Barton Lynch Pro Surfing Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · Published November 23, 2023 · Updated November 21, 2023

For this Barton Lynch Pro Surfing Review, we play a sports game that pits you against the world’s best surfers at the most exotic locations on the planet. The expansive world tour features an in-depth leaderboard and sports commentary, or if you prefer to free surf, just cruise the massive locations instead.

Barton Lynch Pro Surfing Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
13.19GB download size.
Platinum trophy.
Surfing gameplay.
Opening surfer choice – pro (existing pro surfer) or custom (create everything, level up, etc).
Character creator – male/female models, two presets per gender. Personal details (first name/surname/dob/preferred stance/nationality), body size, face and skin detail, head, jaw and cheek detail, eye detail, nose detail, and hair.
One of the most in-depth character creators.
Wetsuits come in 1 or 2-piece variants which affect stats.
You can get audio help at any time in the menus.
You earn/buy and unlock new wetsuits, wetsuit materials, and surfboards, get new sponsors, and hire services like doctors.
Two difficulties – Easy and hard.
Full music playlist and you can turn on and off your favourite tracks.
Three camera views (far/near/mid) for surfing, using your water vehicle, and cart camera.
Invert axis option.
The display can be tweaked with settings – score, tips, wave direction, wave arrow, and combo timer.
The game is going more for Simulator than arcade gameplay.
Optional tutorial area.
Full online leaderboards support with filters.
Single-player has 3 modes – world tour (story), challenges, and free surf.
Challenges – single session, air challenge, shark attack, and big wave.
World Tour has you taking part in round-based scoring competitions, unlocking new areas, and performing well enough to get new sponsors which leads to new equipment.
This very in-depth tutorial is split into sections so you can pick and choose.
The game uses a lot of the surfing rules from how and where you do moves, to how to pump, stall, and duck. And of course, it tries its best to teach you how to read waves and their actions.
12 real-life locations with some requiring to be unlocked.
Full replay system so you can watch back rounds and events.
In free surf, you can change the settings – wind type, tide type, time of day, wind speed, wave height, weather, temperature, and spawn location.
In the menu, you can change the song.
Equipment like your board can get damaged and needs to be repaired.
You can walk around the shoreline in 3rd person.
Full combo counter.
You can do all elements of surfing from jumps and grabs to spins and riding in the tube.
When you manage to get a flow going the controls are responsive and tight, especially with pulling off moves.

Barton Lynch Pro Surfing Review Cons:

Some of the created or preset character model faces are horrifying.
The loading character can take a while.
So much to take in.
The tutorial just keeps bombarding you with text and it feels like information overload.
It takes a long time to get used to the movement and controls.
Being more sim than arcade can make the game less accessible from the start.
Slight performance hitches.
Movement is for me the weakest part as it kinda feels like you are trying to get on a fine line to initiate and hit the wave properly and even when on it you touch movement and it clicks off and goes off.
No multiplayer in any way.
It’s the barrier to entry that is my biggest issue, the game doesn’t really ease you in it’s more read this this and this then bam off you go make money be good.

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