DISCLAIMER: The reviewer is a first-time UFC video game person. This review has been catered to those who have never played the game before. If you want a more dedicated gaming review about UFC from an experienced UFC gamer, please see Will Johnson’s review.
Gameplay is the key to success in EA’s UFC and you thusly must prepare yourself for a complicated road to said success. To be quite honest, UFC is probably the most complicated sports title that I have ever played in my gaming life. In Madden, you have to read defenses/offenses and select the appropriate plays to match them. In MLB The Show, you have to see what the pitcher is going to throw before swinging the bat. In UFC, you have to literally learn dozens and dozens of different control combinations for different situations and access them on the fly as the fight goes on.
This isn’t a simple punch/kick/takedown kind of game. This isn’t Karate Champ. UFC is a very technical experience that requires your full attention to learn it. For example, when you take someone to the mat, you press L1/L2 + swing your R thumbstick in a half crescent moon motion on each side of it. That’s how you pick up your opponent properly and throw them to the ground. That’s just one single move, and that’s not even the only way you can do it.
Once you have them on the ground, you have to figure out what you want to do. Do you want to punch them? How hard? If you want to hammer them in the face, you can do that as much as you would like, though it won’t be as effective as waiting for your power meter to go back up and punching them with some oomph behind it. You could also roll their arm into submission, you could get up and propel yourself into their face, or you could simply knee them in the body. All of this requires split second thinking and decision-making, and you have to know the right buttons to get the job done.
There’s an amazing amount of complication to the controls, though you UFC fans from the THQ days know this by now — us newbies don’t.
Just know that when you’re picking up your copy of UFC, you’re committing yourself to learning the product. There is no easy way to do things in the game and you should know that going into it. With that said, do the controls hinder the experience? Not at all. Don’t get me wrong, when I first started UFC, I thought to myself, “What did I just get into?”, but now having played it for a better part of a week, I fully understand that knowing these wide array of physical weapons can only give you options and variety when you’re going up against another person online. It’s a chore to get used to the controls and such, but mixing things up and keeping the other person (be it an NPC or actual person) off balance is a joy to watch when it goes right.
So, how do you learn the controls? The game gives you plenty of opportunity to get your head wrapped around the controls through challenges and going to the ‘gym’. You’re given short stints of goals to meet with both options. Both the challenges and the gym will take you through repetitive instructions to make sure you keep fresh with how to control and manage your fighter. It’s brilliant and it goes with the old saying that if you keep repeating yourself, then eventually it becomes second nature.
In the gym, which is mainly in career mode and between fights, you’re given three tasks to complete while there. Each task is broken up into offense (kick/punch/takedown), defense (blocking), and clinching/submission. You’re given a certain amount of goals to meet within a short amount of time. The success of those goals is measured through a martial arts belt rank (white/purple/brown/black). If you meet those goals, you basically are teaching yourself the controls of the game slowly. In addition, if those goals are met then you gather attribute points that can be used to improve certain aspects of your fighter — such as punching/kicking/etc..
In challenges, you’ve got three initial categories to choose from to learn the controls and improve the fighter. They are broken down as follows:
Stand-Up
– Movement – This is training for basic movements such as lunges and slips. You get to learn how to be a bit more defensive on your feet.
– Advanced Stand-Up – This is for striking techniques.
– Heavy Bag – Probably my favorite of the bunch, you work on your punching skills in the game. The game throws a series of button combinations at you and you repeat the pattern to become successful.
– Thai Pads – This is where you work on your kicking skills. Lots of work in this area.
– Blocking – Probably one of the most important portions of the game is keeping your hands up and swiping away your opponents offensive strikes. Definitely something to concentrate on when you’re working out the gameplay.
Clinch
– Clinch Striking – When you have someone up close and personal, and you’ve got them held, this category helps to improve your CQC offense. It’s important stuff, especially if you’re about to get taken down.
– Clinch Control – Another important, and tough to learn skill. Controlling your opponent when you get in a clinch. This is a complicated set of actions to learn, but good ones in a close fight.
Ground
– Wrestling – Getting your opponent on the ground and in a position for submission. This is a tough one and probably the most complicated of the bunch to learn.
With each challenge, you’ve got a certain numbered goal to complete before you can move on to new ones. For example, my stand-up challenge success is sitting at 25 out of 50 completed. I’m assuming, because I’m still trying to complete them, that more challenges will be opened up as I continue successfully completing the previous. It makes logical sense. Anyway, much like the gym, the challenges help you to learn the controls and that’s the key to success in UFC.
To wrap up controls, learning the controls to the point where they are muscle memory will determine how much you like the game and how successful you can be online with the game. Every bit of your enjoyment with EA’s UFC is going to be created by your dedication with the getting the controls down through the gym and challenges.
