Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001

The first things I think of when I think of baseball are movies such as Field of Dreams and The Natural, movies that embody America's nostalgia for its favorite pastime.  The next thing I think of is Team .366/3DO’s Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001 (HH2K1).  While, over the past twenty years, console and PC baseball games have seemed to mirror the hot-and-cold tendencies of a typical career major leaguer, a few superstars have emerged along the way.  If, in terms of PC baseball games, what all the nostalgia adds up to is a fondness for fun within a structured framework of features and consistent re-playability, then HH2K1 gets my nod as one of the best ever.

As the technology that goes into making these games matures, so do our expectations of what the next title will bring.  Two years ago, 62 home runs in a season was considered the mark by which all other home-run hitters were measured, if such a feat were even considered humanly achievable.  But then came along a couple of, shall we say, more “feature-rich” hitters, who went on to show us, now two seasons in a row, the arbitrariness of our former standards.  Where 62 dingers was once baseball’s equivalent of the “gee-whiz factor,” it’s now more like a four-out-of-five-stars performance: pretty good, but could be better.  HH2K1 is the virtual manifestation of the notion that “what’s come before has been decent, so now let’s take it a step further.”

Few other PC sports games I’ve played have come so close to marrying the best aspects of stats- and action-based packages. HH2K1 not only approaches a nice balance of statistics and visually smashing gameplay, it also strives to supply some of the additional features that should’ve been demanded from other games a long time ago, such as end-of-season awards, a workable minor league system, and a solid physics-based engine.  Before I get into rating the game for its merits and mistakes, however, let me tell you what it offers.

Like most other baseball games, HH2K1 allows you to play in a few different modes, including Batting Practice, Home Run Derby, Playoff, Exhibition, Season, and Net. Batting Practice, new to the game this year, provides a very handy tool for, well, practicing batting.  Settings such as pitch type, pitch location, pitcher throwing style, and pitcher arm strength allow you to fine tune your skills and improve yourself against specific pitches (knucklers on the inside corner, for instance).  The Home Run Derby is a sort of middle-of-the-road presentation of what a good home run derby could be:  the competition involves any four players (even the same four players, such as four times Mark McGwire) swinging away in any of 45 different stadiums; it’s all up to you.  Each player gets 10, 15, or 20 swings, and scores based on whether the hit is a home run, or, if it's not, how far the ball goes within the stadium.  What’s nice about the Home Run Derby is that records are kept for distance within the competition, and then the highest scores/distances are saved after the competition, so you can see who’s won whichever home run derby in whichever stadium.  

The real reason I say the Home Run Derby is only middle-of-the-road is because it feels more like a second thought the programmers had, rather than a vibrant part of the game.  What’s missing are the extra streamers and bunting of the grandstands and the celebration and glamour associated with bringing together the league’s best players for some pre-All-Star Game fan-candy.  The stadiums—while beautiful and seemingly true to life as the panoramic backdrops within which the 3D players are set—are mostly quiet, and the announcer is a bit soggy and repetitive.  One last thing about the Home Run Derby is that it would've been nice for it to have also somehow been incorporated into the All-Star Game portion of this year's version.  It was nice that there was an All-Star Game at all (considering it was completely overlooked in last year's version), but it, too, feels more like a second thought thing than a vital part of the game.

The playoff mode is another part of the game I quickly retired.  You select your team, and the computer selects the remaining playoff participants.  After seeing the Rangers face the Cubs and the A’s face the Cardinals in the same playoff, sitting there scratching my head at the impossibility of it all (the teams listed are in different leagues and therefore can’t possibly face each other, except in the World Series), I felt like my mother at a T-ball game:  “Who’s supposed to do what?”  “How many goals does it take to win?”  While the players’ stats were realistic, I just couldn’t get myself to take the playoff mode seriously because of this major oversight; this part of the game simply wasn’t made for serious baseball fans.

The exhibition and Net modes are also pretty much standard fare in terms of features, but at least with these modes you catch a glint of what the season mode has to offer.  You can pick your teams and your stadiums in exhibition mode, and you can choose whether to play, manage, or just watch.  You can also choose how many innings you want the game to be scheduled for, from 1 to 9, whether there’ll be designated hitters for one or both leagues, or at all, how often you want to see automatic replays, and at how fast of a pace you want the game to be played.  Some of the other features you can choose from are pretty nice, such as guess pitch, pitcher warm-up, one-pitch mode, and variable umpire.  Guess pitch essentially allows you to up your chances of getting a good hit if you guess correctly, but it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll hit even with the correct pitch guessed; you still have to time your swing correctly and, on some occasions, position your bat correctly, in one of the nine swing regions.  One of the things I like about the regions is that they’re invisible, and instead the animation of your batter’s swing reflects the direction you indicate with your D-pad or joystick, such as a high swing for up, a golf swing for low, etc.  Also, the commentator recognizes when you “go fishing,” for instance.  

