The course play mode lets players play any of the courses they designed or any of the game's provided courses.  Before each swing, players are informed of the distance to the hole and given the opportunity to select the appropriate club for the shot.  The shot itself is taken using a simple two-click swing, one mouse click sets the swing's power and the second determines the shot's accuracy.  It can be fun to see your course from the ground level, especially if you've surrounded your holes with lots of buildings and course upgrades.  However, the golf itself is pretty basic (align your shot and swing away), and does not provide for nearly as realistic a simulation as the more serious golfing games on the market.

In addition to the play mode, veterans of Golf Resort Tycoon will find a few other new things in the game.  There are now a total of ten different environments in which to create your golf resort.  In addition to the standard tropical and desert type of settings, are imaginative and unusual locales such as Egyptian desert and swamp lands.  There are also a few new structures available for course development.

Golf Resort Tycoon II is a pretty straight-forward tycoon game, but it is hampered by the lack of a full manual.  There is a document included on the game CD which covers some of the gameplay basics, but most of the game is left a mystery.  It is not always clear as to what impact particular structures will have on the resort, and this uncertainty is not necessarily cleared up after the structures are built.  The feedback provided by the various in-game charts does not provide much help either.  Beyond identifying large gaps in providing for the needs of the course's golfers, it is difficult to determine what must be done to increase a course's profitability or rating.

Most players will not have too much trouble eventually bringing their course into the black, or with keeping it profitable.  In fact, the game's biggest challenge is probably mustering the patience to wait until the most expensive structures are affordable.  The higher speed settings alleviate the problem somewhat, but in the game's latter stages players may feel like they are doing a lot of watching and waiting before they can make additional improvements to their course.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 60%.  Players looking for a simple and straight-forward tycoon game will probably be happy with Golf Resort Tycoon II, and will enjoy the added bonus of being able to play the courses they create.  Gamers looking for a more serious economic or golfing simulation may be disappointed in this game.

System Requirements:  Pentium II 266;  32 MB RAM;  4 MB Video RAM; 8x CD-ROM;  500 MB Hard Drive Space;  Mouse.

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