PGA Tour 2K25: The Final Preview

If you took a Family Feud-style survey of which pro sports simulation video game series people would most want 2K to take a crack at that they’re not already making, a resurrection of NFL 2K would easily be the number-one answer. Heck, pro golf might not even be the second or third answer (hello, MLB and NHL). But the company is nevertheless returning for a third round with PGA Tour 2K25, and after playing for a couple of hours, there’s a lot to like.

In truth, developer HB Studios has been honing its golf game for quite a while now, having made The Golf Club starting a decade ago before signing on with 2K and rebranding to PGA Tour 2K in 2020. The team’s experience and maturity shine through in 2K25, as I had a hard time finding any glaring issues in my hands-on. Is it the best-looking sports game? No. Would it be nice to have more real-life courses? Sure. (2K25 does bring the PGA Championship, US Open, and the Open Championship.) Was the framerate surprisingly choppy on PC when I’d press Y to survey each new hole? Yup. But actually digging into this year’s offering was just fun.

It started with the upgraded EvoSwing mechanic. You have a few different options, and playing with a controller, I preferred the right stick option, in which you pull down to wind up, and press forward to strike the ball and follow through. You can set this to be forgiving, or it can be set to be very much not forgiving with the higher difficulty settings, whereby an errant flick of your thumb in one direction or another might yield a wicked slice or hook. Conversely, there are also lower difficulty settings (Perfect Swing) for those just looking to have a chill, stress-free time, in which 2K25 isn’t as punitive on missed inputs in an effort to try and keep you moving and advancing. Furthermore, you can tap LB to shape your shots, giving you additional control over where the ball will go. HB Studios also says the ball physics have been improved, and I like that you can also move laterally in the tee box to adjust your tee shot if, say, a tree up ahead gets slightly in the way of your preferred drive. It certainly helped that I started by playing as Tiger Woods, this year’s cover athlete, who as we all know is pretty darn good at this sport.

Meanwhile, MyCareer has been given a boost, implementing narrative mechanics we’ve seen in other sports games to reasonably entertaining effect. I got offered a role in a movie with Christopher “Shooter McGavin” McDonald – who, yes, is in the game, albeit not as his famous Happy Gilmore character for obvious licensing reasons – where I could choose to play a hero or villain, and my choice would affect which MyCareer stats got boosted. Gear earned by cashing in your earned VC will also affect your stats, while your skills are also upgradeable by playing and, naturally, winning. The developers have also added Quests, which are broad goals they can refresh weekly or really whenever, such as getting 10 birdies in a row.

As for MyPlayer, I didn’t want to spend my entire demo time trying to recreate a perfect facsimile of myself, but even noodling around with the player creator for a few minutes was enough to get me reasonably close. You’ve got skill trees to dig into now as well, which is a welcome upgrade. Sadly, I didn’t get to try the multiplayer options, which sound like good casual fun including ranked matchmaking and cross-platform Societies (think: groups or clubs). I have fond memories of shooting the breeze with my friends in Links 2004 for the original Xbox, and what PGA Tour 2K25 promises sounds like it might recreate all of that and more. I appreciate that there are also asynchronous multiplayer options if you and your buddies live in wildly different time zones.

PGA Tour 2K25 is admittedly a bit difficult to preview in that it seems to do everything reasonably well without faceplanting in any one single area. It makes it a bit tough to get excited about, admittedly, but it does seem like a solid bet to be worth picking up for golf fans and/or those looking for a low-stress game. Fortunately, you can check it out for yourself without spending a dime, as a playable demo of PGA Tour 2K25 is available as of today.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.