Baseball’s video game is back and better than ever.
When it comes to sports video games MLB The Show has become the gold-standard. Feature-rich, compelling gameplay, and year-over-year improvements make the title stand out every year, proving that the staff working on it truly cares about making the experience better.
MLB The Show 25 marks the 20th anniversary since the series first launched in 2005, and this year’s game serves as the love letter to baseball it’s always been, but it’s also a massive ‘thank you’ to fans who have been playing the game for the last two decades. The Show 25 takes all the elements fans have loved in recent years, removed pain points, and left us with a complete package that sports fans wish they had when it comes to NFL, NBA, or NHL games.
Peerless presentation
One of the biggest overhauls to MLB The Show 25 comes from the hundreds of new animations which have been added to the game. Players react far more naturally to the ball, especially when fielding — where the improvements are most notable. There quite literally dozens of different ways players adapt to different fielding situations, which consistently makes the game feel more like a TV broadcast.
In my time with the game I’ve seen no fewer than 10 different ways a player has adjusted to a deep hit coming off the wall. Whether it’s standing by the warning track to take the hop, careen into the wall to grab the ball as quickly as possible, or even bare-hand a bounce to fire it into second, these unique animations make the game more immersive.
Ambush hitting is a game changer
One of the big new batting features in MLB The Show 25 is a “ambush batting,” which is a wholly bizarre name I have to assume they settled on because nothing else really fit. Essentially the new system is about using your knowledge of pitcher tendencies and paying attention to how the pitcher has been throwing to guess the location of the pitch before it’s thrown.
When you lock in an area of the strike zone your hitting area shrinks, and you’re given massive bonuses to a pitch thrown inside the zone if you guessed right. Conversely, if you thought a ball was going to inside, but the pitcher painted the plate then you suffer a massive decrease in your ability to register a hit.
In my experience the downside of guessing wrong is far more damaging than the impact in getting it right, but this does allow a risk-reward system to be implemented in critical game moments when you need to drive in a run or get a critical hit with a mediocre hitter to get someone else up at bat.
Road to the Show is improved, but still needs more
The big addition to this year’s Road to the Show has you taking a player from high school, to the MLB Combine, the draft, and then settle on whether to go through the minors or head to college to improve your draft stock.
This mode starts being really intriguing. Making it into the first or second round out of high school is incredibly difficult, and hinges on your ability to perform in high school and nail the combine. In my play through I received a 5th round grade initially, before being recruited to play for Tennessee, where I improved my stock to the second round.
MLB The Show 25 does a very good job simulating the slog it takes for a player to climb the ladder and finally make it to the bigs. This is also a double-edged sword when you’ve been playing dozens of games in AA with seemingly no end in sight, not great feedback on how or when you’ll ever move up, and consistently guessing whether you’re just terrible, or something behind the scenes is holding you up.
This is my biggest gripe with Road to the Show. As it stands I’ve played 102 games in AA. I lead my team with a .324 batting average, 143 hits, 54 RBIs, and an OPS of .857. Commentary routinely mentions that I’m the No. 1 prospect in the Diamondbacks organization (who drafted me), and the No. 3 outfield prospect in all of baseball.
Before my last game the manager called for a meeting saying I need to “step it up,” and that I’m not “playing to my potential.” It was a bizarre disconnect with how I was playing on field, and leads me to believe that being called up has nothing to do with player skill, and is instead gatekept by overall rating (I’m only 68 OVR).
Perhaps things will move when I reach 70 overall, which feels like a milestone — but it’s still a shame to not get any real feedback on how to move up. This is compounded by a lack of off-field interactions with teammates or management, which has led to the mode feeling rather monotonous. Nevertheless I’ll continue on.
Storylines keeps being incredible
MLB The Show’s love letter to baseball continues with three new athletes being featured in their ode to the Negro Leagues. As this mode is continually iterated on it’s only natural that we get to some deeper cuts, and that’s one of the things I love the most.
Everyone had a passing knowledge of Satchel Paige when he was one of the first athletes in Storylines two years ago. In MLB The Show 25 we have the legendary baserunner James “Cool Papa” Bell, and a story about how Jesse Owens was afraid to race him, Wilbur “Bullet” Rogan, the Negro Leagues’ two-way equivalent of Shoehei Ohtani, and Norman “Turkey” Stearnes, a legendary hitter who was recognized by his peers far more than getting the fame he deserved.
There’s nothing more to say about this mode. It’s perfect, and continues to be perfect.
A must-play game for even casual baseball fans
I’m not going to pretend I’m great at MLB The Show. I’ve learned I have the patience of a toddler at the plate, get too easily frustrated by opposing pitchers, and need to learn better pitching strategies. Perhaps the greatest compliment is that I keep wanting to play in spite of this.
MLB The Show 25 takes all the elements of the game which have been brilliant, and simply makes them better. This is a series that didn’t need an overhaul, and yet developers found a way to make it even better.
There have been no true pain points in my time with the game, and it’s clear that once more MLB The Show is the top of the heap when it comes to sports video games.
