It's been quite a while since I've played a UFC game; in fact, I think the only title I've played under that brand was a Dreamcast game about 7 or 8 years ago. It was fun, I remember, but not exactly a blockbuster with a high level of polish to it. UFC Undisputed, however, is a pretty solid revival for the MMA title, obviously infused with the newfound attention the sport has garnered over the past couple years. Yukes, the guys behind a lot of the wrestling titles THQ puts out, have done a great job of interpreting the sport in video game form, and while it's not without some annoying flaws, for the most part it's a great experience for MMA fans and even those that don't follow the sport.
Personally, while I enjoy seeing a fight or two, I can't say that I follow it that much. I know some of the big name fighters, Silva, Mir, Lesnar, etc., but I can't break down their careers or give you a name for every submission, hold, or technique. Still, UFC Undisputed really doesn't talk down to the average player, it goes all the way with the terminology related to MMA, and doesn't really hold your hand when it comes to telling you the differences between guards, full mounts, or any other term tossed around in the game. In part I appreciate that, it's designed to appeal to the fans, and if you enjoy the sport, I think you'll get a kick out of realizing this isn't something dumbed down for everyone to enjoy. At the same time, as a person without a big working knowledge of the UFC, I still enjoyed the game without understanding every nuance, and found the gameplay to be really enjoyable and satisfying, even if everything about what I was doing didn't quite click.
When the game begins, you're given a few modes to check out, including exhibition, career, online, and finally classic fights. Obviously most of these are self explanatory, but classic fights features match-ups across the history of the UFC recreated in video game form, something akin to the Legends of Wrestlemania title that came out recently, where you control one of the fighters and have to achieve a win that mimics the way the actual match went down. It's an interesting side diversion to the career mode, but some of the seeming randomness of KO's makes the mode harder than it should be, especially when it comes to winning a match by decision.
Career mode is the gut of the game, where you can create your fighter among a variety of sliders and options and introduce them to the UFC through an introductory fight. Before you even enter career mode the game will prompt you with a tutorial, which I'd advise you to check out if you want to even try and understand the ground game. After you've passed the initial test, then you're introduced to the training schedule, sponsors, and other special events besides the fights that are scheduled for you. The career mode spans a number of years; with your fighter only participating in fights about 5 or so times a year. You need to manage your stamina during the periods in between, along with training and sparring options so you're always on top of your game. There's a number of stats to keep track of, including a lot of options that you can pour earned points into, along with your two areas of expertise that will gain levels after completing special training camps. Needless to say, there's a lot to keep track of, but the presentation is simple enough that anyone can get a handle on things.
My only real complaint about Career Mode is the number of menu's you need to navigate through, and the amount of small load screens the game presents you whenever you want to do so something. For instance, your default screen offers up your schedule in a calendar form, and this is what you'll be looking at for the most part. However, you get constant emails, either from trainers, event organizers, or newsletters from UFC detailing current events. Every time you check your email you back out of the calendar screen to go to it, and you have to load, and then you check your email and there's a momentary pause for each one you read. Finally, backing out and going to the calendar again presents a load screen. Along with that, if you pick to spar or train, or attend a camp or special event, there's more load screens to wade through. Basically, it feels like there's a lot of downtime in career mode before you actually get to fight, and it's a bit of a chore to work through. This doesn't include the way sponsors are handled, which is another big annoyance.
As you fight, people will want to sponsor you, and they'll present you with a logo to patch onto your shorts. These logos will generate a number of points that are used to build up your rep, and you can outfit yourself with about 10 different logos at a time. However, just about after every fight you get a new one, which requires you to back out through a few menus, access your edit screen for your fighter, then wade through 3 or 4 more menus before you can edit your shorts. Then, after you place the new logo, you need to back out of those same three or four menus again, save your changes, and then wade back through the other menu's to get back to your schedule. It's a process that could have used a lot of streamlining, especially considering how often you'll need or want to go and change things around.
The gameplay itself is pretty interesting though, and certainly unique compared to the other stuff Yukes has put out recently. The striking aspect is self-explanatory; each face button correlates to a specific part of the body, with two buttons for each kick, and two for each punch. There's a combination of shoulder buttons used for low strikes or ducking hooks, and the right stick is used primarily to clinch up with your opponent or to take them down. The ground game, however, uses the right stick almost entirely, where you have certain quarter circle movements to initiate transitions or reversals, and press in with the right stick to begin a submission. Once you have a submission locked in, depending on your stats, you'll either constantly rotate the right stick or mash away at the face buttons to hold that submission in place. Likewise, your opponent can use the same buttons to try and escape, and it can be hard to take down a lot of the AI characters unless you've already worn them out or they've hit a "gassed" state. The whole transition thing takes a bit to figure out, but you'll notice as you start to move the right stick around that your character will give off telltale signs of movement to let you know whether you're pressing the right direction to change up position or not, and after a while you'll learn how to move from one direction to the next without having to really think about it.
While the career mode is certainly the main part of the game, I actually had a lot more fun with the online game and playing against actual players, even if I did get my ass handed to me more often than not. Online you have some options to choose from, along with different weight classes to fight in which will give you a roster of players within those classes, including whatever class your created fighter is in if you have that option on. From there you simply find a match, which doesn't honestly work that well. I'd often just search for a match, only to have nothing come up, and then create a match and then see someone join my game instantly. I'm not sure if there are matchmaking problems with the PS3 version that I primarily played on, but it was a minor annoyance. Once fighters have been selected you go into the fight for however many rounds you've selected. The online game is pretty challenging, and while it gets a bit easy to predict the AI in career mode, actual players are far more unpredictable, and it's really fun to battle it out against another person. There are some current issues with people that disconnect before they've completely lost, which doesn't result in a penalty for them or a win for you, but outside of that the online mode works quite well. I will advise you that you'll want a decent connection; I tried playing on a wireless set-up and would run into frequent lag issues, so keep that in mind.
Despite some of the small problems I ran into, I really enjoyed this title, and I think it's a great first go for Yukes and THQ at bringing the license back to video games. There's some interface stuff I'd like to see streamlined a bit, but the visuals are fantastic, the gameplay is certainly interesting and unique, and the overall presentation is spot on from what I've seen of UFC in general. There are a lot of different fighters to choose from, with most of the fan favorites well represented, and even the commentary work is pretty solid, but it does get a little repetitious depending on how much you play. All together it's a great first effort, and well worth checking out for MMA fans, and I think even non-fans will find something to enjoy from this fighter.
