From the jump, you’re instantly thrown into the fray by reliving the epic world welterweight title match from last year between “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler and Rory “Ares/The Red King” MacDonald. Like any mechanic that puts you into a live scenario right away, small hints get thrown onto the screen like basic movement and strike inputs. After this preface, you’ll be sent to the main menu. The first place you should probably look to are the tutorial inspired Skill Challenges. Even if you’re a hardened EA UFC vet, you’ll still want to get a grasp on gameplay changes after two years of retooling. Initially, you’ll probably notice UFC 2 feels a little smoother. Not that much needed to be improved from 2014 in that regard, but when going through the Stand Up challenges section, the crispness of combos have better “snap.” From simple quick straight punches to complicated spinning attacks and highlight reel style flying knees, you’ll get your striking sea legs with repeated whacks at the heavy bag. As with all mma games to this point, this is by far the easiest aspect in which to become proficient and shouldn’t take much practice. Face buttons coordinate to the four limbs, and the left bumper and trigger act as power and level change modifiers. Learning how to block high and low with right bumper/trigger and parrying shots by weaving with movement + holding left trigger may require some focus, but they’re not hard concepts to assimilate. The other areas will demand more time to develop instinctual reflexes.
The next Skills area is Clinch. Control, takedown defense, and takedown offense constitute the section. Moving into the clinch is the same: gesture the right stick in the direction of the opponent. From here, the most demonstrative new feature becomes visible. Called Grapple Assist, a small octagon shaped HUD addition shows options available to the right stick given current positioning. Striking in the clinch (and on the ground, for that matter) is still handled by face buttons. If you move the stick up, down, left, or right, Grapple Assist shows what action you’re attempting. For instance, lets say you and the other combatant are trading over/under hooks against the cage, a very common first step. Gesturing the stick to the right might attempt the Thai plum technique, meaning clutching the back of the neck with both hands to open up power knees to the mid section and head. Tilting left might offer over double under hooks, a great place to transition into a takedown. Speaking of, the last Skills section is Ground, which covers transition, denials, and submissions. Once the fight hits the canvas, the new menu system becomes even more important. Assuming you’re in top control, but in full guard, you’ll look to improve your position, referred to as “passing.” To move into half guard, hold the right stick left or right to initiate the advance. As you hold the attempt, a yellow circle starts to encompass the Grapple Assist icon. Successful passing is contingent upon factors like stamina and ground stats of the fighters. While on your back, your looking to deny passing from the other guy/girl. Holding right trigger and moving the rights stick in the direction of the pass attempt should stop their progress. Of all defensive options in the game, this one seems to be the most difficult to utilize. From eye line focus being shifted to the Grapple Assist menu, paying attention to these movements doesn’t come natural. Before you commit the bottom transition moves to memory, you’ll either have to decide to stop pass attempts and look at the fight or focus on the HUD to escape from the bottom. The submission system from 2014 is largely in tact. While on the ground, holding left trigger will show if any submissions are available. If so, you’ll once again hold the stick in the direction of the move. Once it is initiated, a quadrant mini game appears on screen in which the person being attacked needs to move the right stick in a direction and fill up one of the four “gates” to escape. The submitter gestures in that direction to stop their progress, while looking for the next direction to flick the left stick for go to the next “stage” of the attack. In UFC 2, some maneuvers require more advances than others while others can be segued into a different attempts by way of the new Chain system. If a green LS notification appears during a triangle choke try, use the opportunity to switch into an arm bar and reset the opposition’s gate progress. Because of the short timer/point gaining nature of Skills Challenges, this isn’t the best way to get used to this rather tricky element. Luckily, the ad nauseum Practice Mode has no time limits and offers different AI attack/defend options as well as turning off stamina and health, which is a great way to really get proficient and master subs, or any other part of your game that may need polishing.
Fight Now is the local one to two player option that offers hundreds of licensed Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes for all ten of the promotion’s weight classes. Starting from the women’s 115 pound strawweight division all the way to the “baddest guys on the planet” 265 heavyweights, it becomes clear what is very good about gameplay and what is imbalanced. In terms of flow, things are sweet. As I mentioned earlier, nothing is uncanny about the movements. Interactions between fighters look as real as possible in all scenarios. It appears new dedication to the mo cap system this year has paid dividends for the design team and is a bright spot. However, stand up exchanges are too fast, just as they were two years ago. Striking in mma doesn’t often resemble the tempest of punches, elbows, knees, and kicks you’ll find in world class kickboxing or Muay Thai. Because of the persistent threat of a takedown, “on the feet” offense is usually more contemplative and methodical. I’m not saying hitting in the UFC is at a snail’s pace or anything, but even the best at it like Demetrious Johnson and Joanna Jędrzejczyk are still more about quality significant strikes instead of frantic volume. The quickened rate of decay of stamina may be a way to temper slugfests, but I think just simply slowing the pace down a notch or two would feel much more natural. On the flip side, ground work seems too lethargic. Unless one person has an insane stat advantage, passing takes an inordinate amount of time to complete. And the reason it seems slow is because of the aforementioned strike RPM disparity. After burning it white hot on both ends like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots in stand up, to then have the action slowed down in such a proportion seems inconsistent. And the cardio demands on each pass can make getting from full guard to postured full mount a chore, particularly the longer a fight goes. The two biggest issues from 2014 were the convoluted ground control scheme and pacing. The former has been altered for the better. While I’m still not an avid fan, the simpler straight gestures compared to quarter and semi circles is much easier to digest. And with submissions, it does seem that fatigue actually plays a factor in sinking and defending, which wasn’t the case the first time around. While not perfect, solid efforts have been made to make ground work more palatable. But stand & bang at the speed of light is still a problem and is the worst gameplay holdover.