The variable umpire option is another feature I like, because of the bit of realism and difficulty it adds to the game:  just like in real life, not every umpire sees the same strike zone, though in this game you do also have the option to turn “actual” and “umpire” strike-zone indicators on, to give you a better sense of what will be a ball and what will be a strike.  If you choose one-pitch mode, the game goes by a lot quicker (with you as the manager, and only one pitch per batter), but your options are therefore limited.  If you choose to play out a game, you can have the computer assist in any way you might feel necessary, such as with fielding, batting, running, pitching, throwing, or setting up the defensive positions based on the at-bat situation.

As for the Net, you can set up a game via Mplayer, Heat, or the MSN Gaming Zone, in addition to the standard TCP/IP and LAN offerings.  I tried the Zone and, though I found the rooms to be sparsely populated, I found the interface to be straightforward if tedious (more on account of how the Zone runs things versus how HH2K1 does).  The actual gameplay was too much a victim of lag, and my or my opponent’s computer often froze while initiating a game.  Nevertheless, I did manage to make it through a game or two, and found that the most interesting aspects of online play were that outwitting the opposing batter was more rewarding, and facing the opposing pitcher was more challenging, which, thankfully, is a testament to the power of the human mind as differs from the sharp AI that Team .366/3DO built into this game.

Where HH2K1 really shines is in its career-mode season play.  When setting up your league, you have the option to either manage or play, let the computer automanage your minor-league teams, and let the computer initiate trades, in addition to the options mentioned for exhibition play.  You also select the season length. Next you select which team(s) you’d like to control, and then the season starts.  HH2K1 is at least thorough when it’s not being innovative.  For instance, from just about any screen you can access any team’s information.  So for the enthusiasts who want to rework their pitching rotation based on the pitchers they’ll be facing the following week, to do so is just a matter of checking the schedule and then pulling down a drop-down menu from the pitching rotation screen, selecting the next week’s opponent, and checking their rotation.  There’s also a nice find-player feature that let’s you track a number of different stats and lineups, from all the different major- and minor-league rosters, in order to, say, find who’s currently got the hottest AA pitcher, for the sake of setting up a possible trade.  Personally, I’m a stat-freak, so I made great use of this and also, during the season, the league-leaders feature.

Over the course of a month, I played a full-season’s worth of full-length games.  This gave me a lot of time to explore the intricacies of gameplay, and to appreciate what HH2K1 had to offer graphically.  Within the game you can select a number of different views—high, low, and medium for behind-batter or behind-pitcher views—as well as watch an instant replay or view the stadium from any angle.  I’m not sure why a view-stadium option, separate from the instant replay option, was even included, because you could just control the camera to view the stadium during an instant replay if you wanted to.  The instant-replay feature is indeed nifty, allowing you to view the play from any angle and any height.  Unfortunately, there’s no save feature for instant replays, so you’ll have to commit that incredible home run or double play to memory.  Speaking of saves, the game does include the ability to save a game in progress, however, which is an incredibly thoughtful addition, because who wants to play through twenty minutes of a nine-inning game only to have an awesome comeback thwarted by a power outtage?

Regardless of whatever excesses or oversights, the on-field play ranks with the best I’ve seen.  The graphics aren’t the best, but the physics engine can be felt with the curve of the pitches, the arc of the pop flies, and the location and timing of the swings, though there are the occasional ridiculous hang times and unlikely bouncers.  Hitting is easy to pick up, but hard to do well consistently, unless you’re playing in rookie mode (versus pro, all-star, or MVP mode).  The pitching and swinging motions are fluid, but the running is a little stiff.  It is nice, however, to see that some players have signature moves, such as Big Mac’s fist pump after a home run.  Some players also taunt the other team after circling the bases, while rookies wave to the crowd after their homers.  As for the taunting, though, the sound's a little "recording-boothy," so you can't tell if it's actually your player or just a fan who's doing the taunting.  I was really pleasantly surprised by the number of different cheers and catcalls included for fans.  Many even included the name of the player at bat.  The box scores at the end of each game held a lot of information, including a game MVP, but sometimes the numbers were off and the MVP choice was questionable.  I was willing to overlook this, however, because I was so enthralled by all the information available on the main screen, such as who was injured, who achieved what milestone, who was traded, etc., which I found myself following up on after every game.

