Springtime means Opening Day for a new baseball season is right around the corner, and MLB The Show 24 is here to help baseball fans celebrate. Some additions in MLB The Show 24 add new experiences to what was already one of the best sports games on the market.
Tell Your Story in MLB The Show 24
Storylines are back after a hugely successful debut in MLB The Show 23. For those new to the experience, Storylines are a narrative experience within MLB The Show 24 that allows players to experience the careers of the greatest players in Negro Leagues history. After completing each player’s story, you’ll receive items that you can use in Diamond Dynasty and other modes. The Negro Leagues storyline mode will feature waves of content drops, with each new wave adding a couple more players. To start with, though, you’ll get four players whose stories you can play through.
Josh Gibson, one of the greatest players to ever live, is a new addition to the mode this year and headlines the Storylines feature. He is joined by Buck Leonard, Henry Aaron, and Toni Stone, a trailblazing woman who starred in the Negro Leagues. Those are just the first four, though. More are on the way in the next few weeks.
The Negro Leagues storyline is now in its second year, but a brand-new Derek Jeter storyline debuts in MLB The Show 24 alongside it. The Jeter storyline takes you through the most important moments in his legendary career. On the way, you’ll earn Diamond Dynasty cards for Jeter and some of his Yankees teammates. At launch, the early years of Jeter’s career are available, with moments from his later years coming in a content drop.
Storylines is a mode that is largely unmatched in other sports games. As a player, you can take on challenging moments and learn about these players’ lives and experiences on the way. It’s a wonderful addition to the MLB The Show experience that I hope continues for years.
Become a Legend
Road to the Show is back, and it remains incredibly popular with players. It’s a mode that often doesn’t get as much attention as some fans want, but there are a couple of significant changes in MLB The Show 24.
The most significant change in Road to the Show, and in the game as a whole, is the inclusion of women for the first time. If you choose to, your Road to the Show player can be a trailblazer who becomes the first woman to star in Major League Baseball. Of course, you can still play as a male if you prefer.
However you choose to play, this year’s game includes the Draft Combine for the first time. Your created player will go through the 4-day event and showcase your skills. Everything you do will impact your draft position, so you have to be on your game. Once you’re drafted, you’ll begin your career, which includes a narrative element that differs based on whether you have a male or female player.
Related: Best Hitting Settings in MLB The Show 24
Win It All in MLB The Show 24
If winning the World Series is your goal, there are a couple of different ways to get there. Franchise is the classic game mode where you can experience the grind of a full season. This year, players have much more customization at their fingertips. First, you can adjust the number of games you want to play in a season. This helps eliminate the need to play a full 162 games if you don’t want to make that commitment.
More importantly, the team at Sony San Diego has included the ability to play only high-leverage moments. For example, if you only want to jump into games that are close in the 6th inning or later, you can. You can also change the settings to drop you into games where milestones might happen. That allows you to take over in an effort to finish a no-hitter or complete a cycle.
If you want an even quicker season experience, March to October is for you. The season gets mostly simulated, with you being pulled into games in progress for high-leverage situations. Completing those will help your team stay hot, which will result in more simulated games being victories.
Making a 162-game season something that is video game-friendly for casual players is challenging, and I feel like Sony San Diego has found a really good balance here. Both modes offer multi-season experiences, with each having a good offseason experience. For those full simulation aficionados, Franchise offers the ability to control everything.
There can always be things added to Franchise modes, but they’re in a good overall place in MLB The Show 24.
Build a Diamond Dynasty
Diamond Dynasty and live content offerings are the stars of the series, and that stays true in MLB The Show 24. Gone are the teams loaded with 99 overall players on day one from last year’s game. In its place, the power creep is back. Sets and seasons are back in MLB The Show 24, with each season lasting about 12 weeks.
If the mode works according to design, the beginning of every season will see teams be in the high-80s to low-90s overall, climbing to closer to 99 overall by the end of each season. You can’t take every card with you to a new season, so there will be a reset of teams while players get better cards. You will, however, be able to earn more wild card slots as the game cycle progresses.
The high point of Diamond Dynasty is that you really don’t have to spend money to have a good team. That’s what sets it apart from most Ultimate Team modes. Every mode in the game, online or offline, earns you XP toward the Diamond Dynasty season program. It’s really pretty easy to earn new cards and field a competitive team. The best cards, of course, require some real skill to earn – or at least a credit card.
Cornerstone Captain cards are an excellent addition, but they seem a little overpowered and drive Diamond Dynasty players further into the meta. The intent is to give you a player to build around, which is good. But when I get a great pull out of a pack, I should be excited and want to use that player. In many cases, the Cornerstone cards make it so that using a higher overall player will make your team worse because they don’t fit the boosted criteria. It’s a fun concept, but I hope it gets nerfed as we progress into future seasons.
MLB The Show 24 Gameplay
MLB The Show always has strong gameplay. That’s no different in this year’s game. Hundreds of new player animations were added to the game, which provides a more authentic experience. Anyone who has seen a running back do something nonsensical in Madden knows the importance of animations.
Pinpoint pitching is the go-to for competitive players, and someday, I’m going to master it. The players who have mastered it have a huge advantage, though. Sony San Diego has made the motions for a few of the pitches more difficult this year to offset this. Sinkers, in particular, have a more complex motion with the thumbstick. The team also added new pitching gestures, bringing the total for pinpoint to 14.
Hitting remains largely unchanged in MLB The Show 24. It works pretty well, but you’ll get the sense that you’re taking part in a foul-ball simulator at times. I have noticed more contact hits this year and less of a home run derby meta. That could be because of the power creep returning in Diamond Dynasty, though. Not everyone is starting with 100+ power attributes.
Players being able to catch on the run and recover to throw is one of the best improvements added this year. If you played MLB The Show 23, you know the pain of your outfielder seemingly hugging the wall after making a running catch. Meanwhile, it’s a merry-go-round on the basepaths. Players will now recover much faster to make a quick throw.
MLB The Show 24 isn’t a perfect sports game. It has some things that you’ll wish got more attention. But as a sports game fan, I can say that the perfect sports game doesn’t exist. The expanded storylines and the option to create a female player add to an already robust feature set. If you love baseball, MLB The Show 24 has something for you. It’s a strong effort and fun experience that should contend for best sports game awards again in 2024.
MLB The Show 24 is available on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.
Published: Mar 22, 2024 09:00 am