MLB The Show 21 Review

It was shocking to log onto XBox the other day and see a brand new game up on game pass. MLB The Show 21 was immediately put into my download queue and the wait began.

Fast forward to later that day and the game is up and fully running. It's a hard game to get used to. It's been years since I turned on an MLB game and thought why not give this one a chance. The Last one I remember playing was in 05. 16 years ago. Manny Ramirez was on the cover and Tessie was the only song I listened to when playing the game. Looking back on it, I probably wasn't any better at that game than I am at this one.

Maybe baseball just is not the game for me to find success in. That doesn't make the game bad but it does take away the experience. The ballparks look detailed and lifelike but my early experience is that the game is very one dimensional. Pitching is very flawed in this game. You can throw perfect strike after perfect strike and find the game issuing walks because it was called a ball every time. The game feels predictable at times. Literally the announcers will talk about how a home run in this case would change the game so you adjust and throw a slider down and away just to have it sent out of the park as if it was a fastball down the middle.

The defense is also a little clunky. You can be squarely under where it shows the ball will be heading or within reach and then suddenly the ball drops over you or before you and it makes the game that much harder to predict or make sense of. It's a hard game to master because of the spontaneous glitches that occur. I had my ace on the mound and his energy was great. I gave up to singles, the game glitched and removed the energy status bar until 2 outs were gone and suddenly his energy was depleted and boom home run after the announcers mention how big of a moment that would be for this team on a losing streak. It made me feel like I had zero chance to escape the inning or make it happen a different way.

I know a lot of games have bugs off the start but this one could end the experience early. I've lost games because of bad glitches and very choppy defensive plays that should have been easy outs. I've also had near no hitters when the game is smooth. It's a very cut up experience that doesn't lean towards the game solidifying me as a long term player until I see a patch has been released. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later and the game can become a more streamlined experience that adequately simulates what an MLB game feels like. I've been to two games in my life and I never saw the pitcher freeze on the mound and then suddenly lose his ability to do his job. Aside from Jose Bautista and his batflip for the Jays most big time situations don't yield big time results every time. It seems like the game wants to feel more exciting than it is by having weird triples and weird occurrences happen out of the blue to make it more interesting.

Visually if it didn't glitch it has some of the best attention to detail that any sports game can have. It's just too early of a version to make me feel like it's a complete package. Give me a more authentic experience and I would literally play it like real baseball. One game a day for the entire summer and try to make a run at the world series. It's not a game I want to consume all my time but a game I came to for a replication of a game I wish I could see more of but that has been halted. Let's hope this game can become something special during trying times. Right now it's just not it and that's a damn shame.