Shot Online Review

Pros:

• Addictive game play and detailed online community.
• Engaging level advancement and skill progression of characters.
• Plenty of equipment upgrades and online tournaments to participate in.

Cons:

• Game Interface not always intuitive.
• Average graphics.

Overview & Game play

Shot Online The Field and More is the first massively multiplayer role playing golf game released for the PC. This virtual online world created by SyNet Entertainment not only lets you play a round of golf, it also lets you shop in the club's pro shop, talk with fellow golfers, enter golf tournaments and more.

The game opens as many MMO games do, with character creation. You begin by selecting one of five player types, each player type begins with varying ability levels. After you've selected your player type you'll select colors of shirt, pants, shoes and more.

For the most part the starting player types are not very different from one another, one may be stronger in a certain area but overall they are fairly even in abilities. Shot Online characters have four ability attributes; Power, Impact, Skill and Stamina. As you play and gain experience you'll have the opportunity to increase these abilities and become a better golfer.

After you have created a character you are sent to the Director's office where you are given a brief introduction and then given the option to take the tutorial or go straight to the course/club. For first timers it's a good idea to start with the tutorial. The tutorial is where you're able to practice putting and driving, and can play 3 holes of golf before venturing into matches with other players.

While this may sound simple enough, getting a good shot is not solely based on how well you can time your mouse clicks. Swings also take your character's ability scores are taken into account, at the start of your characters golf life the scores are pretty low so don't expect to boom 250+ yd drives. One of the best aspects of Shot Online is character progression. Earning experience is done through playing golf, eagles, birdies and even good play of fellow golfers will help you earn experience.

This experience is then in turn used to increase your ability scores and start you on your way to becoming a better online golfer. Aside from increasing your ability scores, players can increase their character's abilities by spending cash on new equipment. Cash is awarded for completing certain in game tasks and can be used towards equipment that can help improve your play such as clothing, clubs, golf balls and more.

There are two versions of Shot Online a free version which has only limited functionality and a retail version. This review was conducted on the retail version which lists for $29.99 and includes $20 of "in-game" cash for you to spend on upgrades, equipment or whatever you see fit.

Graphics & Interface

There are a total of nine course in Shot Online, some are actual real-world courses while others are clearly virtual created "fantasy" courses with floating greens and other interesting landscapes. The graphics for Shot Online are good, nothing outstanding but not terrible either. The textured graphics of the golf courses is nicely rendered, but the character modeling isn't up to par with may other MMO games. With that said however, the look of your character isn't really an important part of the game play.

The game interface is not always intuitive and can be downright confusing and buggy at times. Character creation is not as straight forwards as it could be and conversation text does not always scroll up when a new line of text is displayed. Instead the text overlaps the previous line making the text completely illegible.