MLB The Show 20 was a great experience for me overall and I loved playing online with Diamond Dynasty without spending money. I'm indifferent towards this year's game due to my experience. This time around they oversimplified literally the whole game.
Road to the Show:
I've played this mode a whole ton in MLB 13 and 15. This WAS a great mode until they announced the two-way player. I thought that the two-way player would be an option instead of the main way to access your ballplayer. But no, the traditional way of playing is thrown out the window. Two-way players should be one of three options: Pitcher, Fielder, and Two-way player. There should be many careers within those individual options like how there were in the past and the users should choose which one should be their primary for that position. While playing this mode, the commentary was infuriating to skip along with the storyline that they set with the season. I chose my ballplayer to be primarily a Relief pitcher but they wouldn't let me pitch because I would be on the field more often even though I told them that I wanted to pitch more. The game penalizes you if you sim your appearances just to go to a different role so you have to play as one of the positions. I got stuck in Triple-A with only 10 appearances the WHOLE YEAR. Even when you have the opportunity to talk to change their role, they just say suck it up. Don't get me started on player progression. It definitely feels like I need to pay to be better in that mode. I just wanted to pitch more, man. Don't lie to us SDS, this mode is for Diamond Dynasty because the caps you used last year were too OP. You're not fooling any of us. You abandoned the offline portion of your users.
March to October:
It's fun to play moments but please get rid of the unskippable cutscenes please; I played this mode before.
Franchise:
"Fixed" but not really. They need to take notes from Madden on how to do Online Franchise.
Diamond Dynasty:
The same as every year. It's my favorite mode to play because of the customization and you could build your team with players from all eras. There's always something to do because this is the mode they heavily focus on. Of course this mode could come with a disadvantage to those who don't pay for Diamond players to win.
Fielding:
Pitching and Hitting are great in this game. Fielding is "Improved" but still clunky. Player control and fielding still isn't user friendly and you can clearly tell when you're being cheesed when the outfielder stops for a split second just so the runner can get safely to the next base. It's embarrassing for this game to be bad at fielding when PS2 games like MVP and 2K were more user-friendly. When you dive sideways in this game, the ball pops in and out of the glove frequently. Still improved but needs a lot of work.
Baserunning:
A tad improved but still lacks player control here. It's funny cause the 989 sports MLB 2003 has smoother baserunning compared to this game cause the baserunners respond quickly to the user instead of the baserunner having such long strides that make them look like they're preventing themselves from falling off of a cliff.
Commentary:
Please record new commentary. Everyone is sick and tired of hearing the same calls for the past 15 years.
Stadium Creator:
Not user friendly and it takes a while to get used to. Comparing it to MVP NCAA 06, it was way easier to have simple options but this expands where you can have specific objects placed. Still fun but I found myself disappointed. There's no night setting either.
Overall, I have to promise to myself that this will be the last MLB The Show that I'll buy. You guys hold me accountable to that too. XBOX users, you will find a lot to enjoy from this game. For me, the game looks the same as it has for the past 15 years with animations and commentary. You can see that in a video that shows the progression of the series. I don't think I want to continue with this franchise. I'll wait until another company decides to make a game, and that won't be RBI Baseball either.
No: I don’t recommend this product
