Write a review of a sports game, especially those from major franchises like MLB The Show, is often difficult. The question is essentially whether each iteration is the most successful simulation of its sport and whether it is better than the previous year’s. It’s that year after year, franchises like NHL, Fifa, Madden and MLB The Show don’t offer enough new stuff to justify the full price of their new editions. MLB The Show 22 unfortunately does not escape this dynamic. While this baseball sim is better to play than ever, the lack of meaningful additions will make it a tough sell to whoever owns the version. 21.
This is not to point an accusing finger at its developer, San Diego Studio. After all, it’s just espousing a business model that has long since proven to be lucrative. At first glance, it may seem surprising that sports games, which would nevertheless lend themselves well to a model focused on seasonal content, have not joined the train pulled by the major franchises belonging to other genres, such as call of duty. But why would EA Sports or Sony charge us less for annual game updates when they can charge full price for a new edition? To ask the question, is to answer it.
That said, it would be unfair to say that MLB The Show 22 brings no change compared to MLB The Show 21. Among the novelties is a new cooperative mode, which allows us to play with two friends online and face opponents from all over the world. Well, at first we only share the at-bats, but when we have runners on base, it can become interesting. This first iteration of a cooperative mode is welcome.
Another fairly significant change: you can now play more than one season in the “March to October” mode, the stripped down version of Franchise mode in which you only play key moments of the year, en route to the World Series. . No doubt it will add longevity to this mode, which we prefer to the traditional Franchise mode.
In the same vein, we love that MLB The Show 22 understand that baseball is a slow sport to which we do not all have the same amount of time. In some game modes we are allowed to play as little as two rounds, while others put us squarely in precise and decisive situations, thus keeping us constantly in the action. Some baseball fans won’t mind playing all nine innings every game, but casual players are also accommodated.
Like always, MLB The Show 22 offers fantastic gameplay, which has been refreshed with new animations and features. On the presentation side, however, we cannot silence our disappointment. Not that the game is ugly in general, but its textures have a bit of a shiny plastic feel to it that takes it away from a photorealistic appearance. Also, for a game in which you spend the majority of your time looking at neatly mowed lawns, MLB The Show 22 offers particularly ugly playing surfaces. We expected better on the new generation of consoles.