Ultimately, HH2K1 offers a nice balance of gameplay and stats, including complete box scores with more information than anyone might reasonably care for.  But everything adds up to make for an extremely realistic ("It's soooo real," as Sammy says) game.  Overall, the appeal leans more in the direction of stats fans who want to swing the bat as well, rather than action fans who want a few stats to follow.  The end-of-season awards are a case in point.  It was nice to see the best pitcher, MVP, and Rookie of the Year awards given in each league at the end of the season, and to see the worthy retirees inducted into the Hall of Fame.  I think HH2K1 would be even further set apart from its competition if the developers work in even more awards and include a separate screen for the superlative records.  What bigger thrill is there than to have a player you’ve cultivated in the minors and then played with through twenty seasons finally break the lifetime home run record?  Or what about when your rookie pitcher breaks the single-season strikeout record?  I’d also like to see some sort of economic model included with the game, instead of the stale barter-trade system, where you offer one or more players for another, and don’t have to worry about salary caps or ticket prices.  I mention these possibilities only because Team .366/3DO has made me believe that anything is possible, and that they, if anyone, can achieve it with their upcoming titles.  Who knows; maybe we’ll even see High Heat Football and High Heat Basketball someday.  Which, considering what’s currently available, would be a good thing for sports gamers.  I give HH2K1 my highest recommendation.

Gameplay:  9.5.  HH2K1 has plenty to offer whether you fancy playing out the action, managing, or simply simulating games for the results.  Just to see what would happen, I simmed out a full season, and ended up with the same teams in the playoffs as in real life, the Yanks as the World Series champs, Pedro as the AL Best Pitcher (Cy Young Award), and Mac and Sammy with identical home run figures.  The results were also similar for the other teams when I played a full season as the Mariners, which speaks to the game’s consistency.  Stealing second was as hard in the game as I imagine it is in real life, but stealing third was impossible, no matter how weak the catcher’s arm was.  I even tried editing up my runner’s speed, but stealing third was still an impossibility.  I was glad to see that this year's edition cleaned up the stealing AI, meaning I couldn't steal third on a throw to second from the catcher, but this came at the price of limiting baserunner leadoffs.  About editing players, the developers included a novel system based on “would-be” figures, versus percentages.  For instance, if you want your player to hit better against left-handed pitchers, you edit up his Vs. Left-handed Pitchers avg., from .267, say, to .403.  Some stats that are displayed in the player editor can’t be edited, so I wondered why they were displayed at all.  The manual is not very helpful with this feature, and, based on the frustrations voiced on one of the HH2K1 forums, this system still has some kinks that need to be worked out.  At any rate, when it comes down to picking up a joystick or gamepad and swinging for the fences, or trying to fake out a batter with a mean knuckler or a frightening fastball, this game is smooth, quick, fun, and easy to control.

Navigating the menus (and there were plenty, but I never felt overwhelmed) was easier than in last year's version, and controlling what was going on, whether by mouse or gamepad, was a cinch.  I found that some of my settings weren’t maintained from game to game, and I was really disappointed by the failures of the playoff and home-run-derby modes.  But again, the splendor of the career-mode system really made me happy.  All the options were right there at the main screen, well organized, and rarely superfluous.  The in-game menus were also nicely navigable, despite the number of features offered.  I did feel the view-stadium option was a waste of menu space.  One additional helpful feature was the scouting report.  This feature was available from almost every menu screen, and it gave you an idea of how your player might hit, field, and pitch.  For more in-depth information on your player, you could double-click him and take a look at his batting, pitching, and fielding percentages and history.  Missing here were the teams the player was on from year to year.  With this information the stats would’ve taken on an added sense of depth and realism.  An easy thing, I should think, for the developers to incorporate.

Graphics:  9.  The movies and photos were crisp and the menus vibrantly colorful.  Where graphics really matter, though, is during gameplay.  Most of the player motions were fluid, with the exception of some stiff base-running animation.  Diving catches were thrilling, even though the outfielders sometimes looked like they ran and then were tripped into a diving catch; perhaps a few frames were missing.  Speaking of missing frames, it was odd that after being struck out, the batter would shake his head in disappointment, or give the umpire a confused look, but then just disappear.  The players themselves had more polygons this year.  Enough, I’d say, to look convincing and, with the help of appropriate skin tones and facial hair, many of the players did seem to resemble their real-life counterparts.  What I especially liked was the uniform variety; each team had home and away uniforms, with additional uniforms switched in at random, the way it’s done in the major leagues.  The uniforms did have a bit of a pastel wash to them, but I didn’t really find this distracting, because of all the other color involved in the skin tones and stadiums.  The stadiums were remarkable and the skies and skylines breathtaking, with most of the stadiums including accurate dimensions, features, and backgrounds.  While you don’t really get a sense of the open-ness of Edison Field, you do see the artificial landscape of rocks and a stream surrounded by green turf behind left-center.  And the green monster in Fenway was rendered in all its simple but imposing glory.  I would’ve only given the graphics eight stars, but I recognized that my standards are a little high, and that HH2K1 isn’t really far off from what the more graphics-/action-intensive games currently offer.