I suggest making use of these two play opportunities extensively to get really comfortable with the ins and outs before diving into UFC 2‘s other offerings, like Career. This is the obligatory single player climb up the proverbial professional ladder. You can create a brand new female or male fighter with a deluge of appearance options and basic fight style, import one from 2014, or start a campaign with the likeness and personal info of a current UFC pro. If you decide to go with a real roster choice, you’ll start out with basic stats like a CAF, so don’t get any ideas about boosting the process in the bantamweight division by starting with high ranking Dominick Cruz, ain’t a gonna happen. Predictably, your first set of matches will be as a contestant on the interminable Ultimate Fighter series. Fight some chump to get in the house, then start your path in earnest. Before each bout, you’ll go through a series of practices. Training Camp is comprised of completing three of those salient Skills Challenges, but with a twist. Good sessions will net you boosts to accorded attribute numbers, like a solid heavy bag session improves hand power. The higher the difficulty chosen, the better potential for bigger gains, but also heightens the likelihood of an injury. Fans of IRL mma are all too familiar with this unfortunate recurrence: really tough drills and sparring in camps leading to breaks or tears that force a guy or girl out of an upcoming tilt. Having to deal with the possibility of getting hurt makes you train across multiple areas and not make each attempt on hard to achieve max stats as quickly as possible. “Wear & Tear” is a further extension of the Injury construct as these dings don’t get reset after a fight is done. If you get a -3 yellow mark on your lead leg, that area of the body will be more vulnerable throughout the length of your career with that fighter. Continue marching through TUF, win the season, and gain that illustrious contract with the UFC to start moving towards to contendership for the title!
Brand new to this year’s iteration is Ultimate Team. Players of other EA Sports games of the last several years will be familiar with the basic premise. Import CAF from Career or create new ones for a total of up to five fighters. Compete in online Ultimate Championships or offline Single Player Championships against AI controlled fighters of other Xbox LIVE participants. Start out in division 1 and battle for placement into the top div. 15. In either mode, wins and losses net coins and XP, but only victories move you forward in the Title Chase, in which five consecutive positive results are needed to hoist the ‘ship strap. Of course, what would Ultimate Team be without cards and packs? Instead of athletes, all of the unlocks focus on assorted attributes like advanced moves and technique increases. The most important card is fitness. When you compete, your fitness level decreases, leaving you more likely to gas or get knocked out. It is paramount for you to keep that number as close to 100 as possible. Despite the lack of the actual “team” element considering mma fights are 1v1 affairs, I do think this is a strong first build of the mode. Card designs make sense and seem to add a decent layer of tinkering between fights if staggered in the right configuration.
Outside of Ultimate Team, you’ll have a few other online options at your disposal. Ranked Championships works in the same manner as Title Chase, just with non CAF characters. Choose your favorite UFC pro and throw down towards five straight victories. Alternately, Quick Fight produces one-off exhibitions in which you can host or search for a scrap at any and all weights. Sessions I participated in went very well. The search process completed in a matter of seconds and there was no noticeable lag. As shaky as EA’s netcode can be from time to time, I’m happy to report all seems to check out, at this point. The last way to play is a new one called Knockout Mode. Basically, fights stay on the feet as ground work is not permitted. On the face of it, this sounds like a lackluster concept, however there is a key element. The match is won by being the first to land a selected number of clean significant strikes from one to ten. With this added tweak to gameplay, it makes the mode feel fresh amongst other choices. As a follower of the sport, I’m a bigger fan of the wrestling/rolling element of mma than striking, so I had preconceived opposition to this segment before I started the review process. Within a minute, I was completely sold. Frenetic pacing gives it subconscious ferver similar to that of a traditional 2D fighting game. An as quickly as matches can end, it’s very easy to play round after round without it feeling trite. Top it off with crazy KO animations, and this could very well be the most vaunted local multiplayer option.
While the gameplay and modes are generally positive, the area with the most going for it is presentation. In a word: stunning. The package from two years ago was very good, but UFC 2 has advanced some of the small oddities that kept it from being excellent. One is improving the collision detection. Not that it was bad in the first game, but the new Knockout Physics System (which is billed as making every KO “uniquie”) proliferates improved impact reactions. When leather, elbow, and shin make contact with unprotected flesh, the real time ripple effects are staunch and highly detailed in slow motion replays between rounds or after the fight. Procedural damage of cuts, swells, and bruises is once again spectacular, but seems to have even more dimension and variation. For my money, one of the best commentating teams in all of American sports is Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan. Their greatness is stamped onto the action before and during fights. The Tale of the Tape (info like age, height, and weight) reading by Goldie will actually give math on-the-fly like a distinct reach advantage. Brilliant. During the action, Joe gives his usual expert analysis about the combat styles of the participants and highlights important developments. He does seem to play the “pronoun game” too often for it to sound completely realistic, but the game is pulling from a collated list of recorded phrases, after all. Even the introductions by “The Veteran Voice of the Octagon” Bruce Buffer seem more verbose and enthusiastic.
