MLB Dugout Heroes

Overview
Full Review
Screenshots
Videos

Area: USA,Global
Official Site: MLB Dugout Heroes
Publisher: GamesCampus
Developer: NeoWiz
Platform: Microsoft Windows

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Overview

“MLB Dugout Heroes” is a sports-themed online baseball game that allows players to create and play with their own teams, composed of real life MLB players.

Features

Very simple gameplay, yet tactical elements for true baseball fans
The MLB license means MLB players and teams
Leveling up and buying items adds a new element to baseball gaming
For North American players only!
3-inning game mode means you can play a game in a couple of minutes

Area: USA,Global
Official Site: MLB Dugout Heroes
Publisher: GamesCampus
Developer: NeoWiz
Platform: Microsoft Windows

Review

Reviewed by Brendon Lindsey

Quick, name all of the baseball MMOs out there. What'd you come up with, one? Two? Now, name all of the current-gen baseball games on console with fully fleshed out online modes. Once again, your answer probably stalled at two. So, it's with great anticipation by baseball fans (and gamers) that GamesCampus releases their free-to-play online baseball game, MLB Dugout Heroes. Notice the first part of that title? MLB? Yeah, that means exactly what you think: the game is fully licensed with MLB players and teams.

That alone should tell you quite a bit about the quality of the game. Getting the MLB license? That's kind of a big deal. Thankfully, the game lives up to the expectations its title bestows.

For those intimately familiar with baseball video games, you can understand how MLB Dugout Heroes plays from this statement: it's MLB Power Pros, but with slightly worse graphics and automated fielding. During the course of a game, you control four aspects: pitching, batting, baserunning, and throwing the ball once the fielder picks it up. This instantly makes it a game aimed at the more casual crowd, as all you need to understand to really compete is how to swing (by clicking the left mouse button), or pitch (by clicking the left mouse button and stopping a power meter bar, like every other baseball game ever).

Fortunately, those of us with years and years of baseball experience aren't left in the dust, as there's plenty of micromanagement to be had. For starters, players will tire after playing in games, and youâll have to constantly shuffle in subs, change the batting order, and (if you so choose) purchase specific kinds of equipment for players to achieve specific results. For example, one bat might increase power, but decrease general batting accuracy.

Pre-game, players are treated to a 30 second window to change their batting order (or starting pitcher) to better suit their opponent. This adds a fun, if somewhat hectic, element of strategy to the title. You can have your normal batting order set, but just like real life, you can adjust it to abuse L- and R-handed pitchers.

There are currently four game lengths available in MLB Dugout Heroes: 3-inning, 5-inning, 7-inning, and 9-inning, all of which have optional extra innings (yeah, you can end in a tie). Playing the longer games will result in winning more nuts and getting more stats, but obviously they take longer. To keep things fair, though, players lose stamina based on a ratio of their game length. For example, if you play a 3-inning game, pitching 1-inning is the same as pitching 3-innings in a 9 -inning one. This causes a lot of headaches if you're in a 3-inning game and go into extra innings, but at least it evens the playing field, so to speak.

As you play games, both your team and players will level up. Even players like A-Rod start out as shells of themselves (in season 1), and playing is the only way to improve their abilities. Playing games also earns you Nuts, which is the game's form of currency. Nuts can be used to purchase a variety of things, ranging from player equipment that offers stat bonuses, to in-game items that offer boosts like stamina recovery, to draft cards which will allow you to grab a new pitcher or batter for your team.

Right now, MLB Dugout Heroes is an extremely fun game (especially if you're a baseball fan), but it's not without its issues. For example, numerous times while playing I ran into glitches where it would look like my fielder caught a ball, yet the game ruled it a hit. In one memorable match up, midway through the first inning I suddenly couldn't see the opposing players once they began to move. As you can imagine, that made not only baserunning difficult (are they near the ball?), but it made defense downright impossible.

Perhaps the biggest faults many will have with the game is how hard it makes it to play social, and its graphics. In-game chat is virtually impossible, as there's no real time to type and typing often ruins your pitching, and the inability to run it in a windowed mode rules out the use of IM clients. The graphics are also a problem for two reasons: they aren't exactly close to the current PC titles out there, and players using a widescreen monitor are forced to distort the resolution, making it look even worse.

Still, even with those aforementioned issues and the occasional glitches, MLB Dugout Heroes is by far the best baseball MMO available. Which advantages paying players will have over non-paying ones remains to be seen, but judging by currently available features, it appears that paying will be more of a convenience than a unique advantage. If you're a fan of baseball, have some time to kill, and want a simple yet addicting game to play against others, then MLB Dugout Heroes is a great choice.