Hello Vizzed. I am going to be reviewing a game called MLB Front Office Manager. Whenever I play a baseball game (usually MLB The Show because it is 10 times better than MLB 2K) I like to play the franchise mode. While playing the games is fun, my favorite part is managing the team. That is why I thought MLB Front Office Manager would be the perfect game for me. The concept of the game is great, but this game did not live up to it's potential.

Gameplay (9):

The point of MLB Front Office Manager is to run a baseball team. You have to sign players, make trades, manage your lineups, etc. just like real life. You even have things like the Rule 5 draft thrown in to the game, which is not usually in baseball video games. It is a fun game to play, at least for me. If you are the kind of person that enjoys action, or likes actually playing the baseball games, then MLB Front Office manager is not for you. The whole game is managing the team of your choice.

Graphics (6):

Graphics aren't really a big part of this games. Usually in sports games graphics are super important. However since you are not actually playing the sport in this game, graphics play a much smaller role. The menus are easy to navigate and look cool. When your team is playing, you have the option to watch the game or choose what your players do (bunt, swing, etc., you don't actually control the players). The players look terrible. They do not look realistic at all. The baseball field looks awful as well. The whole thing looks like a cartoon. The only reason I didn't give the graphics a 2 or a 3 is because that is not a major part of the game. The menu screen, the trade screen, the negotiation screen, etc. are where you will spend the majority of the time, and they look pretty good.

Sound (6):

I kind of just want to leave the sound category blank. The sound in this game plays an even smaller role than the graphics. Similar to the graphics, the sound is not as important in MLB Front Office Manager as it is in most sports games. The music is ok, nothing really good or really bad. When watching or choosing what your players do in a game, the sound effects are pretty bad. Much like the graphics, the sound seems cartoon-like and somewhat unprofessional. Not impressed, but the sound gets a 6 because the majority of the sound in the game is ok.

Addictiveness (6):

This is not one of those games that will drag you in and spit you back out in 2 months. It just isn't that addictive. It starts to get old after playing it for a little while. It is very difficult to make a successful trade with a team, which is very annoying. I am not very likely to play this game again, because there isn't really anything about it that I would like to do more than once.

Story (N/A):

Man, I really have to start reviewing games that have stories. All these sports game reviews are killing my word count! As a reviewer on Vizzed once said, a game without a story is a reviewer's worst nightmare. (I don't remember who said it, I will edit this as soon as I can find it)

Depth (8):

This was a tough category to rate. This game does not offer a lot of game modes. In fact, there is really only one game mode that you can do. I can hear you asking "But tgags123, why did you rate it an 8 then?" The answer is, that one game mode really never ends. You can just keep starting new seasons, I believe. There might be like a 20 season limit or something, but since this game includes the off season, that is equal to 20 years. I know you can simulate through the days and that it is not in real time, but I still don't know if anyone has time to play 20 years! There is also a lot to do in the game that regular baseball games do not offer.

Difficulty (10):

This may not be an action game, but man is this game hard! I don't know if it is just me, but I have played 5 times with 5 different teams, and every time I finish the season in last place. I am not sure it is possible for your team to do good in this game. As I mentioned before, it is also extremely hard to complete a trade with any of the teams. Signing free agents and re-signing players is hard too, since they want a lot of money and you have a very limited salary cap. This game is a challenge, but not in the way that games usually are. It is not physically challenging, like Flappy Bird for example, it is mentally challenging and you need a vast knowledge of baseball to do well in it. Even if you do have a vast knowledge of baseball, you will still probably end up in last place. That is why I gave this game a 10 for it's difficulty.

Instead of just giving it a rating for overall that seems appropriate, I am going to actually use a formula like I have seem some other people do.

Gameplay (30%) - 30% of 9 = 2.7
Graphics (10%) - 10% of 6 = 0.6
Sound (10%) - 10% of 6 = 0.6
Addictiveness (25%) - 25% of 6 = 1.5
Story (0%) - 0% of 0 = 0
Depth (25%) - 25% of 8 = 2
Difficulty (0%) - 0% of 10 = 0

OVERALL - 7.4

This game is not terrible, but it is definitely not as good as it could be. It is fun if you are a big baseball fan, but may leave you so frustrated that you end up throwing your controller at the TV. If you are not really into baseball, this game is not for you.

I hope you enjoyed my review, please let me know what you think. Also please do not reply unless you read the whole thing. Thanks for reading!

I love reading your reviews, tgags123!

Not only well-worded and concise, I found your review humorous and fun to read too.

About the game itself, you gave me a really clear picture what it was about. I love the method you used to choose an overall rating; When I try rating holistically, it still feels random.

I never thought I'd enjoy reading a review about a mediocre game, but here you've made it happen.

I look forward to reading your next one! Amazing review.

EideticMemory : Thank you! I am glad that you took the time to read it and that you enjoyed it!