MLB The Show 21 is developed by San Diego Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and MLB Advanced Media. For the first time since the series started in 2006, MLB The Show has been a PlayStation exclusive but now both Xbox and PlayStation gamers can enjoy taking to the field as their favourite teams in this excellent baseball simulator. This review was done on the Playstation 5 for all those sweet extras.

As I started the game, I went into training to learn the different controller settings for each role that can be played. It was a nice touch being able to test each position out before it went back to the screen to apply your preferred settings. I went with a basic batting and pitching format that required the use of the right analog stick. Fielding was very basic to learn thankfully with just moving to under the icon and throw the ball back to bases as fast as possible. Nothing hard to learn overall.

‘The Road To The Show’ campaign was where my main focus went after being drafted to a team. This is where you are given the option from the coach on what role you want to focus on. It was a nice touch to be able to choose and I ended up becoming a pitcher and secondary hitter so my time on the field was a good amount per game. By doing this, instead of having to simulate half a game just to be able to play, my pitching increased instantly and each strike-out gave experience which made future pitches get over the plate with ease.

In-between games in the season have these neat cutaways to real-life announcers and stat trackers while showing webcam footage from the home office as it is the age of COVID. This was the most immersive thing I was able to relate to in the game just seeing them on a Skype or Zoom call was amusing.

In my experience, as a pitcher in the game, I found NPC players I had struck out in the same game were adapting to. I am very basic at sports games, so my pitching list was very much fastball, curve, and then back to fast and it seems to work well over the matches. The majority of people I struck out and I, fortunately, could keep the runs gained low while I was on the mound. (See, I am learning the sports lingo for it already, lol.)

Control-wise, it is quite easy to pick up and play as mentioned above. There are different settings that can suit each player’s preferred style, the only issue I did run into though was that while running from bases trying to turn back when near another base is not clear. At times, I had no issue with the input but the majority of the time it would act very sensitive and my character would just be twirling on the middle of the field instead of running to a base. While batting, you have a button assigned to a type of swing such as a power hit and pitchers have the choice of types of pitches such as fast, curve, and screwballs.

The audio for MLB The Show 21 is great, from the soundtrack that is featured on the home screen to a range of artists such as AC/DC, Foo Fighters, Travis Barker, and even Wiz Khalifa. It is a good list of tracks but not so great for DMCA and streaming so be warned. The sound work in the matches themself is mainly covered by the commentary that will track accurately what is happening in the game, who is on what base, or just little background info on a player coming up to bat. It felt like I was watching an actual game of baseball. I like to become immersed in my games and the locker room for the Campaign took me out of it by having a phone message screen as a reply option to the coach despite him standing right next to the character. There could’ve been voice-over dialogue to go with the other realistic elements to tie it together.

Graphically, MLB The Show 21 looks decent but oddly, depending on the weather condition of a match. As life-like as the player and crowd looked, I could not help but notice in nighttime games while batting the bat has an issue of becoming one with the floodlight and the textures pop in and out in rain. There are some patches on the screen that the rainfall did not cover but it may just be with how frequent the game zooms in and out to focus on the match. The fields looked impressive with great detail obviously going into them and the surrounding skybox of the city in the distance.

Sadly, I was unable to try the online matches due to server issues at launch but that is not going to be reflected on in the final score. I was just hoping to test my pitching out on another player to see if I truly was a good pitcher and not a fluke artist. I do like being able to test my skills out with other community members and hopefully learn something new.

Overall, MLB The Show 21 was a decent romp at baseball and a solid sports game anyone can pick up and just play and enjoy.

Written by: Shane Walsh