Now, if you want to play a game where you use your mouse, gamepad, joystick, or keyboard to move your players around the screen, this game will not be for you. Replay is a baseball simulation game. Players are represented with cards and these cards along with dice and charts help you determine the results of each individual plate appearance.
Instead of manual dexterity determining the outcome of the game, your wits coupled with some luck will help you win the world series. Games are won and lost based on lineup decisions, when to pull your pitchers, whether to pinch hit, and whether you should bring in your defensive sub for your lumbering slugger late in the game.
Let's start at the beginning. The folks at Replay strongly recommend that you download and take advantage of their five day free trial before purchasing the game. There are two reasons for this. First, they say the game requires some basic computing knowledge, but so far I'd say even my dad could figure out how to play a game. Second, there is no refund once the game is purchased. I would certainly take them up on their offer prior to purchasing the game just to make sure it meets your gaming needs.
This review will focus on the actual gameplay of PC Replay Baseball. There are many other aspects of the game that I will cover in a second post. There's just too much to talk about in a single article.
I decided to see if my Reds could get revenge on the Giants for knocking them out of the playoffs last year. A single game playoff should do the trick with Matt Cain going against Johnny Cueto.
Let me say that the field used as a backdrop is a nice touch and looks very nice. Also displayed are the fielders range ratings and error ratings. There is also a place for player pictures, but the pictures in the game are all blank. I'm assuming that's a licensing issue, but if you spent the time you could put all the players pictures in the game and it would be even more impressive. It looks like there's a pitcher fatigue rating as well. Left of the field the current pitcher and batter cards are displayed. At the bottom of the screen you have the pitchers and hitters stats. I really like the layout of the screen for gameplay.
The game proceeds with the offense deciding whether they want to swing away, bunt, or hit and run and the defense deciding how they want to position their fielders and if they want to intentionally walk the batter. Additionally, each side can make substitutions at any time.
After decisions for the at bat are made, you "roll the dice" and the numbers are cross referenced to both cards. Now this is where I get a bit lost having never played a game of Replay before. I'm confident the numbers on the card mean something, but as of yet I have no idea which numbers are "good" for my team.
If I play a game of Strat-o-matic, for instance, I can glance at the cards and see which column I want to roll on for a particular hitter because the shorthand is baseball shorthand. That's not the case with Replay. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's just something that actually makes me want to get the board game so I can follow along with what's going on in the engine of the game.
The game felt like a real Reds/Giants game. The computer manager did a reasonable job with the Giants, but I'll need more than a single game to determine the computer manager's acumen. At least there wasn't a situation in which the pitcher hit for himself in the top half of the inning only to be removed for a reliever to start the bottom half. I've seen that happen before and it really annoys me.
My game had lots of cool stuff that happened. There were stolen base attempts, hit and run attempts, a balk, close plays on the bases, a rain delay (which would have reduced the stamina of the pitchers if they were older), and extra innings! I had an absolute blast and was on the edge of my seat.
My Reds scored in the first but left the bases loaded. There was no more scoring until the Giants knocked in their run in the 7th. The final tally came in the 14th when Joey Votto led off the inning with a homer. Wow! Chapman had some trouble in the bottom of the inning, but struck out Pill to end the game with runners on the corners.
After the game, I checked out the stats and was very impressed. The boxscore is clean and has everything I want in my stats program. The final screen even shows the MVP of the game. What a nice touch!
My nitpick, besides the not understanding what is good on a card and what isn't has to do with the basestealing. And I'm really not sure I'm right. I like having the extra tactical option to decide when to attempt to steal a base.
I can see their point though. A low percentage basestealer won't have nearly as many stolen base attempts as he should if you are trying to accurately simulate each player's season. For instance, I'm not going to attempt to steal a base with Dale Mitchell the year he stole 13 bases and was caught 18 times. Oh, and I did some searching and there is an option within the game to allow players to make the stolen base decisions. The best of both worlds.
Oh yeah, I have one additional area that needs improvement. There is an "announcer", but it's nowhere near what APBA did with Ernie Harwell 20 years ago. I was bored with it before the first game was over. I will probably turn it off for the rest of the demo period, but I'd love to see them expand on that feature.
Overall, after 1 game, I'm very impressed with Replay. I'm certainly looking forward to giving this game the 5 days I have on the trial and if my initial impressions are correct, I can see myself becoming an owner of PC Replay Baseball. A final grade will be given with part two of the review, but so far it looks the ball is hit deep in the alley, it has a chance to go.....
