Let's be honest: the humble golf game has barely changed since programmers first simulated the sport back in the day. Over time, those programmers might have delivered better visuals and taken a few brave stabs at updating those tried-and-trusted core mechanics, but, in essence, it's a genre stuck in a rut. Unfortunately for all, Com2uS's latest free-to-play game GolfStar presents no way out of this metaphorical bunker. That's not to say that GolfStar's a bad game. Rather, it's just a very average, very familiar one.

GolfStar offers a solid mix of structured single-player matches and multiplayer modes (ranging from one-on-one online challenges to massive ten-man real-time competitions). These modes are underpinned by a robust, if resolutely traditional, golfing core, with the classic swing bar taking centre stage. Once you've selected your club and lined up your shot, you start your swing with a tap of the screen. Tap again to set your swing power, then once more to determine the accuracy of your shot. Of course, you do have to consider the lie of the land, too, so you'll have to adjust your swing to take into account the slopes and bloody great water features. It's a well-established formula that, while getting the job done, does highlight the workmanlike approach the dev has taken here.

This 'going through the motions' approach - if you'll pardon the pun - is evident elsewhere in GolfStar. The visuals, for instance, prove adequate, if unspectacular, while the course design is acceptable, if uninspired. Com2uS's lack of ambition here wouldn't be an issue in most cases. After all, the game is enjoyable enough and will occupy a few minutes of downtime here and there. However, it's far harder to ignore the game's conservative core when it's tied to Com2uS's aggressive free-to-play wallet mining. The chance to push an in-app purchase - whether it be a cosmetic avatar upgrade or a more questionable consumable skill that gives you a multiplayer advantage - is simply never missed. The most troublesome penny-pinching mechanic, though, is the arbitrary play limit. Each stage (including tutorial levels, amazingly) costs a few hearts to play. This forces you to buy more should you use up GolfStar's minuscule daily allowance. It's the kind of contrived energy system we've come to expect from the cynically designed free-to-play titles, in truth. The question you need to ask yourself, then, is: do you really want to jump through GolfStar's incessant financial hoops when all you get in return is a competent, though far from exceptional, arcade golfing experience?

Sometimes you can be sold just by looking at a game, and Golf Star„ from Com2uS is one of these occasions. There's an arcade feel to this cross-platform iOS and Android game as users must perform over a series of tutorial holes to begin levelling up, which will eventually unlock additional gameplay modes, mainly focused on multiplayer. Players constantly earn coins for good shots and XP with each round that's completed. This goes towards levelling up, and indeed opening more aspects of the game. It's the visuals that are the real star here and they are very impressive, especially considering this game is free to download. The smoothness and simple control system make for an enticing pick-up-and-play title. It probably won't be taking over your gaming life, but you'll enjoy dipping in and out of it. This is where the multiplayer and one-on-one match modes are handy. The in-app purchases come into play a little earlier than we would like, but this is quite literally a price worth paying considering the level of visual quality you're getting.

I knew from a pretty early age that I wasn't meant to be a golfer. Nothing against the sport or anything: I just seemed to be much better at finding all the sand traps and water hazards than getting holes in one. But now I may have finally found a way to enjoy the game without all of that constant walking around to retrieve my ball, as GolfStar by Com2uS is the closest I'll ever come to playing a real live game of golf right from my living room sofa. GolfStar is currently being touted on the game's iTunes description page as €The most realistic golf game of all time,€ and I might have to wholeheartedly agree with that statement. Simply put, the graphics in this game are absolutely astounding for a mobile release: from character designs and environmental textures, right down to the smooth animations when your ball bounces onto the green. I also appreciated the small attention to detail, like the stands of onlookers observing each game or the housing structures and vehicles that play a part in each dynamic background.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, GolfStar doesn't try to do anything drastically different from the overarching genre of golf games, but that age-old €tap and release€ control scheme that lets you build up the power of your shots works just as well here as anywhere else I've ever seen. The amount of content here that's packed into GolfStar is pretty amazing. You can buy different colored golf balls, tons of fancy and prestigious golfing uniforms for your avatar to wear, and of course, clubs, clubs, and more clubs! The main single-player Career Mode offers a number of challenges spread across several locations in the United States, and over 4 different tournaments based on your character's skill sets: Beginner, Junior, Amateur, and Semi-Professional. Each level also offers a number of bonus objectives for you to complete and gain the most stars, like achieving par in a 3-hole round, or mastering 3 €nice shots€ in a single game. You can also unlock the game's several multiplayer modes like 1-on-1 matches, Friend Invite Match, and 10-Player Match by earning experience points and leveling up your character to different skill tiers; although as you'll see in a minute, given the game's unreliable servers, I'm not sure how much fun these multiplayer bouts would even be if you actually managed to get into a game.

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GolfStar is easily the most polished game of its kind right now, but that's not to say there aren't a number of noticeable kinks that take you right out of the immersive experience. For instance, before setting up most of your shots, you will see these little text-icons pop up on the screen, that indicate which areas are the €Rough€ or the €Green€ so you can plan your shot accordingly. The problem with this is that these icons never go away, even after you've taken the shot, and can severely interrupt your overall perspective. On more than one occasion after hitting my ball onto the green, the camera would zoom in on the €Green€ icon to the point where it covered the entire screen, and I couldn't even see how my ball was rolling beyond it. Why these icons do not automatically disappear as your ball nears them is simply beyond me. What's the point of having hyper-realistic graphics is you're going to completely obscure them on every hole?

At odds with GolfStar€s beautiful graphics and smooth touchscreen golfing gameplay is a clunky and cluttered interface, which is made all the more worse by the game's serious connection issues. In order to even play the game, you need to be connected to the internet on your device at all times. It took me around 30 minutes of exiting and entering the game to try and reconnect with the Com2uS servers before I was finally taken to the character customization screen to get started. The entire time that I was playing, the game would suffer from constant hang-ups, which threw me into jarring loading screens in the middle of matches, or forced me to quit out of the app entirely and try to reconnect again. The game also constantly threatened that if I did not sign up for an account on the Com2uS website, there was no promises that my progress in the tournaments would actually be saved. Granted, it's not as fr