PGA TOUR 2K25 Review (Xbox Series X)

STAFF REVIEW of PGA TOUR 2K25 (Xbox Series X)

Thursday, February 20, 2025.
by Stephen Cameron

Golf gaming has come a long way since the days of Leaderboard Golf. Classics like Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 still hold a special place in many hearts. Ultimately, what makes a golf game great is simply fun. PGA Tour 2K25 aims to deliver that, but does it get the hole in one?

I’ve followed this golf series since HB Studios' The Golf Club (TGC) in 2014. Those early days were rough. The second game didn't improve much, though the course designer had few new features, and it felt like the studio had become complacent. Since 2K acquired HB Studios in 2021, things have changed for the better. The course designer received much-needed updates and the swing mechanics were refined. 2K23 introduced cross-platform multiplayer and societies, which were welcome additions.

Now let’s talk about the current game, PGA Tour 2K25. Right out the wrapper, or digital download, you’ll notice an enormous upgrade in graphics quality compared to its previous offerings. The tree shadows are much softer, the water reflections are less jittery, smoother framerates and smoother menu transitions. Overall things look really good, and quite frankly, it’s about time. This was beautifully displayed in the First Look demo, and a lot of my old TGC friends are coming out of the woodwork for that reason alone. EA’s offering was much better graphically until now.

When you start you’ll create your golfer, and the customization options are incredibly detailed. My wife helped me fine-tune mine to get it as close as possible to what I wanted. Unlike 2K23, 2K25 is only Xbox Series S and X compatible, leaving the previous console generation behind and moving forward.

Familiar archetypes from PGA Tour 2K23 — Powerhouse, Greenskeeper (was greensman?), and Sculptor—make a return and two new ones - Technician and Magician are added. However, the skill system has been completely overhauled. Now, instead of fixed abilities you have an expansive skill tree, allowing you to tailor your golfer’s playstyle to your preference with various shot types such as Tee, Approach, Recovery and much more. On top of that, a new Overall Rating (OVR) system lets you allocate points into key stats like Power, Swing Path, and more, adding another layer of depth to progression. We’ll have to see if all these new shiny features will last the long haul. For what I can discern, you’ll be able to make the ideal golfer that suits your playstyle, though mine is very casual and not very competitive.

In addition, now the clubs and ball level up. For example, you’ve got the starter 2K branded clubs. Spending virtual currency/coins (VC) and upgrade tokens (which you can buy or earn while playing) will allow you to get the best out of them. But, when you get a new driver to replace the old one, you’ll have to level it up all over again. I can see this eating up VC like crazy! But if you have a lot of VC, this will not be a problem, so for the grinders out there, spend your money wisely. In 2K23, you could just swap out the way the clubs look, basically altering the appearance only and not lose your fittings. As you level up you’ll unlock the ability to have additional golf bags. Think of these like loadouts in Call of Duty. Bring different sets of clubs for different game types and playstyles.

Now for the MyCareer mode, the new dynamic rounds, and interactive simulator. Do I like it? I’m not sure yet, sometimes the sim round will make me shoot like crap, and sometimes good. MyCareer will be more of a marathon than a sprint, so I don’t have much to say at this point. The training scenarios and warm up rounds are new, which can give you boosts toward that week’s tournament. Such as XP, attributes etc. More content has also added the interviews, where can talk to the media like an idiot or the nicest guy. It’s up to you. Again, at this point i’m not sure how all this plays out, but it is another nice addition to the career mode.

Let’s talk about the gameplay. The first thing you’ll want to do is head to the tutorials (Training). Why? To discover the new EvoSwing. Especially if you’ve gotten used to the one in 2K23. This new swing mechanic will take getting used to, but I believe it will be embraced by the community. As you take a swing you get instant feedback on your shot so that you correct your bad habits fairly quickly. They’ve also added a new player specific trait that lets you choose if you have a draw or a fade in your shots which is set up when you create your MyPlayer. It’s all tied in. However, you can still revert back to the more novice “Perfect Swing” (Pro Vision stuff) if the new swing mechanic doesn't do it for you. Again, accessibility is the key here. I have numerous friends that just want to whack a ball around, nothing fancy. If it gets more people playing the game, isn’t that the whole idea here?

Since the career mode is where you prove yourself. I headed over to try a simple 2K official course (local match) to have a look around without the career mode stressing me out, just to take things in at a slower pace.

The UI is where I find some issues. Old and new ones. Let’s start with the old ones. Since the original TGC, when you’re playing a course, doesn't matter which one, and you’re loving the course you're playing and you’ve forgotten what the name was, unless you hit start, go to profile menu, then course details. Let’s see it right there on the main gameplay screen while you’re playing, and an ability to favorite or rate it quickly. This is especially important if you’re playing a user created course that the name doesn’t roll off the tongue. And as you get older the memory isn’t as good as it used to be. At least as an option.

As for the new UI issues with the new EvoSwing circle, it’s not that the graphic itself is bad, but its position. I found myself looking at the bottom right corner keeping an eye on that thing instead of the game itself. Furthermore, everything is small, namely the wind indicator. In PGA 2K23, the scaling was good and was at least twice the size. As we get older our vision isn’t like it used to be. Having the ability to increase the UI size/scaling of different UI elements and their on-screen positioning would be nice. We're all getting older here.

