Out of The Park Baseball 17 is a baseball management simulation that will keep you occupied for hours if you love America’s pastime. Out of The Park Baseball gives you the fan the ability to take control of your favourite baseball team as the manager, general manager or both. This is a game that is targeted to those who want to feel what it’s like to run the operations of a baseball team. You won’t be controlling any of players on the field and your team’s success is based on how well you direct and manage the organisation.
There is so much variety and things to do in Out of The Park Baseball 17. Firstly you have the option to play and manage a team with its current roster in the current era. Or, you can go back and manage a historical team with all the historical players. This is a great feature especially for those fans whose teams aren’t around anymore. As a Montreal Expos fan, this was something that really made playing Out of The Park Baseball enjoyable. You can go back all the way to 1871. You have the ability to re-write history and change the way some players develop. For example, if you don’t manage Pedro Martinez correctly he may not turn into the Hall of Fame pitcher that he ended up being. Another game mode that is very interesting is the historical exhibition mode. This allows you to pick two teams from any era and have them face off in a game or a series of games. It is very fun to see for example how 1999 New York Yankees would do against the 2011 Detroit Tigers both of which were division winners in their respective years.
You also have the option to build your own custom baseball universe where you can choose your teams and leagues and basically, just use your imagination to develop your baseball fantasy.
Within each game, you have so many options. You are given the ability to control every strategy on the field and adapt to your opponent. There are various options that can be controlled manually or completed automatically. For example, you can choose your team’s offensive and defensive strategies for the games or you can have it done completely by the computer. Once in the game you can either simulate or play the innings. If you play the innings you choose how your team pitches to and plays each batter. So, if there is a batter you don’t want to pitch to you can tell your pitcher to pitch around him. There is written commentary for each game and it can be quite colourful if you are willing to sit and read the commentary throughout the game. In, General the gameplay is very adaptable to how you want to play the game, be it slow and concise or fast and simulated.
The menus in Out of The Park Baseball are relatively easy to navigate. I only was stuck a few times trying to find what I was looking for. But, after playing a few games and making a few moves in the management menus I was able to get used to everything and it made the experience smoother.
Out of The Park Baseball 17 is a very deep game that has so much to offer to those who enjoy the strategic and managerial part of baseball. If you have always wondered what it would be like to control a baseball franchise you will absolutely love this game. If you have ever dreamt of having the greatest teams from different eras play against each other you will be able to live out those dreams.
Out of The Park Baseball 17 is a very niche game that will really cater to the baseball enthusiasts. If you love the statistical and managerial part of baseball I highly recommend trying this game out.
REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.
Subscribe to our mailing list
Get the latest game reviews, news, features, and more straight to your inbox