Taking a page from NFL Head Coach, MLB Front Office Manager allows you to not only set up a franchise, but run it as you see fit. There are many gamers out there who prefer to guide a franchise to glory as opposed to playing the actual games themselves. In Front Office Manager, you don’t need to manually simulate the season, because you don’t get to play the game. Is it more fun to be the puppet master than the actual puppet? It depends on who is pulling the strings.
MLB Front Office Manager is a breath of fresh air into the baseball market even though it is a very limited game in some ways. Many people scoffed at the idea that you are going to pay $40 for a game that you cannot actually play the sport. You have to know what you like and if you prefer to be the man behind the scenes, then this is for you. You will get to be the GM of whatever team you choose and this adds to the replayability of the game immensely. The Yankees will have a team budget of close to 5 and 6 times that off the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Florida Marlins. Whether you want to spend or scrutinize your money is up to you.
The game has a lot of customizable options. First, you will be able to create your own GM and he or she will start off as a rookie. You will earn experience points for accomplishments your team earns such as winning streaks, being in first place and so forth. These EXP will allow you to build your scouting prowess which is integral to success. The ultimate goal here is to build a World Series winner and you will need all the help you can get.
The graphics on the field are definitely scaled back and that is understandable. The menus are very frustrating. Often you need to multi task, but you need to back out of one menu to get to the other. An example is if you are reading through rosters and get an email, you need to back out of rosters and then open email menu, close, and re-open rosters. This may sound like nitpicking, but it will get annoying. Another issue is the AI of the other GMs. Sometimes players who are good get absurd contracts. Does a player like Jose Reyes command a 5 year 75 million dollar deal? He is good, but not that good. There is also no way to make three team trades and that really sucks. Part of the fun of wheeling and dealing is to have to go through an intermediary and here that cannot happen.
Overall, MLB Front Office Manager is not bad. It is something different and many gamers prefer to run a franchise as opposed to playing the actual on field matchups. The game also has its setbacks with the AI being wonky sometimes, no 3 team trades, and the menus being a hindrance. Yet there is one giant caveat. During a game, you can step in whenever you want and control what you want the team to do. If you want a pitching change, pinch hitter, whatever, you can transfer yourself from the owner’s box to the dugout. There are online leagues and you can compete against others if you so desire. MLB Front Office Manager makes a decent foray into the world of sports management simulations and has the potential to be a great Sports RPG if you will. It just has not reached its full potential quite yet.
Overall: 6 out of 10
I prefer playing the actual game than just taking a coaching/managerial role.
While I agree that most people prefer to the actual gameplay rather than the franchise management. I feel this creates a niche aspect that many people will appreciate.
Has anybody ever actually won the World Series?
All I’ve ever come across is, regardless of the circumstances (i.e., even when creating a “Dream Team”) my team always flounders and loses 100 games.
Not to mention, even my farm system is horrendous. What gives?