Zen GarageI’ve never really played a UFC game before, but now I have to say I’m pretty into it! EA invited me to come check out the new game at a preview event held at the UFC Gym in Sydney today, and of course I was eager to get to get some hands on time with the game.
When I arrived we were taken to a room full of UFC gear and shown a presentation from the Creative Director of the game. He explained that the team worked extremely hard on making this an authentic experience, which after spending some time with the game I can say they definitely achieved. I was very impressed with the level of detail and the lengths that the developers went to in order to make this game what it is.
There is insane amounts of detail here, with each character having different attributes that reflect the real world fighter’s attributes. To give just one example, each fighter has a unique amount of damage that they can take on their chin before they get knocked out – yep, you read that right, their chin. So that means that one fighter who in real life is known to have a specific weakness or strength will be represented as such in the game. So cool!
The grappling system has also been tweaked and I found it to be really fluid but also challenging. When you get grappled you have a short amount of time to make some counter-attack decisions by moving the sticks in certain directions. The whole system creates a really tense but tactical experience and one that I really enjoyed. I definitely love my button mashing fighting games, but when you have to stand back and actually think about how your damage and stamina work together, it adds an entirely different element to the way you play.
You can’t just rush in and button mash without burning through your stamina, which in turn leaves you rather exposed to just about anything. I tried that method the first time I played and I got knocked out with a light punch in the face. The second round I held back, thought out my moves a bit more and still got my ass kicked, but I lasted a lot longer!
After spending a short time with the game and consistently getting KO’d, I decided to leave with some of my pride still intact. My first impression of the game is that it’s super realistic and looks amazing. The controls have been tweaked to be really fluid and you can really tell that effort has been put into making this the best UFC game ever.
We will have a full review of the game in a few weeks, but for now check out the video below. See you in the cage!
For more info visit: https://www.easports.com/ufc