Sound:  7.5.  I can only give the sound effects a seven-point-five instead of an eight or nine because, despite the variety in terms of what the fans, vendors, and the announcer had to say, the backdrop for these sounds was really plain and uninspired.  Though the crowd's din seemed enhanced this year, their cheers sounded hollow and far away.  The game had an EAX option, but I found this was used to give an unnatural echo to everything equally, from moving through the menus to the sound your bat made on your third whiff.  I was really pleased with the variety of what the commentator had to say (as well as with the fact that there was a separate stadium announcer), but the commentator’s lack of energy or pizzazz ultimately served more to annoy me than get me pumped up about the game.  One of the smart things that the developers had the commentator do was occasionally remark on what the batter did with his last at bat, but even these comments felt generic after a while.  The sound of the ball making its way into the catcher’s mitt was realistic, and helped bring me closer to the action, but the sound of the ball jumping off the bat could be misleading.  Hits other than bunts usually sounded like home runs, so I was always disappointed when my smashes turned out to be ground-ball singles.  I give the sound effects a solid “above-average” because while they did little to bring you closer to the action, I didn’t find that they really repelled me away from the action either.

While I might not pay as much attention to the music in a sports title as I would in other games, I can’t deny that I noticed the complete lack of a “during-the-game” music option with HH2K1.  Some smart music might’ve been just the thing to key-up the hollow special effects, but this game had none.  Where there was music, I thought it was pretty good—that being during the opening sequence, which had a catchy, ESPN Sportscenter type of sound to it, and during the pre-game menu screens, which sounded funky and unobtrusive; I hope next year’s title includes some music that’ll serve to get you equally psyched during the game, as you are before and after it.

Difficulty:  10.  The game did become more difficult as I raised the setting, and I never really began to feel like the extra difficulty had anything to do with “AI cheating,” as I did with last year's version.  The improvements to the baserunning AI and fielding system (you can now opt to bypass the cutoff man) sealed for HH2K1 a perfect 10 in this category.  I absolutely loved bypassing the cutoff man for plays at the plate.  This added a whole other level of intensity to HH2K1 for me, and the fact that catchers are now capable of dropping the ball when being smashed into by a runner taking home made the game that much more exciting.  I would've liked to have seen the extra features I've mentioned throughout this review, but in my opinion, the game offers a relatively perfect challenge to many different levels of gamers.  I felt that the wind, which was one of the settings you could turn on or off, became more of a factor for the more difficult settings, and I loved this because it forced me to think more about the timing and angle of my swing.  Also, the pitch selection became a little less predictable as the difficulty increased, and this was another definite plus.

Concept:  8.5.  The only other main new feature I haven't mentioned is the Custom League feature.  Based primarily on the requests of fantasy baseball fans, this feature allows you to create your own leagues with your own divisions within each league.  It's a nice addition, though not extremely full-featured (you can't rename your teams, for instance).  Otherwise, HH2K1 is a straightforward computer baseball game offering not as much in terms of frills as it has in terms of depth.  The farm system is the best of any baseball game ever, but when the game finally gives me a serious economic model (comparable to or better than what Microsoft intended with its Microsoft Baseball 2001), I'll give it a perfect 10.

Overall:  9.5.  This might be the best baseball game currently on the market in terms of gameplay, but it's not quite there in terms of features.  The few problems this game has are relatively sizeable considering the audience the game is geared towards, but despite the problems, despite the few excesses and oversights, and despite the glitches or bugs, this game is downright fun to play.  Because of the in-depth stat tracking and career mode, re-playability is infinite.  Everything about the game is adequate or better, and the developers really strove to give you an experience no other game has ever offered.  Sure, the manual could’ve been more helpful and the music could’ve been flashier, but when it comes to a baseball game, what’s important are the depth and levels of play, the features, and the accuracy of statistics and overall experience.  HH2K1 might not hit the grand slam, but it still knocks a solid triple where other games have only singled or doubled.

Installation:  Medium.  The autorun screen is full-featured, easy to navigate, and helped make the game relatively easy to install.  Unfortunately, there's a sizeable patch to be downloaded, and the game itself takes up quite a bit of hard-drive space.