iOOTP 12 (iOS) Review

A few months ago we took Out of the Park Baseball 2013, an amazing baseball sim game for the PC and Mac, for a spin and it received a very positive review. Now, we’re back reviewing OOTP again but this time, it’s on a mobile platform as we take a look at iOOTP 12, a baseball sim game for your iOS device – be it an iPhone or an iPad.

iOOTP 12 is the portable, iOS compatible version of Out of the Park Baseball which allows you to take control over a major league baseball team and sim to your heart’s desire. The game lets you manage just about all conceivable aspects of your baseball franchise and includes the 2012 opening day major league roster set plus the top prospects in the game. The graphics support full HD which is really nice if you have either an iPhone 4S or a New iPad (aka the iPad 3). Going further, iOOTP 12 supports historical seasons so you can relive those from the past. Finally, you can even manage individual games and strategize on the fly, batter by batter, for important games.

Gameplay

First, let’s not compare iOOTP 12 to what we saw in OOTP 13 because it simply wouldn’t be fair and we should judge this game within the constraints of the platform it’s offered on. Diving into a new season is pretty straightforward and you’ll be up and running in no time. From there you’ll notice that you can take control of one team and there’s not much within the area of the minor league system to deal with, which is fine because if you’re playing on a mobile platform chances are you only want the depth of the game to go so far. You’ll find managing your roster to be pretty tedious (or wonderfully detailed, depending on your perspective!) as you can set your lineups and pitching rotation situationally, depending if you are facing a LHP or RHP as well as if you are going to be playing in a game with the DH rule or not. In addition you can set substitution rules and do all the things you’re pretty much already accustomed to doing when it comes to roster management.

Simming games works fine and you can even look at traditional box scores just the way you would in any other baseball sim. However, setting your lineup and moving from screen to screen can be a little difficult (as played on the iPad 2) because of UI limitations. The touchscreen interface can get a little difficult to learn and wasn’t 100% reliable on the iPad 2 but for whatever reason seemed a lot better on the iPhone 4S, especially when moving around your batting lineup. Frankly, moving guys up or down your lineup will be a bit of a pain, as will moving your rotation around.fgh Whether that is user error or not remains to be seen, but users should be warned before diving in to really spend some time to figure out the interface rather than dive into a season.

When it comes to gameplay, iOOTP 12 is best enjoyed by folks that want to dive into a very detailed and methodical baseball simulator game. This isn’t a matter of pressing a button (“GO!”) and then seeing how your team does over a couple of months. There’s nearly day-to-day management needs from roster management to injury management to contract negotiations and more. There’s a ton of depth here which might limit the appeal of the game to the masses, but definitely hits that core audience that we know iOOTP 12 was designed for.

Graphics / Interface

The graphics of the game are nicely done as you’re primarily jumping through a variety of screens with tons of buttons. This couldn’t have been an easy task to take the core elements of what made OOTP 13 amazing and stuff that into the confines of an iOS device. On the iPhone 4S this game is definitely playable, but absolutely more enjoyable on the iPad 2. Side note is that one license works between both devices if you are lucky enough to own an iPhone and iPad.

Moving back to the graphics, the screens are nice and all the icons and graphics are well designed for a baseball sim. The interface was something we had a bit of an issue with as many of the actions needed, such as adjusting your lineup or rotation, weren’t easy to do and didn’t come across as intuitive. It’s probably more of a limitation of the platform, but that excuse aside, the graphics were decent (it’s a baseball sim so they could only impress so much) and the interface was passable but hardly impressive.

Overall Impression

Overall, iOOTP 12 is a really good deep baseball simulator game for your iOS device. If you’re a stat junkie, love baseball and want a magnificently deep hands-on experience running a baseball franchise, then this is the game for you. If you’re a casual baseball person and were interested in a sim, the game is a no-brainer for $4.99, but you should definitely expect a very comprehensive “virtual day-to-day” management experience from iOOTP 12 for iOS.

Overall Ratings – iOOTP 12 (iOS)

Realism:	9/10
Gameplay:	7/10
Graphics/UI:	6/10
Value:	8/10
OVERALL SCORE:	75%