Taylor Bauer
Taylor BauerMLB The Show is one of the most in-depth, captivating sports games on the market. Sony’s San Diego Studio has mastered the art of presenting a realistic baseball sim for years now, but that comes with challenges. Every annual sports franchise battles the need to keep its core player base happy while also making the game accessible to casual newcomers. Plus, the offering needs to be compelling enough to get someone to spend $70 USD every year for what is largely the same experience. So, here’s how MLB The Show 25 delivers for Xbox Series X.
I want to start with the overall impressions of this year’s offering. While I don’t feel like there are massive improvements or changes to MLB The Show 25, I think this is a step up from last year’s game and the overall presentation is much stronger. It’s hard to improve on a series that is so good at what it sets out to do. San Diego Studio added features like Storylines: The Negro Leagues and the presence of Legends on the game roster to keep upping the ante, but this year’s additions feel like they go even further to maximize player experience for MLB The Show.
Top of the headlines for me is the presence of Diamond Dynasty’s two new game modes. The card-collecting experience for MLB The Show has always appealed to me a bit more than its contemporaries in NBA 2K or Madden Ultimate Team simply because the ways in which you play with your collectible roster feel more fun as you grind away for better players. Expanding what this game mode (which undoubtedly drives microtransactions) offers is a very player-friendly move for the game’s biggest driver of in-game purchasing.
Diamond Quest, the first of the two game modes, is a roguelike experience where you navigate a game board with different paths to earn treasure. It might sound silly, and you do have to sit through a lengthy explainer to learn its mechanics, but I’m fully sold on this being a huge win for MLB The Show 25. Playing this alongside the other new Diamond Dynasty mode, Weekend Classic, which is a time-limited multiplayer mode where you climb leaderboards with your squad, are massive improvements on the offerings connected to the game’s card-collecting experience.
In terms of Franchise Mode and March to October (your management-driven experiences), there aren’t major changes here. There are new ways to manage salaries and improved contract logic, but you might not see many changes if you’re putting those things on auto-complete and just playing the game. I do still see Franchise Mode in MLB The Show as my favorite sports sim experience across all of sports video games. Additionally, Road to the Show makes minor improvements to your player’s journey by offering The Amateur Years to deepen your journey to the big leagues.
One area that makes major improvements is the overall broadcast presentation for games. There are now themes to increase immersion in your overall experience. This includes regional broadcast settings for both home and away teams, backsplashes on things like the lineup screens, and a ton of new graphics and design updates that look wonderful. You have the option to choose between Pre-1960s, 1970-89, 1990-99, and 2000-2009 broadcast themes as well, which are so much fun to play with in both Franchise and Exhibition modes.
Adding things like award candidate updates, starter comparisons, and camera angles for home runs or big-time strikeouts really enhances the presentation of MLB The Show 25. It’s also indicative of the overall impact of where San Diego Studio decides to enhance each year’s release. The finer details and new game modes in MLB The Show 25 allow even long-time fans of the series to feel the excitement around something new. While the in-game engine still allows for weird, janky moments on the field, the dev team continues to make each game feel smoother.
One final set of improvements to discuss about MLB The Show 25 is related to the updates that directly improve gameplay. Powered by the game’s ShowTech engine, a set of new ways to approach hitting, fielding, and pitching do improve the experience. Firstly, Ambush Hitting allows you to come into an at-bat with a plan in place. From guessing pitch placement to choosing the timing and pitch type, you can get the upper hand by using strategy. You can also adjust your PCI size by being more specific with pitch predictions at the plate, increasing your risk and reward during an at-bat.
For fielders, you’ll see bars that represent reaction time directly connected to a player’s attributes, indicating their chance of success in making a tough play in the criteria of speed, reaction time, and overall ratings. There is also an improved throw accuracy meter that relies on your ability to hit the regions of the meter perfectly for that precise punch-out throw. Regions of the throw even scale now to your player’s attributes. For pitchers, the big addition is the Sweeper pitch, offering you a new weapon in the arsenal with a horizontal break I honestly can’t stop throwing.
MLB The Show 25 is not the generational game we will necessarily look back on years from now. That said, it improves on everything that makes this series so outstanding, offering new game modes and mechanics improvements to continue raising the bar. I can’t find much to dislike at all, although some minor frustrations with hitting seem to skew the game for pitchers early. Patches will likely balance this out, which leaves me feeling like MLB The Show 25 is an immediate pickup for baseball fans.
An XSX Review Copy of MLB The Show 25 was provided by Sony for this review.
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26 MLB The Show 25
69.99
Pros
- Wonderful improvements to hitting and fielding
- Great new game modes for Diamond Dynasty
- Legends and Negro League storylines keep the history of the game alive and well
Cons
- Some minor balance issues with hitting that will likely get patched out