This one is more a UX issue. Why are the brand new (and very cool) quests buried? It has the smallest text in the upper left and you have to press start to see them. those belong front and center since it’s a new thing. If you want people to do these everyday, make it more prominent.

The PGA superstore is basically the old Proshop, not a whole lot to discover here other than new clothing and bundles.

The Clubhouse Pass, free and premium versions, are back, where you can buy and/or unlock more stuff throughout the seasons and as you level up. But there are also Clubhouse Pass skills now, which scares me a bit. Hopefully it doesn't become a pay-to-win game. This is a delicate line to tread. However, a new option is you can go back to a previous season and grind out the XP and grab the goodies from that season as well, a nice addition.

There will be 45 courses at launch. I was able to play through some of them in a non-career environment, and they are very well done.

TopGolf is back but it’s more of the same from 2K23. I’m not sure what else was added there, as it looked the exact same to me other than the new graphics and player models.

The commentary... It’s been the same guy (John McCarthy) since the first TGC game ten years ago, I’m not saying to fire the guy, but maybe change things up a bit, maybe have the other career announcers do commentary during local gameplay or multiplayer sessions? Maybe a female voice?

User-created courses, not the designer. Just finding the non-2K courses run into its UI/UX problem. They’ve managed to make it harder to find a course by shrinking the 'more filters' into a tiny button in the bottom right when you are wanting to play a user created course. I’ve had friends that didn’t even know there were thousands more courses in 2K23. In 2K25 seems to be the same issue, with already smaller UI elements, it feels like they don’t want players to find these user created courses, which is strange. Once I found it, now the game finally has the ability to see the creators' other courses, only once you’ve searched or stumbled across one of their courses. But there's a large lack of an ability to 'follow' a designer or search for one.

Additionally, it would be nice to receive a notification to let you know “Hey [creator name here] released a new course”. HB Studios, please make your free talented course designers your superstars, or at least the potential to be one! These guys keep your game alive beyond the six to twelve month mark. Empower them and the people that want to follow them. They will be loyal to your game from here on out. If that means more servers or bandwidth, you should do it.

Now my favorite part of this series of games, the course designer. For me it has always been a great creative outlet and escape to build new courses that people may or may not like. Let me preface that I’ve created five courses in the original The Golf Club from 2014 and was able to convert/import them into and up to every single incarnation, all the way up to PGA Tour 2K23, that in itself is pretty cool. However all my courses were all created on the PC version of the game. On the console I only made one course, “Linklater Golf Club”, it’s a quick and dirty nine hole course, but I was able to port it to 2K25 and test out some new features! All the way from the first TGC game. Crazy! On the PC version, I spend most of my time in the course designer. And I believe that it is the heart and soul of this series. There are always new courses being built by talented, passionate creators, and courses for the non-designers to play, so you really never run out of content without paying for DLC. And since the beginning, these courses are playable on all platforms.

What is new in the designer? Finally we have spline fill. What does this mean? You can make a closed loop with a spline and fill it with any of the 'nature' objects such as trees, grass etc. Gone are the days of planting one chunk of grass at a time. You can increase the number of trees, but not randomize the height. However, I didn’t see a way to 'break apart' those created like with the multi-object method. Please add a way to do this so then we can tweak those objects even further. Additionally, they’ve added the ability to paint the terrain. You want to paint bedrock, go ahead. The other new feature is whether the grass basically makes green grass yellow-er. Bunker shaping options have also been added where you can adjust the lip height and more.

Currently I have 13 courses that were built on my Steam account version of 2K23. Will those convert over without any issues? I think the issues will be very low, as 2K/HB has I think perfected the import process throughout their games. However, seeing the new added tools in the new designer, a straight import and publish might not be the best thing to do. I know personally, I’ll be adding weathering to my courses, and redoing treelines with the new splines. You can also copy/duplicate those splines or groups of grass or trees, which will save everyone time.

Is PGA Tour 2K25 worth buying? Yes. The developers are constantly improving the game and making it more accessible. The graphics are finally next-gen. The EvoSwing system may take time to adjust to, but it adds a new dimension to the gameplay. However, the more casual players will probably wait for the game to go on sale.

**PGA Tour 2K25 Legend Edition was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Suggestions:
Wishlist:

A way to turn off the commentary only on casual multiplayer matches, in the career it’s fine there. John McCarthy needs to take a rest.

The ability to play a 9 hole course like a 18 hole course, via different tees and pins on the second go around.

An easy way to capture action video footage of players in multiplayer while playing a course, like a free-cam.

A better way for course creators to manage their own designs, such as the ability to remove a course that they’ve published. Maybe a way for friends to help us test or under a certain amount of plays. Or a version tree, in case we missed something, and when you come to load the course it would load the latest version no matter the platform.

Overall: 8.3 / 10
Gameplay: 8.8 / 10
Visuals: 9.5 / 10
Sound: 8.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of PGA TOUR 2K25 (Xbox Series X)

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