Review: Super Mega Baseball 2 (PlayStation 4)

Rating: 7.4
Author: Jim Smale

by Jim Smale · May 3, 2018

The critically acclaimed Super Mega Baseball series is back with new visuals, deep team and league customization, and online multiplayer modes.

Pros:

Chunky detailed graphics.
3.60GB Download size.
Platinum trophy.
Four modes- Exhibition, Pennant race, Elimination and season.
A powerful editor to create and edit teams, Logos, Colours, Names and more. You can layer images from a huge database, Type in what you want.
Eight stadiums to play in.
EGO- This represents the difficulty in the game and goes on an easy to impossible scale.
Exhibition- Arcade mode. Choose your teams, Stadium and innings 1-9.
Full online leaderboards that are filtered by difficulty, mode, and friends.
Tutorial in the game that also unlocks a recap in a how to play section.
Party invites system. Set your profile to be open, private or friends only.
Online play in most modes including online co-op season.
Simple control system.
Fun to play.
Pitching and batting are unique, It uses a system where you can aim your shots but also line up a reticle before impact and add spins. Basically makes it easy to consistently mix up your game.
Fielding-Dependant on your EGO rating, The AI will take control of your players most of the time. You always deal with throwing the ball to bases though, This is done on a two tap power bar system.
MVP awards at the game end.
Well presented in the game with it going for a casual TV broadcast setting.
Huge improvement over the previous game.
Cool animations.
The game can be played as simple or as in-depth as you like and very much a play how you want.
Ok soundtrack.
Season mode- Standard or custom which dictates what teams you can choose from. Short medium and long season length.
Best played with friends.
Decent loading times in single player.
Controller shortcuts for control like pushing all fielders out or in.
Earn starpoints for actions which translate into your score used on leaderboards.

Cons:

In-app purchases.
Throws you straight in with tutorials thrown at you in game.
A lot to take in.
Doesn’t explain the whole EGO system very well.
No commentary.
More focused on an MP game.
Still lacks a proper tutorial or practice area.
Easy to get confused with the controls as you need to be quick and some actions have multiple buttons whilst overs don’t and it just gets messy.
It slowly tells you all the batting and pitching power options meaning you don’t get the full Intel beforehand.
Sometimes it feels like the AI is crazy good when it shouldn’t.
Won’t teach you the complete ins and outs of the game Baseball.
Tutorial feels more reactive than proactive telling you things when it is too late.
EGO system seems a bit broken with difficulty not scaling how you would think.

The Numbers:

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
7/10

Sound - 7/10
7/10

Accessability - 7/10
7/10

Length - 7/10
8/10

Fun Factor - 8/10

7.4/10

Summary

Building on the previous game, They have done a good job of making the game more accessible to casuals but have now ruined single player. It just feels empty and has no sense of advancement or reward aside from self-improvement. Online is more the focus and is well catered for with co-op seasons and 1v1 modes, Shame it has such low player numbers that finding a game can take a while. I really don’t like their approach to the tutorial with it being drip fed reactively as you play. That said it is still a lot of fun to play and like I say it is a step up from the previous game in a way but if you want a more solo game I would still say the previous game was better for that, If mp is your thing then you are going to get a lot of game time out of this. In short a few solid improvements but singleplayer is seriously lacking and mp has long wait times.