The first autobiography I ever read was I Had a Hammer, the memoir by the legendary Hank Aaron. In it, he talks about growing up too poor to have any baseball equipment, so he had to swing sticks at bottlecaps. The fact that he would go from these humble beginnings, through the segregation era, and on to become Major League Baseball’s all-time home run king astounded me; his story is so much of what makes baseball so romantic. The way that MLB The Show, Sony San Diego’s annual baseball simulation, captures this is remarkable. The respect for the history and love of The Game fuel its best parts. While it swings and misses on a few odd choices, there is no doubt that MLB The Show 24 is yet another great entry in arguably the best sports gaming franchise running today.
The pure gameplay of The Show has taken no steps backward from last year’s excellent standard. Multiple control and difficulty options do a good job giving you the ability to tailor the experience to your preference, with more complex settings like Zone Hitting rewarding the higher skill level with greater influence over what happens. It also still looks and sounds great, with a solid television-style presentation, and the feeling of a “perfect-perfect” hit never gets old. The updated lighting system in particular has the action looking more vibrant and lifelike than ever.
Baseball is an ever-changing sport, and the way The Show keeps up with that is pretty impressive. Whether it’s the pitch clock, rules around shifts, or two-way players (a la Shohei Ohtani) it seems like there are always new wrinkles to keep up with, and this year is no different. Slightly larger bases were added in real-world MLB, and those are implemented in The Show 24. New rules around pickoff attempts were added, with new pitcher animations to work around them. It’s this commitment to authenticity that continues to make MLB The Show stand out.
My favorite new addition, though, is the Impact Plays. Great defense is a hallmark of real-life baseball, and adding a focus on diving or leaping catches, difficult throws, and scooping challenging hops does a good job of reinforcing that. Impact Plays are possible anytime you are locked as an individual ballplayer, like in Road to The Show. If an opportunity for a spectacular play arises, time slows down and a fast quick time event takes place. How you perform here determines the success of the play. They look spectacular, and it feels great to pull off an all-out dive and throw to rob a hit from a batter.
I just wish Impact Plays would happen more frequently. Often, the Moments in Diamond Dynasty mode and the chapters in Storylines focus almost exclusively on getting hits or pitching innings over and over again, largely ignoring the defensive aspects of baseball. These plays make a few appearances, but not nearly enough. Not further integrating great fielding is a missed opportunity to alleviate some of the staleness that comes with grinding these Moments out.
The Storylines were a highlight in last year’s edition, and this year continues that trend with The Negro Leagues season 2. At launch there are four stories, with more set to arrive in forthcoming updates. Brilliantly produced videos, narrated by the charismatic president of the Negro League Museum Bob Kendrik, tell the stories of some of baseballs most legendary players, many of whom never had the opportunity to play in the MLB. Kendrick’s youthful enthusiasm when he talks about a skinny teenager who swings his bat with a backwards grip that would go on to become Hank Aaron, maybe the greatest baseball player of all time, is so easy to get caught up in, and does a great job capturing the magic and history of baseball.
A second, separate Storyline track was added for this year, and focuses on legendary Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. The concept is solid: you play through key moments of his career, preceded with commentary from Jeter himself, with highlights and clips in a well-presented package. It’s a bit odd focusing once again on The Captain after he had his own special edition of The Show last year, but hearing Jeter talk about growing up as a Yankees fan and what his experience was like being called up to the big leagues is a neat idea.
The problem is his story, and that of the Yankees from that era, isn’t very interesting. This history of a team that won three straight World Series – four in five years – has no adversity, nothing to overcome. That’s true of Jeter himself as well. His suspect defensive skills were more than made up for by incredible hitting ability and his performance in clutch moments, and his place in the pro baseball Hall of Fame was secured many years before he retired. Combine that with a notably drama-free off-the-field persona, and you end up with no ups and downs, no hardship. It’s the only time playing MLB The Show where I felt bored.
