I tend to picture golf in the great outdoors, poised with a club in hand, ready to take the shot out on the green. Alas, I find myself in a dungeon, as an undead influencer named Jimmy Fibula wielding my very own leg, ready to tee off. This isn’t just golf…this is ‘Dungeon Golf’, a game, nay, championship brought to us by Ant Workshop Ltd, currently running in early access.

It appears I’ve found myself in a golfing tournament of fantastical proportions hosted by a strange amphibious lady and a gruff minotaur. Everything is eccentric, colourful and cartoonish fitting nicely into the magical, game show vibe. If you love those media coverages of sports with the ultra cheesy, upbeat music coupled with a play-by-play commentary, the Dungeon Golf broadcasters have that box ticked.

Players can choose from a quirky cast of eight golfers, including a lute-wielding frog-bard and a buff barbarian, suitably named Astrid Yeetbollur. Golfers have unique abilities to cater for any type of player, whether it be throwing knives to destabilise opponents or quantum-swapping positions to get the upper hand. There isn’t a weak member in the cast, each is entertaining, endearing and bizarre in the best ways.

The campaign is the ‘Championship’, at the time of playing, is a series of five maps with several stages each ranging from the conventional dungeon depths to an Aztec temple. With obstacles ranging from enemies to explosives all hell-bent on throwing off your game, each stage presents distinct challenges to face. Dungeon Golf takes a leisurely activity and ups the ante to a sport that tends to have significantly less chaotic gameplay.

The monster mash-up of enemies and obstacles makes an otherwise plain activity a lot more eventful, though not always in the best of ways.

The campaign element is pretty stock standard – complete each stage to progress to the next course. The actual completion of stages is much easier said than done. Each has a specific goal, from a straightforward golf run in as little shots as possible to time trials, but once enemies and chests become a point of advancement, the rounds begin to drag. Some levels have prerequisites, to hit all enemies or chests before being able to complete the course.

Hitting enemies removes a point and chests restore mana for abilities to keep the putt points low, which I’m led to believe is how golf is won. However, enemies can hit back, penalising with every whack, too many attempts to line up a decent shot at a target wreaks havoc on the overall score. Navigating already convoluted course layouts infested with enemies and obstacles is more frustrating than satisfying on most occasions.

It’s dangerous to go alone, but a lot more dangerous playing with friends, up to 3 friends in fact, in online multiplayer. If you have a friend within your general vicinity, couch co-op. I was keen to take on some of the MKAU crew in the dangerous depths of the golfing grounds, but we ran into some barriers. We had chosen our characters and our sponsorship perks, readied up and…that was as far as we could get. Luckily, Ant Workshop Ltd has been cranking through hotfixes to address connectivity issues and bugs.

For those who want to battle it out but don’t have golfing buddies handy, fret not, competitive modes can be played against CPU characters and most of the time, the CPUs put up a good fight and the whole tournament runs without a hitch.

Controllers are the best way to play, using the joysticks serves the game much better than a keyboard and mouse. PC inputs tended to be finicky and using the mouse for lining up and powering up shots felt like it impacted my overall skill. I felt I had the game mastered on a controller in comparison, being able to swiftly whack the ball with more accuracy than fidgeting around trying to get the angles right with a mouse. Regardless of control preference, if a golf ball gets caught in a corner or in a pile of gold, vision and movement are obscured to the point of wasting a turn to get back in the zone. As we know, every putt matters. The overall performance of the game was decent, loading times and animations ran slow on occasion, and when loading multiplayer sessions, but most of the time I was teeing off with minimal issues.

Dungeon Golf is a light-hearted jaunt fit for casual gamers, those who like a spot of virtual golf or a spot of friendly competition with friends. The campaign and game modes are limited at the moment but the devs are prepping for “More Dungeon! More Golf!” during their early-access roadmap. The adventure to the ultimate dungeon golf crawl is looking promising and I’m hoping to delve deeper as the development journey continues.

Written by: Yasmin Noble