I’ve said this many times before, but a yearly title is a tough thing to make changes to. One only has to look at the upgrades to a series like PGA Tour 2K to see the differences between 2K23 and 2K25 and see the quality that can come from a biennial release schedule. MLB The Show 25 appears to have broken that streak, however, with some quality updates over the previous game and some new feature additions that make the gameplay experience significantly better.
I know what you must be thinking: “It’s baseball, David, how much can the gameplay change if the sport is the exact same?” Well, apparently, quite a bit. There are a few new mechanics in MLB The Show 25 that make hitting, fielding and running the bases a lot more fun while keeping the charm that baseball inherently has on its own.
Let’s get right into the new gameplay mechanics, starting with a brand-new feature called Ambush Hitting. Ambush hitting is only available when you use Zone hitting settings and allows you to cheat a little bit by predicting where the pitch will be thrown ahead of time (either inside or outside), and if you predict correctly, you get a better chance of solid contact which could result in a hit or otherwise. It sounded great in theory, so I tried it out, even though I could never master Zone hitting (I tend to use Directional in Road to the Show and Timing in Diamond Dynasty).
You still have to move your PCI (the little reticle on the screen that you match up to where the ball crosses the plate to match your swing) to meet the ball as it crosses the plate, which requires a lot more coordination than I expected, especially when a lot of pitches tend to break late, causing me to misplace the PCI. The Ambush hitting mechanic worked well when I guessed correctly and gave me the option to look to one side of the plate (which was always the inside, let’s be honest) instead of both.
The payoff was less aggressive than I expected, however, as guessing correctly would usually result in a harder-hit ball or a deeper fly ball, not necessarily guaranteeing a hit either. I like the idea behind it, but I’m going to stick with Timing and Directional hitting for now.
“There are a few new mechanics in MLB The Show 25 that make hitting, fielding and running the bases a lot more fun while keeping the charm that baseball inherently has on its own.”
Baserunning got a new mechanic as well, in the swim slide. This allows the player to slide headfirst and move their arms to avoid the tag and requires a quick input in the form of a joystick rotation to correctly avoid the tag. This only comes up when you’re locked into controlling a single player. The Slide Swim doesn’t occur too often, requiring you to stay alert on close plays as it could pop up when you’ve resigned yourself to getting caught stealing second base or stretching a single into a double.
Of the previous two games, my absolute favourite thing has been the Storylines mode, which makes its return for season three, featuring three new players from the Negro Leagues and the incomparable Bob Kendrick narrating their stories. Players like James “Cool Papa” Bell and Wilbur “Bullet Joe” Rogan highlight the newest entries to the mode, and I hope they add more as the game cycle goes on, as I cannot get enough of learning about these incredible players. Like the previous games, each player has a select number of playable moments highlighting moments in their career, so not much has changed in that regard.
Diamond Dynasty, MLB The Show 25’s live game mode, and by far the most popular among players, largely remains unchanged, save for a couple of housekeeping items and one bigger new game mode. Last year’s game saw the Sets and Seasons mechanic, which resulted in the vast majority of player cards being usable only during the season or set in which they were released, forcing players to rebuild their team multiple times throughout the game cycle (more than they normally would as new cards are released). Happily, that mechanic is long gone, so players can keep their favourite cards in the lineup or on the bench for as long as they want.
The new game mode inside Diamond Dynasty is called Diamond Quest and is a fairly interesting game mode in its own way. Combining roguelite elements with a Mario Party-style board game, you earn rewards based on how you move around the game board, eventually working your way toward the stadium where you’ll play a game (3 innings similar to Conquest).
You will keep any rewards you earn along the way if you win and nothing if you lose. Each space on the game board can have something on it, just like Mario Party, either good, bad, or blank. Diamond Quest is a fun game mode that can have a lot of potential to give good rewards for the Free to Play players or the players that just prefer to play offline.
“…MLB The Show 25 is a worthy update to San Diego Studios’ annual release title.”
Road to The Show is where I have spent the vast majority of the time I’ve played MLB The Show 25 because I am very invested in my created player. Road to The Show has some new additions this year that let you choose two-way players (pitcher and position player/hitter) and the opportunity to play through your college career prior to joining an MLB team’s minor league system via the draft.
Since I wanted to build my player from the ground up, I went the college route after being drafted the first time by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Turning down the DBacks, I committed to the Cal State Fullerton Titans, where I was able to level up my player a bit before entering the draft a second time.
This time, as opposed to last year’s game, I elected not to select a team preference and ended up being drafted in the second round by last year’s worst team in baseball, the Chicago White Sox. Resigned to my fate, I joined their Double-A team and lit up the league, playing a minuscule 28 games before being called up to Triple-A. Forty games there, and I was getting called up to the Bigs and joined the White Sox in late May, a couple of weeks prior to the All-Star break.
The best thing I’ve found about Road to The Show this year is how San Diego Studio has created the player-levelling experience. In previous titles, you levelled up your player by performing certain actions, and if you didn’t do them, then they remained at a low level. This year, you earn tokens as you earn XP, and those tokens are then used to level up your player’s attributes as you see fit. Those same tokens can be used to level up Perks as well that you unlock along the way, so managing them is harder than you might think at first.
Overall, MLB The Show 25 is a worthy update to San Diego Studios’ annual release title. Graphically, the game runs smoothly and looks just that little bit more realistic, getting us very close to true-to-life player representations. There is still some work to do in that regard, especially with the face scan that is available for Road to The Show, as my face scan player looks nothing like me at all. Returning players have a lot to be excited about, and new players are absolutely spoiled when it comes to replayability.
