menu font, as it looks a little too close to Comic Sans for my liking! And quite frankly if that’s the only complaint I’ve got then you know this game has impressed me.
Personally I’m ranking this as an absolute must-have title for PSVR2. Unless you just really dislike mini golf I suggest you go snap this up right now and get putting. Go for the Whole-in-One bundle and you’re not only getting insane value for money but you’ll also have a superbly enjoyable mini golf game with hours upon hours of gameplay and replayability.
