Infamous 18

It's a good thing that they don't pay mod communities that support sports games. Otherwise there would be an outcry of foul in this instance. At first glance, this ominous collection of fantasy course designs would seem to be a one of a kind idea. But having dug into the history of the Jack Nicklaus cyber golf game community and seen dream designs too similar in theme, layout or scope, it comes to the opinion of this critic that the game in question just found a copycat artist, borrowed a good idea and ran with it. And how far or well we shall cover in this review.Infamous 18 is a lot like another wild video golf game featuring exotic or bizarre hole locales called Impossible Golf, which is more of a lighthearted and cartoonish effort that included the same canyon fairways, island greens and larger than life setting environs as this one. But there the similarity ends since this attempt is backed by the world class simulator AboutGolf, which despite the seemingly stolen infamy of this dream course, may well be the best video game engine of all time. So all is not lost with extra courses, Teeth of the Dog & Myrtle Beach, included.Taking a brilliant idea and perfecting it is a hefty undertaking since a lot of its success not only depends on visual implimentation but user friendliness of the controls. And that is where Infamous 18 falls short since in a game where the outlandish difficulty level makes almost every shot like threading a needle with a mouse click, you need special visuals. Unfortunately, while you can edit the camera angles, there's no panoramic selection to set as a repetitive default, leaving you stuck at ground level on a layout meant to be played with a flying machine jet pack.The whole idea of video game golf of an other worldly slope level is to play high up from a 3rd person perspective way above the action in order to better digest the scenery and plan one's attack. Having to reset the camera options to do so after each and every shot is too much of a pain and hassle to merit the novelty of this green monster course as replay value worthy. And yet the saving grace is still the two featured additional add-on courses with which players are brought down to video game earth and reminded what a remarkable game engine AboutGolf still is.Having said that, game play options could have been tweeked to make this course playable. The aiming mechanism is so minimalist imprecise that misplaced shots can fall hundreds of feet into an abyss out of bounds. The click meter never shows mishits, only misdirection. The putting grid contains no line pattern and is just composed of varying shades of majenta which give no depth perception to read green undulation at all. Ambitious potential here is spoiled by controls that don't do game play justice to the box cover design and are only adequate on the normal courses.Delete the Infamous 18 and you still have the added option of purchasing real life cookie cutter designs to make the game honest. If indeed this is a rehash of old golf mod fantasy designs, the ideas of consumers who support gaming via their mod communitites should be recognized not with artistic flattery but rewarded with job offers and monetary compensation. This may well be the second fantasy release inspired by laymen fan designers anonymous in the golf game industry. Hopefully, someday they'll discover some genius fanboy, pay for his ideas and make him famous.