MLB The Show 25 feels as great as the series ever has from a looks and feel perspective, but reviewing it presents the same old conundrum as always.
It’s difficult to judge a yearly sports title sometimes, especially at launch, because it’s “the same game every year” to lots of gamers. Plus in modern days, it’s all about the live-service period after launch that can really make or break a game.
But at its core, MLB The Show 25 is the same great base game with some fun, albeit not game-changing additions to make it worth your while again for yet another season of America’s pastime.
Minor League adjustments
The gameplay you know and love (or hate) from MLB The Show is back with some minor adjustments including Ambush Hitting, which changes up the size of your PCI (point of contact indicator) when you guess where a pitch may end up in the strike zone. Guess right, and your PCI will inflate, but if you guess wrong and have to adjust on the fly, it will shrink. Risk, reward.
Fielding is more difficult this year, with some changes like enhanced infielder reaction times where you have to make a split decision on which direction to move towards a ball, and a revamped throwing meter that dynamically adjusts based on the difficulty of the attempted play.
Unfortunately, Perfect/Perfect outs seem more prevalent than ever. I can’t count how many times I have swung and made Perfect contact with Perfect timing just to have it end up in the glove of an outfielder on a deep fly ball or line drive. Hey, that’s baseball, baby, but it sucks every time it happens, and every MLB The Show player would tell you the same.
Diamond studs galore
Diamond Dynasty, MLB The Show’s online team-building mode with cards, card packs, Legend players, and more, is already an improvement from last year’s version thanks to the removal of Sets and Seasons. This DD feature made it so only certain cards from each Set could be used during a certain Season. Now, you can use any player card you’ve collected at any time throughout the year. It’s an unequivocal W for the mode.
It’s all about the chase of the cards, opening packs, earning packs through quests and XP grind, and ranking up online with the best squad possible. And with an influx of great, young talent in MLB like the game’s cover stars (Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz, and Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson), making the card chase and general vibe more exciting than ever.
One of my favorite additions this year, though, is a new roguelike mode called Diamond Quest. Yes, even baseball games are becoming roguelikes now. But it’s really, genuinely fun, and a cool way to earn rewards like new cards, packs, and more, in Diamond Dynasty mode.
Diamond Quest is presented like a board game, where you select specific rewards you wish to play for roll a die and move around the board and uncover things like currencies, buffs, and nerfs to your abilities in-game, all while using your Diamond Dynasty squad to play ball.
As you move around the board attempting to find all of its rewards, you encounter playable Moments and Boss Battles on your way towards unlocking your chosen reward (usually a strong player card) with your percentage chances of grabbing them increasing as you increase your difficulty in two major “stadium” games. It’s a fun, additional single-player wrinkle on how to earn DD rewards without getting rolled by players online (speaking from personal experience).
When 2025 comes to an end and the 2025 MLB season is on the way, MLB The Show 25 will be remembered by its live content, and with Sets and Seasons gone, it has the potential to be a real fun year.
Ping!
I might argue that the one thing missing from Major League Baseball is the ping of an aluminum bat making hard contact like you’d hear in college or lower leagues. That’s fixed in MLB The Show 25, as the created player-centric Road to the Show mode now includes high school and college moments on your way to the big leagues.
There’s a limited amount of NCAA teams available, and the fun ends once you make it into the MLB draft and go to the minor leagues. But the other new addition of the first-person camera while playing defense is another nice tweak on the RTTS formula.
Elsewhere in singleplayer content, Storylines: The Negro Leagues season three continues last year’s wonderful addition of highlighting Negro Leagues stars that never got their chance to shine in MLB, but were as important to the national pastime as any star to play. New Negro Leagues legends include “Cool Papa” Bell, “Bullet Joe” Rogan, “Turkey” Stearnes, and “Buck” Leonard, all with their own playable moments to deservedly highlight their careers.
Franchise Mode’s main addition this year is Battle of the Big Boards, which adds a new strategic element to the offseason when it comes to prioritizing free agents you wish to sign, but you have to be careful because it could spurn one or more players from wanting to sign with your organization depending on how you prioritize them and what kind of offers you present. But in the end, it doesn’t change too much about the experience for me, and I’m a long-time Franchise main.
- Diamond Dynasty more accessible than ever
- Playable storylines educate on the game's history
- The best (and only) baseball sim out there
- Lackluster Franchise addition
- Way too many Perfect/Perfect outs
Published: Mar 17, 2025 11:07 am