MLB The Show 16 – Review

I don’t like sports games all that much. It’s not that I find them to be terrible, but I grow bored quick. However, when Sony reached out offering a code for MLB The Show 16, I found it hard to say no… hey, free game! Giving it a fair chance, I found myself pleasantly surprised.

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First off, we’re sorry this review is a little late making it online – but we wanted to try out the online multiplayer and Sony just recently turned these features on.  However, I’ve had more than enough time to spend in the single player modes that The Show 16 has to offer, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I sat this one out last year, so there are a fair amount of upgrades since I last played the franchise which was in 2014.

I’ll start by covering the mode that many of you are here to play – Road To The Show. While this is a small feature, it’s actually sort of a big change – on the PS4 version, you can now play an entire series of RTTS games without ever having to load back into the main menu. It sounds trivial, but those loading times tend to add up so this is a great upgrade in my eyes.  Starting up in Road To The Show still feels familiar and you’ll be put into basic training exercises with batting, fielding, etc.  You can create a custom star from the ground up, or borrow stats and behaviors from a pre-selected list of players. The revamped training system this year will allow players to potentially unlock various gameplay perks as you progress through the series.  As per Sony’s own notes, the “Topps Prospect Showcase” now includes Bowman Scout Day and a new scouting report – cool, I suppose.  There’s some other tweaks and upgrades here that you’ll definitely appreciate so take the time to play through a full Road To The Show series.

A couple new modes are included in The Show this year, Battle Royale and Conquest.  Battle Royale builds upon the Diamond Dynasty mode but with higher stakes. Basically, players build a team from a 25 round draft and then you and other players can face head to head over the PlayStation Network. The more you win – the better the rewards, and some of these rewards are exclusive the Battle Royale mode.  Where are the high stakes you ask?  Lose too many games and your team is eliminated. Start over. While it’s not new, Legends makes a return this year as well but hundreds of new players have been added to the ever-growing library of career flashbacks.

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Conquest also builds upon Diamond Dynasty and allows you to travel around North America and earn fans for your team and basically take over various territories….sort of capturing chokepoints in a shooter, or so to speak.  Like Battle Royale, Conquest also carries its own specific set of rewards to unlock for your team if you’re willing to make the time and effort.

Diamond Dynasty isn’t new, so I’m not going to go into in too much detail, but a cool new feature is the fact that Sony has partnered with the baseball analytics firm, Inside Edge, and they’re going to provide The Show with daily match-up ratings that can affect the in-game players’ attributes on a daily basis as long as the player is actually playing a real live game that day. Yeah. Seriously.

The gameplay feels familiar but there are a variety of tweaks and improvements made to smooth it out and just to streamline certain features. There are over 400 new animations combined throughout all areas from fielding and running bases, to double plays and batting. There are even four new batting styles which brings the total to seven styles this year. SCE has revamped the tag system, umpire personalities, and various new logics and supporting animations. Play-by-play is phenomenal from what I’ve heard so far, and the team has added over 12,000 new lines of dialogue this year.  Unless you’re a hardcore fan of The Show, I doubt most players will ever experience everything this game has to offer.

PS is definitely the preferred system for The Show 16 this year as many of the improvements and additions are exclusive to that version, including six classic stadiums, color commentary, and many of the animations. However, for those who are still playing on PS3, there is enough new content to warrant the purchase.

I mentioned in the beginning that I don’t really play too many sports games, but I have friends that do and that’s basically all they play. Based on conversations I’ve had with a couple over the past week, while I’ve been playing The Show 16, I’ve come to a conclusion. MLB The Show 16 is a perfect example of what a company should release annually if they insist on making a new game yearly. EA Sports – take note, add content, improve upon already successful grounds, and bring something innovative to the table.  MLB The Show 16 is packed with content for the both casual players and hardcore baseball enthusiasts.

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