In short, don’t skip out on learning the controls and do all the training you can possibly do.
What about game modes? You get four initial game modes with UFC. Here is what you should expect:
Fight Now – You know what what this means. Like a quick game in Madden or MLB The Show, you simply jump in and fight other actual fighters. This is the place where you can whip out Bruce Lee and do some damage. For experienced UFC gamers, this mode will give you a nice quick fix for UFC fighting. For non-experienced folks like me, this is a mode I will come back to when I’m ready for it.
Career – I think I’ve spent more time during this review period in the career mode. This mode allows you to create and cultivate a fighter. It’s tough, it’s rough and it’s an enormously long road to take when you’re preparing to play this game. You put together the fighter through leveling (gaining XP from fights) and through working your butt off in a gym to improve yourself. It’s a very gratifying mode to play in UFC and one that people should stick through to enjoy the game.
Challenges – This is what I talked about in the controls section. You get a series of challenges to run through that help you to improve your skills in the game. It’s more about learning the controls and getting used to how the game is played.
Online – Go online when you’re ready to go online. Learn the game extensively before you throw yourself to the wolves. The online experience is interesting, but it’s full of experienced players that have zero sympathy for your ass.
These are the main modes of the game. There’s enough here to warrant the price tag of the game, especially when you consider how long you’re going to be spending creating and cultivating the perfect ultimate fighter in the career mode. The gameplay is complicated, but nice. The modes are plentiful and deep. Everything appears to have a fine toothed comb run over it by EA Canada. Credit them for delivering what they’ve promised in terms of gameplay.
What about the quirks? Well, the loading times are horrendous in some areas. You get about 20-30 seconds between action in the ring and going back to the gym. It doesn’t seem like much, but if you go into a fight and knock someone out in a short amount of time, then you’re playing the waiting game — a lot. Also, the game is initially smooth when the fighting gets started, but there is a lot of start/stop with the animation if the game gets too overwhelmed. I’m not a tech person, so I can’t tell you why, but I can say that it does happen frequently — mainly when the actual fighting isn’t going on. It doesn’t mean that the gameplay is clunky, because it doesn’t happen too often during matches, but it looks and feels clunky outside of those matches. The menu system stops and stutters sometimes, but it has no complete freezing. It just seems like the console is trying to work through a lot of movement all at once, while still trying to process onscreen animations, music, etc..
Is it terrible? No, but it is slightly distracting and ugly at times.
Another quirk is the contact you make with your opponents while fighting. Some of the animation is pretty darn spot on, especially when it comes to clinches and punching. The contact through kicking can be spotty at times. The roundhouse kicks look great when they connect, but the front kicks look awkward — regardless of how many times you throw them or how they land. The contact animation isn’t quite to the Madden level yet, but I have hopes that it will get there once the developers fully figure out the hardware.
As a whole, the gameplay is mostly positive. I think people will probably get snagged on the amount of patience they will have to produce with the game when it comes to learning it. It certainly isn’t for everyone, but I found it a really engaging experience once I got beyond that learning curve.
Now for the reason why most new people will look into this UFC title — the presentation. Everything that EA Canada showed in all the trailers you’ve seen on the internet have been delivered inside the game. The character models are absolutely stunning to watch in motion. While some of the animations (like the front kick) could be a bit faster, the look and reaction of the fighters is unbelievably pretty. From veins popping up in the chest and neck region when fighters shout to the world in victory, to muscle ripple when they hit the ground or take a hit from the opponent; all of it is mighty impressive to watch unfold onscreen.
The damage you take during matches actually is beautiful (in a sick way) as well. Blood splatters from broken noses can get on the octagon mat, as well as on the opponent if they roll over that spot of the mat. The cuts and bruises show up appropriately and add to the visual action and intensity that you’re seeing unfold. For example, I kept working on my opponent’s head in one of my matches and ended up disfiguring his nose through every brutal combination I threw. It was impressive to see develop. It shows that EA Canada certainly took attention to detail when they were making this game.
Outside of the menus that were flaky (see my quirks in the earlier part of this review), there isn’t much to complain about in terms of animation and looks. For the most part, EA Canada did a fantastic job with the current generation hardware and will probably go above and beyond what they visual produced here once they get going on the next UFC game. Until then, enjoy what they delivered.
So at the end of the day, should you buy UFC? I think that if you love UFC, and sports in general, then you should definitely consider it. It’s not easy to play or learn, but if you can work through the pain it takes of getting the controls down, then you will find an engaging game waiting for you underneath. UFC is unique, it puts you to the test and is far more complicated than any sports game that I’ve run across. If you’re up for the challenge, then you should take the plunge.