Major League Baseball 2K7 is the latest installment in the series from 2K Games. As the only licensed titled available for the Xbox 360 this year, it’s the only choice for MLB baseball fans. How does the game stack up? Let’s just say that not every aspect knocks it out of the park.
The Good
There is a lot to like about this game. The first thing that jumps out at you is the graphics. It’s bar-none the most realistic looking sports game of any genre. The most impressive part is the detail in the player models. Almost all of the core players of every team have finely detailed faces that make them instantly recognizable. Each player has a distinct body type that closely matches the real thing. When the sun is behind a player, the light actually passes through the ears giving them a soft glow, a detail I’ve never seen in a game before. You truly have to see the game in motion to appreciate all of the finer details like the way jerseys blow around on a windy day.
The great visuals are not just limited to the players. Every stadium is faithfully recreated in full 3D glory including the exteriors used in cinematics. While individual fans in the crowd don’t look that great close-up, they are all animated 3D models that make the stadium feel alive. A nice touch is the way the shadows in the stadium change as the game goes from mid-afternoon to dusk.
With all of the great visuals, MLB 2K7 goes out of it’s way to show them to you with an excellent TV-broadcast style presentation. Cameras will zoom-in during the batter walk-ups so that you can get a good close look. The cut-scene cameras have a natural feel to them as if there was actually someone behind them trying to focus in on the action. Almost every camera imaginable is available during instant replays including the “dirt-cam” made famous in the 2004 ALCS. There’s a very good chance that passers-by will think you’re watching an actual MLB broadcast.
Once you get past the way the game looks, there is some very solid gameplay behind it. Pitching is done in MLB 2K7 with two button presses that determine the amount of spin and accuracy. During critical situations, like having two strikes on a batter, it’s time for a “Payoff Pitch”. If you get the ball to break exactly to where the catcher has his glove setup, you actually increase the rating of that pitch for the rest of the game. Of course if you miss you will actually lose points. It’s a nice way to alter the confidence a pitcher has in his repertoire, just like a real game. You’ll also find that the way the pitchers fatigue feels very realistic. Instead of simply altering your pitches by a random amount, pitching with a tired pitcher just shrinks the window to properly execute your button presses. It gives skilled players a chance to still pitch effectively over the course of a game, they just have to work harder at it.
The game designers did a pretty good job with the player ratings. Most players feel about right. When playing against the Reds, Ken Griffey Jr. was killing me, snagging everything that was hit anywhere remotely near him. That was until he hit the wall and got injured! I’m sure Cincinnati fans can relate.
The Bad
Unlike the pitching interface, the batting interface feels unnatural and clunky. To bat, you pull back on the analog stick and release for contact swing or push forward for a power swing. You can alter the direction a little bit by rotating/pushing to the left or right, but that just makes it feel worse. Your timing on the swing is important, but more often than not it’s up to the player’s batting stats to determine if you actually make contact. With so much control given to the user for pitching, it’s odd that so much is left up to the game for batting.
You can increase your odds of making contact by guessing the location with the “eye”, but not by much. If you scout the pitcher(s) before the game, you at least get a sense of where they like to pitch in the given situation and can set the eye accordingly. Unfortunately, there are times when you’re not even allowed to adjust your guess because the batter backed out of the box and the interface has scrolled off the screen. The CPU is also notorious for pitching immediately after you have paused the game.
Fielding the ball is also a hit-or-miss proposition. 2K Sports tried too hard to maintain the TV-like presentation once the ball is in play. The camera is too low to get an accurate gauge on where the ball is headed, especially for infielders.
The very cool presentation style also interferes with the pacing of the game. Even when skipping as much as possible, a full 9-inning game takes a very long time. Expect each game to take 45 minutes to an hour minimum.
The play-by-play commentary is actually very good for one or two games. Joe Miller and Jon Morgan work very well together and everything they say is timely. They even throw in some surprising references to previous events. After just a few games though, it gets very old and repetitive. 2K Sports has done a good job of scripting the proper events, they just need more audio content to fill it up and provide more variety.
The Very Ugly
Like all licensed sports games, MLB 2K7 had to be released by the start of the pro season. The problem is that it just wasn’t ready. The game is full of bugs. You can’t play a full game without seeing at least one popping up. Some are more egregious than others.
One simple example was a rundown situation between third and home. Two players ended up covering third but neither of them tried to catch the ball which ended up in the outfield. On another play, nobody covered second. Very frequently a player in position for a play simply misses the ball (though not as an error).
One of the worst bugs that I saw that truly affected the game happened with a runner on third base. The CPU crushed one into the stands (get used to it, home runs happen a lot). However, he only gained one run on the scoreboard. Hey, it helped me out so I wasn’t complaining too much, but there’s no excuse for something so basic.
Online play is also very frustrating. With a decent connection, pitching and hitting just seems laggy. To their credit, they packed Xbox Live play with plenty of options, including setting up your own leagues and tournaments. But if it’s no fun to play the actual game, who cares?
Conclusions
Major League Baseball 2K7 is one of the most polished looking sports games available. It’s beauty helps you look past a lot of the problems that hide underneath the surface. It’s still a fun game to play and that’s the bottom line. But if you can’t get past some of the playability issues and bugs, you should do as us Cubs fans do: “Wait ‘til next year”.
