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“Sell me on this series.”
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I don’t know about you folks, but this is something I have heard when it comes to books, movies and television, but I hear it most often with video games. Or, I should rephrase and say, I get asked the question most often with video games. Maybe that is because my friends know I’m into video games, but either way this is a question that is certainly asked all the time with all sorts of entertainment.
OOTP 21 (and OOTP overall) is another game where I see this question crop up year after year. People know how critically acclaimed the series is, but they still need a push to jump into things. They most often just need to know if they can get into a text sim. They need to know if they can move beyond just The Show to something else. In a sense, it’s a yearly tradition to see this question in the OOTP portion of our forums, and so I want to point out the thread here if you either want to sell someone on the series or be sold on it.
I’ll highlight one message here from forum user OReilly10 since it’s both got positives and negatives in it to balance each other out.
The product is great.
The biggest factor for me though is the level of engagement that the developers have with the users. They have a lot of twitch streams and it feels like they are as big of a fan of the game as us. I could converse online via a few avenues with people who create the game at any time and ideas/suggestions are welcome. Suggestions are implemented and the game is improved every year. If a suggestion isn’t good, often times you will get an explanation.
The product itself is outstanding. It is a fun, engaging, deep, well-balanced experience. A complete sandbox to do what you want. Do you want to pick up the Marlins starting with the expansion draft in 1992 and re-start history? It’s there. You want to start the Reds franchise from the 1800s? Go for it. The rules, financial rules, and even the monetary scaling all evolve with the times — unless you choose to do a different way. Do you want a salary cap and re-draft the 1927 season? Do it. Fictional League with all fictional teams? Start a new expansion for 2020 as a team from your city and also add another in? Do you want to just pick up the Cubs franchise as a GM (and could be the manager too) starting in 2020 moving forward? Then do it. It is very deep. You have a full minor league system, scouts, coaches (even recent retired players pop up as new coaches you could hire).
Everything is very customizable too. Their forum is filled with mods, logos, uniforms, ballparks, etc.
I never got into the card collection games, but their Perfect Team drew me in. It is a lot of fun.
The gameplay isn’t good though if you need a video game experience. You can manage and watch the game play out (or just spectate).
I don’t remember the last time we didn’t write a glowing review for OOTP, so we do what we can to sell folks on it, but maybe reading some responses from other folks in the community will push you to take the plunge as well.
Chase has written at Operation Sports for over 10 years, and he's been playing sports games way longer than that. He loves just about any good sports game but gravitates to ones that coincide with the ongoing real seasons of the NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL, and so on. As of now, he's gearing up for EA Sports College Football 25 and what should be a wild summer while still dabbling in the latest Top Spin and MLB The Show.
Published: Jun 11, 2020 11:00 am