EA Sports UFC review
When EA first revealed it had acquired the license to make UFC games, I admit, I was giddy with excitement. THQ and Yuke's had done a great job up until then at depicting the sport of mixed-martial arts in a game, but now it was time for EA Sports, with its limitless budget and superb presentation skills, to take things to the next level.
Two years later, I'm left wondering at what might have been.
EA Sports UFC is not a bad game by any means; it's actually a very accomplished one. Just take a look at the character models, the way they move around the cage and the way faces react to a variety of different strikes. This is from the guys who brought us the beloved Fight Night franchise, and aesthetically you can really tell. Watching Jon Jones trading punches with Daniel Cormier is glorious to behold and MMA has never looked better.
But sadly where it all starts to fall down is during the gameplay. Fights seem a bit rushed, the controls remain confusing even after playing for hours upon end and it's not unusual to lose patience with trying to adopt a decent strategy and instead resort to button bushing your way to victory. This resembles a bar brawl more often than the patient game of human chess that hardcore MMA fans watch every week in real life.
We'll start from the beginning. EA Sports UFC kicks off by placing you in a tutorial where you're controlling current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones against number one contender Alexander Gustafsson. You'll learn how to pull off a variety of different strikes, how to block, how to engage a clinch, how to take your opponent down, how to transition on the ground and how to attempt or block submissions. It's an exhaustive tutorial but a necessary one, just because there're so many different moves you can pull off.
Completing each tutorial challenge is easy enough, remembering what you learnt and applying it to a fight isn't. Wanting to do something and actually doing it are two very different things, and we were left cursing when the complicated controls meant that we forgot how to do half the moves. This frustration mainly came down to the ground game - which is so hard to get right in MMA games - but even the striking is very hard to get comfortable with.
Don't get me wrong, the large array of strikes you can pull off on the feet is superb and this is where the game is at its best. Uppercuts, jabs, body kicks, flying knees, etc can all be done using a combination of the face buttons on the controller and a push of the left stick in a certain direction. You can also use the shoulder buttons to add extra power to your punches or kicks. Then you can block, parry, slip or dodge on the defensive side, and this can lead to some very slick animations and fights when everything is going well. There's also a damage indicator on the top corner of the screen with body parts that slowly become more red as they receive punishment. This is useful for knowing just which part of your opponent to target, or knowing where to defend your own fighter.
Unfortunately, and unlike the THQ games, strikes aren't determined by distance. So if you're up close and personal with an opponent you'll still be performing roundhouse kicks instead of short knees to the body, and it all just looks a bit unnatural. As does fighting in the clinch, which should be a back and forth battle around the cage but instead looks far too robotic. Knocking down an opponent should be a great spectacle but it's ruined by the fact that you can't stand over them rain down punches while they're rocked. Moving towards them means you clumsily end up in a mount position and before long they've usually recovered. There's just no fluidity here.
When it comes to the ground game there are only a few takedown animations, and after that it becomes a battle of attrition for securing the best positions. Using the right stick will try to maneuver your fighter into a better place, but it becomes a mini-game of countering and getting stuck. It's also extremely frustrating when your fighter is on top and then gets swept easily so he ends up on the bottom with the opponent in full mount. This hardly ever happens in real UFC fights and you wonder just why the developers made it such a common occurrence here.
The submission system is something I can get behind, though. The most recent THQ effort had a frustrating mini-game where you rotate the right stick as fast as possible if you wanted to pull off or defend submissions. Things are much improved in EA Sports UFC, as an octagon appears on the screen when a submission is initiated and the defender has to push a bar towards one of four corners. The attacker has to match the defender's direction to keep the hold in place, and every few seconds the attacker can then tighten the submission and advance to the next stage. Visually seeing the effect of your work represented in the mini-game is a huge improvement and pulling off a submission victory is probably the most satisfying part of the game.
Overall nearly every fight is enjoyable, but it doesn't really replicate the sport in the way I'd hoped. Striking, grappling and fighting in the clinch all work as separate entities, but it's when you put them all together that things look a bit messy and mechanised.
Moving outside the cage you might be surprised to hear that for an EA Sports title, things are a bit limited. There's career, fight now, online, create a fighter... And that's pretty much it. Pride mode didn't make the cut and there's no option to make your own pay-per-view event, or a mode to relive classic UFC moments from the past. Any of these would have added a bit more substance and hopefully a sequel would look to rectify this. The roster is large enough, though, with all the weight classes and top names you'd expect (except current UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw who was left out of the original list and then went on to win the shock the world and win the title a little while ago). Women are also represented for the first time which is a nice touch.
Career is interesting enough and for the first time in a UFC game it features The Ultimate Fighter competition, so you'll be taking your created fighter through that route to get them into the promotion. Progressing through career is fairly enjoyable but the training mini-games become dull and repetitive before too long. You'll also be receiving strange video messages from the fighters and UFC president Dana White along your journey, telling you congratulations and to keep going.
Online is probably where you'll be spending the bulk of your time, and competing against real-life players usually leads to more enjoyable scraps than ones against the AI. Choosing your favourite fighter and taking him on a run of wins online is very satisfying indeed and can be addictive once you get into it.
I still had a great time with EA Sports UFC, but I wanted it to be greater. This just isn't quite the flawless representation of the sport I'd imagined it would be, as complicated controls and a lack of animations bring me back to reality before I can become really immersed. For hardcore fans it becomes a must-have addition to their collection, but those not versed in the ways of MMA may find this too tough to break into.