It’s an odd choice in a game as full of amazing stories as baseball. We just as easily could have played through the eyes of Mike Piazza, a 62nd-round pick who became the lowest-drafted player to reach the Hall of Fame. Or Ichiro, coming over as the first Japanese position player, and paving the way for others with his legendary career. What about the Red Sox overcoming a curse dating back to Babe Ruth? I hope Sony San Diego sticks with the storyline idea – it’s a great concept that just needs a better story to tell.
Road to Everyone’s Show
For the first time, women are playable in MLB The Show 24. That’s a big update (mirroring what we’ve seen in NBA 2K, FIFA, and NHL in recent years) and it’s implemented pretty well overall. The highlight is Toni Stone, who appears as part of the Negro Leagues storylines as the first female professional baseball player. She has the same fanfare of her male contemporaries, and I found her story of grit and determination compelling.
You can also create women characters for Road to The Show, the single-player campaign where you play as a prospect working your way up to the big league. New hairstyles, body types, and the option to add makeup if I so chose to wear are all integrated seamlessly. The woman I created was a power-hitting infielder, and I was pleased to see that the video packages and story in Road to The Show were different for her, and embraced the historical achievement that it would be for a woman to be drafted. Considerations like a private changing room are accounted for, and a nice touch of authenticity.
The quality did leave a bit to be desired overall, however. The various story-based cutscenes all playing out via text stood out in a series that has traditionally been largely narrated. It veered too close to something like Superstar mode in Madden, which isn’t a compliment.
The other big addition to Road to The Show is the Draft Combine. This lets your created player demonstrate their skills in front of scouts, and hopefully move up to the coveted top pick. It’s a cool spectacle, and I like that it grades your performance as you go. However unlike other sports games it doesn’t seem like it affects your player’s attributes, and given the fact that you can select which team drafts you instead of the other way around, it’s hard to feel like it actually matters.
Diamond Dynasty, the card-collecting-meets-squad-building mode, is largely unchanged from MLB The Show 23, which is mostly fine. It still plays great, card packs full of players are awarded freely and often and are a lot of fun to open, and the mix of single-player and multiplayer options caters as well to multiple play styles, as it always has. Playing out historical moments to unlock particularly notable cards, then taking those into games is fun, and as satisfying as ever.
Last year saw the implementation of Sets and Seasons in Diamond Dynasty, which made higher-rated cards more accessible, but many of them were only usable in competitive modes during a two-season window. This year that formula has been adjusted: cards are only active for a single season, but the seasons are now longer. They also reduced the number of top-rated cards that are available at the start of a season. That’s a good change, because so much of the fun in this mode is the steady climb from a low-rated team to a juggernaut squad.
Still, the seasonal model in general has its share of issues. For instance, it’s hard to stay motivated to chase a great card for your team when it has an expiration date. There are wildcard slots that will allow you to carry a few outdated cards, but having to decide which favorite players can no longer take the field is a bitter pill to swallow. It was because of this that last year ended up being the fastest I’ve jumped off of Diamond Dynasty and, while I’m hopeful that this year will be different, I remain skeptical.
The Franchise and March to October modes are back and similar to previous years. This is where you take control of your favorite team in hopes of leading them to the promised land of a World Series. They remain solid as ever, and offer the usual range of control from “automate everything” to “I want to live in spreadsheets.” As someone in the latter category I particularly appreciate that Sony San Diego has added the Prospect Promotion Incentive, which rewards MLB teams with draft picks for playing top prospects. Deciding strategically whether to keep a player in the Minors for contract reasons, or to take advantage of their skills and the additional draft pick is a nice new wrinkle.
The best new addition, though, is the Custom Game Entry. This is a setting that allows you to let your team simulate games until certain conditions are met, in which case you take control. 162 games is a lot to play, so I set myself to only come in during the 9th inning in especially high-leverage situations, like a save opportunity with runners on base, or a chance for a walk-off victory. It’s a fantastic feature that lets me focus on team management most of the time, but be the deciding factor in the 20-30 games that make the difference between a first-place finish and missing the playoffs.
