MLB The Show 24’s commitment to nuance, iteration, and diversity is what sets it apart. Since the long-running series arrived on Xbox in 2021, the baseball sim has recontextualized sports games – emphasizing the purpose of communities while fitting in new features like Pinpoint Pitching, custom stadiums, and online ranked co-op. The Show 23 pushed the bar further with Storylines: The Negro Leagues, an interactive museum that detailed eight stars of baseball’s segregated past. This year’s iteration mirrors it with new Storyline episodes, a 60-minute tribute to Yankee legend Derek Jeter, and an original RTTS narrative where “Women Pave Their Way.” While it isn’t a hyper-creative leap forward, MLB The Show 24 finds a new swing by tethering style and strategy to baseball’s fundamentals.
MLB The Show 24’s gameplay is almost identical to The Show 23 – complete with 23’s quirks (Break Outlier, Pick Off Artist), throwing interfaces, swing feedback, and updates to attributes that associate the clutch attribute with RISP. There are 400 new animations in 24, plus logic improvements, new base sizes, and “Impact Plays” that add major league realism to defensive assists. However, it lacks an innovative change to a hitting and pitching engine we’ve seen in past entries. The new face and hair details are a sight to behold when Bryce Harper and Fernando Tatis Jr. are bat-flipping home runs next to cherry-kissed skies, but the immersion breaks when a star player drops a pop fly, misses routine grounders at third, or “soft tosses” a double play ball in extra innings. The Show 24’s updated lighting system provides a sharper, detailed look at the diamonds across Major League Baseball, and it takes advantage of a boost in exit velocities. This shift makes it easier to hit the ball in Petco Park, Chase Field, and Kauffman Stadium, all of which were problematic in past entries.
