Out of the Park Baseball 20 is easily one of the most involved, creative, and time-consuming micro-management games ever made. What it does, it does damn near flawlessly; this is a die-hard baseball fan’s dream come true. For those whose year isn’t defined by Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter; but Pre-Season, Regular-Season, Post-Season, and Off-Season, will find themselves consumed by OOTP 20’s buffet of game modes and management options.
That being said, die-hards are just about the only type of person that will fall in love with OOTP 20. It takes a particular kind of gamer to find themselves invested in a game with no gameplay. Give Out of the Park 20 to a stat guy, and they’ll go to the World Series in a season. Give it to a casual fan, and they’ll find themselves fired before pre-season is over.
That’s the game’s biggest problem; it’s not easily accessible. OOTP 20 is exceptionally complicated and involved. There are dozens upon dozens of moving parts that all have to be kept track of simultaneously. While the game can be made easier with options to let parts of the game manage themselves, doing so detracts from the experience. The tutorial section is a link to a 70-minute series of Youtube videos that explains how to navigate the maze of menus and play the game. An hour-long tutorial is exceedingly gratuitous, especially in this hard-to-stomach form.
It’s unfortunate that Out of the Park 20’s greatest strength is also it’s greatest weakness. What makes it unique is the sheer broadness and depth of its “gameplay.†OOTP 20 is not an example of “ocean wide, puddle deep.†It might as well be on the job training for managing a baseball team. The game has live updates to make sure every statistic is as accurate as possible. You make decisions that affect every facet of the team from trade deals to the starting line-up. It’s expansive but seriously intimidating. You can and will spend hours going through every nook and cranny of the game’s slew of menus to make sure your team is successful, and your boss is happy.
To the guy who needs to know every stat about every player, OOTP 20 probably sounds like the perfect way to spend all their free time. However, the casual fan who loves the “MLB The Show†series probably won’t find OOTP 20 so appealing.
Though it caters to a niche audience, it cannot be understated just how impressive Out of the Park 20 is. There is no baseball management simulator this accurate and expansive. OOTP Developments did an incredible job delivering this experience. Long-time fans of the series will adore the latest entry in this long and storied franchise. You can tell how much love and thought was put into the game. Every part of the experience is customizable from UI themes to the outrageous number of game options. The ability to custom-tailor the way you play is like no other game. Any entries in the series after this one seems pointless. Out of the Park 20 is one of the most complete and polished games the micro-management/strategy genre has ever seen.
Good:
A Polished and Realistic Experience:
OOTP 20 is about as close to managing a Major League Baseball team as 99 percent of fans are ever going to get.
Bad:
Intimidating and Inaccessible:
The depth of the game is also OOTP 20’s greatest weakness, the tutorial videos are a chore to watch, and the nuances of the menus are hard to learn.
Final Thoughts:
There are no other games like OOTP 20. It’s a game made for a particular group of people, and to those people, it is beyond perfect. To anyone else, a more traditional baseball game would probably be more fun.
Out of the box is a nice game for those that are looking to be the GM; however, the realism in this game is missing. This is a statistical game only. It does not take into consideration ballparks, weather,Wild plays, injuries,and fringe plays based on defensive ability, and the luck factor that happens in games. It doesn’t have a clutch or jam affect built in. It does not consider the game parts that make managing a game fun, exciting g, or heartbreaking. It’s not a full game. If you are into a game that plays for the enjoyment of fantasy leagues this is a nice game. But if you like being in the game. Managing the plays and all the details that are involved in how a game plays out, this is. Or the game to play.
Games such as Replay, Stratomatic, dynasty league baseball are so much better and more exciting to play than this game. I want realism in every aspect in a game, not just some statistical computerized game that makes plays up as it goes along. I want real strategy and outcomes. Even a replay season should not duplicate completely the real life outcome. The game of baseball has little things that change outcomes that a stat based game only can’t produce.
It’s nice that these guys got the backing of MLB for there cute little game. But it’s not the best game on the market. There are many that far exceed it. I want a game closer to real baseball, not a fantasy gathering. There is no way this game can take I to account all the facets of real baseball by plugging in players and their stats to get the kind of game that is top of the line like true baseball play games do.
Congrats to Out of the box for a great marketing schem with MLB but MLB could have chosen a better game and would have if they really knew what true baseball simulation is about
I trade for guys with great seasons and when I get them they suck. I trade them away and they are great again.
No matter what guy I get. A 2 star or 5 star. When I have them they suck. When others get them they are great.
That sucks!