MLB Dugout Heroes
”MLB Dugout Heroes” is a free-to-play online baseball game that allows players to create and play with their own teams, composed of real life MLB players.
Gameplay is simple but fun, and the game features RPG-like leveling up and equipment. As you play you earn Nuts, which you can use to buy equipment, or player cards which will unlock random ball players from different eras.
There's no fielding -- only hitting and pitching -- so it's an easy game to understand. But it's still fun even for hardcore baseball fans!
SCROLL DOWN TO THE COMMENTS BELOW AND LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS GAME.
- Pro: Very simple gameplay, yet tactical elements for true baseball fans
- Pro: Leveling up and buying items adds a new element to baseball gaming
- Pro: The MLB license means MLB players and teams
- Pro: 3-inning game mode means you can play a game in a couple of minutes
- Genre: Virtual World, Sports, MMORPG, 3D, Minigames
- Area: USA / Global
- Official Site: MLB Dugout Heroes
- Publisher: GamesCampus
- Developer: NeoWiz
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
Screenshots
Review
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 you’ll 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 AIM 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.
Review Brendon Lindsey
October 10, 2009
Review
it is so stupid that this game is only for usa and canada i want know why the MLB is so stupid
jean carlos, on July 14th 2009 02:50 am
You know in all these years of graphic improvements, gravity engine designs, gameplay improvements of course baseball video games have sucked and been ignored. It seems like the only thing they can make good are football video games when it comes to sports, 1st person shooters of course get most of the attention and are deserving. Well this is an multiplayer game that combines action/management/role playing all into one and the game play feel is awesome. This is the first baseball game since Earl Weaver baseball on the Amiga 500 (I am dating myself to the 80s) that I think I might get addicted to. Whos kidding who, I am already addicted. It would be fun enough just to enjoy the arcadish style of the pitcher/batter faceoffs, but it has just enough eye candy and variation to keep you from getting bored without making eye candy the focus as so many of the other baseball video games do. Gameplay is smooth and you have the ability to really use deception as a pitcher making pitches look a certain way to deceive the batter. Unlike most all the other games where you can identify pitches easily Lag is there like any online game but Id say 95% of my games dont have any lag and its mostly the other guy that is causing the problem rather than the game engine. You cant expect too much from a 56k modem! The graphics are cartoony with a Korean feel to it, but not to the point that it is distracting to the fine elements of the game (Baseball started in Korea in 1982 and it feels Korean with many Engrish type misspelled words and my favorite is instead of stealing a base you request it or something LOL) Anyway download this free game when you get back and lets have some matches. You level up and your players get better with experience. Thats where the addiction comes into play as with all role playing games you get a certain attachment to certain players and love it when the level up! The meat of the game is the pitching/hitting and its very simple to learn, but hard to master type of gameplay (perfect), so all you do is point and shoot to hit the ball but its difficult to recognize pitches and will require some experience to learn, (batting is hard at first). Best of all its free and feels like a high quality (although not polished in some areas) console game. The only thing this game is lacking is ball parks. The ones they have completed are so beautiful and authentic, but there are only 3. I wish each team had their own ballpark, but, but I can live with Fenway, AT&T, and Safeco for now. Bottom line, I left my high priced "eye candy" video baseball games in the closet, and spend all my time with this free addicting game! I cant stop playing!
Morgreats2, on May 11th 2009 06:57 pm
I started playing this game during the Closed Beta and it is addicting! It seriously is the best casual baseball game out there. I have MLB The Show 09 for my PS3, but I play this game a lot more just because of the online play and interactions with people. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of baseball young and old.
KingFelix, on May 7th 2009 08:56 pm
I started playing this game during the Closed Beta and it is addicting! It seriously is the best casual baseball game out there. I have MLB The Show 09 for my PS3, but I play this game a lot more just because of the online play and interactions with people. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of baseball young and old.
KingFelix, on May 7th 2009 08:55 pm
This game rocks! Go BoSox!
LL, on April 24th 2009 05:06 am
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I love the game but now I cant even finish one whole game without being d.c from the server! Its so annoying! Please Help?
Bryan, on October 17th 2009 01:42 pm