MLB The Show 19 shows that San Diego Studios isn’t sitting on their butts doing nothing to improve the player experience. They are still making this game better and better each year. This year’s game brings more refined game modes, a more engaged baseball experience, and it does enough to stay fresh. It isn’t perfect, but it’s damn near it.
When basketball season is winding down, there’s only one place to turn for a gaming fix — baseball. Growing up a Cincinnati Reds fan, and not tasting a championship since 1990, I have come to realize that my best chance to see the Reds actually have success is through MLB The Show, and 19 doesn’t disappoint in keeping my Cincinnati dreams alive. Quite frankly, this has been the best baseball series since 2K and EA gave up on their baseball series. No offense to Backyard Baseball. You’re great too.
Now, while you might be thinking the reason for such pronounced and assumed domination is because they’re the only true MLB game in town, you would only be partly right, the other part of this monopolistic equation is that San Diego Studios seems to truly give a shit about their product. Can you imagine if all sports titles did that? What a wonderful sporting world we would live in, right?
Anyway, I’m not here to correct the other titles, I’m here to discuss MLB The Show 19. The presentation value of the game has moved up a notch this year, as have the features that San Diego Studios have deemed fitting for the game (March to October being a big one), while just slipping a tad bit on gameplay design, more so on the pitching side of things than the rest. And following in the tradition of the series in the past, the modes and features offered up are ‘just enough’ to keep the game incredibly engaging and entertaining. In other words, there isn’t unnecessary garbage littering your menu in the game that doesn’t matter to you.
Enough jibber-jabber, let’s get this review started.
The gameplay in MLB The Show 19 is broken up into several modes, which are:
– Moments: Love this concept. It’s incredibly respectful to the game of baseball. Essentially, you live moments of superstar baseball player careers. I love this mode, as it does challenge you, while at the same time providing a solid focus on superstars/legends of the game.
– March to October: I had to stop playing this one during my review period because it took up so much of my time! Not because it’s a long mode, rather it’s just so much fun to play. You essentially are given specific scenarios to accomplish in the middle of a game, or sometimes at the end (it varies). You have challenges that accompany those scenarios (ex. Throwing a perfect game when you’re placed in the 8th inning), and if you accomplish/fail said challenges, then you get fire or ice (small round icons). The fire will mean your team is on a hot streak, which equals out to victories as some of the games are sim’d. You won’t win all the time, but you have a better chance of success if you do well in these small stints. If you lose, then you get ice, which means team morale and chance of success is lowered. The challenges come in such short stints and vary between offensive/defensive challenges that the game mode constantly stays engaging and interesting. This is wildly simplistic in design, but at the same time complicated because you have to stay focused on the task. I think I would have played this during the entire review session if time permitted.
– Road to the Show: This is what you would expect from a story mode. While MLB The Show 19 totes more ‘RPG elements’ in this portion fo the game, they do seem to slow the progress just a bit when trying to grow a player. I think a lot of people will dive into the number of options given to your homegrown ballplayer, such as chatting up agents/other players, working out, focusing on specific needs of the player to get them to the majors, but there is also a possibility that it might be too much. I felt a little overwhelmed with the stop and go of the entire process. I felt like I wanted to play the actual game of baseball a bit more than participate in RPG elements. That said, I do get it that gamers might absolutely love the complication, as it does change your player with a flick of the wrist/wrong/right/options. It’s pretty damned detailed when it comes to cultivating your player a specific way. For example, having a nice reputation in the locker room and befriending other players can help your player grow into a leader. You get dialogue choices that help you develop a relationship with your other players. This is essentially Life is Strange 3. Joking aside, the process of this mode is insanely detailed when you’re trying to determine your player’s success. Who does this? San Diego Studios.
– Franchise: What you would expect from this mode. Go Reds!
– Diamond Dynasty: You build a team, you field a team, you win (or lose). This is one of the more interesting modes carried over from previous iterations of the game. I enjoy the concept, and I can totally see how it’s stretched across multiple modes in the game when needing to earn XP and progress in this mode. Ultimately, this is just a card game, which is one of the ancient foundations of the sport of baseball. Having a collection of players that fit your design is a fascinating and fun aspect of this mode. As mentioned before, the mode just seems a bit more stretched out across the game, which casts a nice blanket of motivation to keep playing all aspects of this year’s title. It’s just stupid fun.
These modes combined, while not everything (there is still a Home Run Derby, etc.), are the gold standard for this year’s release. Love these options, as they all seem developed and well-thought through. You would be surprised how many modes can be throwaways in other games, but that doesn’t appear to be the case with MLB The Show 19.
On the gameplay side of the equation, the game works well for the most part but stumbles just slightly in some of its data. The positives in the design is that the game feels very smooth, not clunky at all with regard to movement/field play, and it seems to make sense when it comes to fielding/batting. There’s a lot to appreciate in the game’s design, as it feels like an actual baseball experience. There aren’t a lot of sports games that can replicate the feel/movement of their sport, but San Diego Studios does it well. If they could visit the 2K folks and let the NBA 2K team in on how smooth a sports game could feel with extra concentration on movement, then that would be super. Anyway, the gameplay movement and how the game feels will meet your expectations of how baseball should be played.
That said, the gameplay isn’t flawless. As I continually played the game, I felt like my actions in the strike zone was more or less spot on what was being asked by my catcher. The glove icon I nailed with the ball, the fluctuating strike zone I shrunk to a ‘good’ status almost always, and I met all of my catcher’s needs and wants…but I was almost always out of the strike zone if the ball was placed near the edge of the strike zone line. For example, if I had a fastball ordered at the top left of the strike zone, I would place about 70-80% of the focus on that area, get it right with the ball location, and only have 20-30% percent of the focus area hanging outside of the strike zone. More often than not, I would be called for a ‘ball’ by the ump. It happened so often that I took notice of it, something I had not done in prior iterations of the series. All I can say is that the data on the other side of the screen had to be off by a little bit. That is the only possible explanation. Whatever it was calculating simply didn’t calculate correctly. It just happened way too much to be a random occurrence. This isn’t a game breaker by any stretch, but it’s a small annoyance. All the other pitches, inside and out, seemed fair when they were away from the strike zone edge, but get near that edge and you had a lopsided chance to be wrong. Again, a little frustrating, but it won’t keep me from playing it again.
Beyond this, the gameplay was fantastic. It is still the best baseball experience on the market, and its accuracy is the reason why no one else is investing in an MLB-based game. Sony Interactive Entertainment really does baseball well. I really have steadily enjoyed the game throughout the years and I think that MLB The Show 19 brings everything you want for a baseball experience. It will certainly get you in the mood for the baseball season, probably even more than the actual sport of baseball. The gorgeousness of the game helps as well. The fields are stunning to look at, the sun movement and lighting is perfect for the baseball experience, and the announcers and even on-field personality are informative as they are entertaining. MLB The Show 19 is an improved baseball title.
Overall, MLB The Show 19 shows that San Diego Studios isn’t sitting on their butts doing nothing to improve the player experience. They are still making this game better and better each year. This year’s game brings more refined game modes, a more engaged baseball experience, and it does enough to stay fresh. It isn’t perfect, but it’s damn near it.
