Review: MLB The Show 23 (2024)

Baseball has always been a game that defined by fundamentals and no one has been better at replicating this than the team at San Diego Studio and its MLB The Show series. The latest release, MLB The Show 23, continues to define solid and fundamental baseball as once again the game offers various modes to play and improvements in gameplay. Much like a four game series in the middle of June during the baseball season, however, there hasn't been much on the line for The Show in some time. Being good at fundamentals is important, but champions go above and beyond to bring home the gold, and right now, the series is hovering around .500 as not much has changed from last year and the game is starting to show its age.

The biggest update to come toMLB The Show 23 is the inclusion of the Negro Leagues, but this is limited. The Negro Leagues Season 1 will have players celebrate the careers of eight of the league's greatest players. Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson and Hank Thompson highlight the stories as players will learn new things about these eight players as they progress through each story. It seems like there will be more on the way as the mode is titled with Season 1. The stories are narrated by Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and these stories are complete with short videos that offer some deeper information. Progressing through the stories brings over the Challenge Mode that has been seen in the series in recent years (and also returns this year). So the same trial and error exists with the challenges and some are much more difficult than others to achieve. The payoff for completing the stories is receiving a special card for Diamond Dynasty, which once again ends up being the main focus of this game.

While I enjoy the Diamond Dynasty the most out of these microtransaction-based card modes, the entire game once again dribbles rewards that go towards this mode. Nothing of note has changed with Diamond Dynasty outside of new card tiers and the requirement to start over from last year. It doesn't take long to take until you battle online opponents who basically have the same roster as you, or you play someone that has spent a lot of money to get top cards. It feels like too many games, either against online opponents or AI in single player modes, end up going to extra innings. I'm not sure if this is intended to make the player think they need better cards to improve their team, but this happens much more than in typical single player games. There are still a wide variety of games to play and earn rewards, but there just isn't anything new. Co-op was introduced last year and that has returned for this year, but it requires inviting a friend rather than matchmaking with multiple randoms.

The online component seems to the best that it has ever been in this game, but the servers aren't fully populated yet and that may change things. Latency is virtually non-existent when in the batters box and that bit of surging while pitching seems to be alleviated. There were also no hiccups in fielding, so the online experience is excellent. MLB The Show 23 offers cross-play, which was implemented last year, so it didn't take very long to find games. Regular games and the Home Run Derby can still be competed online, so again a wide variety of ways to play with others but nothing new and no online Franchises.

Speaking of Franchise Mode, don't expect a lot of change here either. A big improvement did come in the way of Scouting as it's much more streamlined and approachable to manage as it has always been overwhelming. The menu overhaul for handling scouting is nicer and assigning tasks is easy so you can jump back into your season. Along with Franchise Mode, the quicker March to October has also returned, and alas, nothing is different with this. You can also add on Road to the Show to this same wagon except for the fact that San Diego Studio has brought back facial scans. Via the MLB The Show app, players can take a picture and seamlessly upload a facial scan and it does a decent job. What stands out the most is the head outline seems to work well, but some of the facial details will still need adjusting. It didn't seem to make difference when increasing light in the picture. If you're one of those people who like adding their friends to the game, this is a nice aspect to have back.

As for the gameplay inMLB The Show 23, it feels similar on the surface until the subtle changes start showing up. The hitting results off the bat feel much more realistic and the development team has altered the sounds of the ball hitting the bat. The sweet spot was introduced in the past, but it was few and far between when that perfect crack would be heard. Solid hits are much more pronounced, the sweet spot hits increased and actually using the contact swing results in good results. There are a lot more realistic line drive base hits and blooper fly balls. On the fielding side, the difficulty has increased. When fielding in the outfield, there seems to be a slight delay in initializing movement in comparison to the past. The throwing meter has also gotten more difficult and less predictable. If you're trying to throw a ball in from near the warning track, the meter and accuracy area both move and are hard to see. This does allow games to open up more and since it's more dynamic, there isn't just an initial learning curve as throwing is never set. The controls for stealing have also slightly been altered, but I don't believe this is an improvement, it's just different.

There are major changes to the rule book in baseball this year. Major League Baseball has eliminated the infield shift for 2023, have implemented a pitch clock and made the bases bigger. None of this is here, which is strange and a major oversight. To be fair, the game has its own pitch clock online to where it will serve up a meat pitch if there's no response from the controller. The bigger bases aren't a major issue, but should result in more successful slide attempts. More importantly, shifts are still here and that's going to be a big change to baseball this year. Lastly, players still do not have the choice to challenge a call and they should. I'm not sure why the ball was dropped on this, but these are three of the biggest rule changes in baseball history and can easily be patched in at least for the shift aspect and the pitch clock.

This series is now spread out between five platforms and the visuals are finally showing their age. The game continues to use old assets with the higher tier consoles basically making the most of the last-generation visuals. Player models remain solid, but with other recent sports titles, these players are starting to fall off. Players have received more emotion animations and these are clearly seen. The game needs to be developed specifically for the latest consoles. Sunlight reflections on objects have this weird orange bloom effect, object textures are still lacking, and there's no ray tracing tech implemented for the higher-end systems. Yes, the game is buttery smooth on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, but this game once blew everyone away with the visuals and it hasn't made a giant leap in fidelity.

The presentation has been overhauled as the MLB Network has been relieved of its duty as an option and replaced with a regional and national MLB The Show telecast. The overall improvement is substantial, however, in terms of replicating a television broadcast. The commentary team has received more audio dialogue and the repeating elements are severely dropped. The dialogue is much more fluid and there's more excitement during gameplay. There's also a lot more player history dialogue added including when players were acquired by a team and just a lot more details that actually adds depth to the broadcast. Speaking of depth, the score overlays and the bottom line has a ton more information that keeps the player more engaged in their league. Starting a season actually gives predictions for the season which is fantastic. Simply adding this to other sports games to better engage the player into the season they're playing in is a must going forward. A lot of time was spent on audio as there are more crowd chants and cheers. These are actually sourced from stadiums and it brings them much more to life. Not only have the bat sounds been improved, but every bit of sound effects on the field have been updated. What San Diego Studio has done to actually capture the atmosphere of a baseball game cannot be denied. They've also added new jumbotron videos and graphics to be used. The only thing that's missing are highlights from other games at this point, and having that would be the icing on the cake. These small individual changes all add up to changing the experience of playing the game.

Closing Comments:

While not a lot has changed in terms of ways to playMLB The Show 23, the experience on the field is much improved. The time spent on the audio aspect and the focus on better replicating a television broadcast are this game's specialty. The lack of updated rule changes, however, is a weird gaff. The modes remain the same for the most part outside of the inclusion of the Negro League stories. This is hampered by tying progression down to the Challenge Mode, which has been historically frustrating. Spreading the game across multiple outdated platforms and also tying this to Game Pass is hurting the progression of the series as it has become visually dated. This isn't a big deal if you're already paying for Game Pass, but paying $70 for a dated-looking game where a good bit of it is unchanged and previous Diamond Dynasty progression is reset is a hard ask. MLB The Show 23 is still a solid game of baseball, but it has been a solid game of baseball for years and being stuck on one platform no longer offers an excuse for attracting new players.