Out of the Park Baseball 18 review: A successful title defense

Out of the Park Baseball returns for a new season with enough tweaks and improvements to make one feel confident that it’s still the best baseball sim on the market.

Just like in real sports, it’s a much different challenge staying on top of the mountain than getting there in the first place. For Out of the Park Baseball 18, that means taking what has already been a winning formula and ensuring that baseball fanatics want to buy the new game instead of sticking with last year’s model.

So let’s start with what we would expect from previous games in the OOTP series: Out of the Park Baseball 18 allows you to simulate just about any kind of baseball league you could possibly imagine. That means current or past MLB seasons, foreign leagues, completely fictional leagues, and new for this year, tournaments. Whether you opt for historical accuracy or just want to let your imagination run wild, playing the game in any fashion provides you with the same nigh-obsessive amount of options and level of detail.

Naturally, the addition of 2017 MLB, minor league and international rosters is the big draw, but there are gameplay improvements as well. Watching the action play out in 3D, there are noticeable improvements with the player pawns, including their movements and details (they’re wearing hats now, if you opt for the higher quality level). The Challenge Mode, which is not new, removes the ability to use several options that could be considered “cheats” and rewards you for your managerial accomplishments, seems to be emphasized a bit more as well.

The immersive nature of playing through an OOTP season has also taken a step forward thanks to improved game recaps that read like mini-game stories from wire services (remember those?), complete with a quote or two from a player who had a big game. They’re mostly cliches, but that’s actually pretty true to life if you think about it, and they combine with additions to news and play-by-play commentary to keep things from getting stale over the course of lengthy seasons.

And while the visuals are never going to be the primary reason anyone dives into a game like this, Out of the Park Baseball 18 continues to make strides there as well. This year’s interface is as clean and attractive as it has ever been, with three different skins giving you some options on exactly how you’d like to make it look.

There’s no one big, earth-shaking addition to OOTP this year that stands out — and there likely may never be one as big as getting the full MLB license a few seasons ago. You could be forgiven if you simply wanted to stand pat with last year’s game, which was also excellent, and just wanted to keep going with it for a few more seasons.

Yet there’s no question that Out of the Park Baseball 18 doesn’t rest on its laurels, and that its makers aren’t coasting on its reputation as the best baseball sim around. If your love for the national pastime makes you the kind of fan who would enjoy playing a game that’s as deep a dive as this one, there’s always going to be a little part of you who won’t be satisfied unless you have the latest version, and the OOTP Developments team has made it worth your while to grab it.

Final score: 9.5/10

Disclosure: FanSided.com was provided with a complimentary copy of Out of the Park Baseball 18 for the purposes of this review.