2020 has been quite a year for sport and leisure simulations. F1 2020 is the greatest licensed Formula 1 title in decades, somehow topping their previous two entries. eFootball PES 2020 brought meaningful competition back to the pitch with its compelling MatchDay mode taking advantage of FIFA’s playerbase woes. Microsoft Flight Simulator‘s first round of reviews are stellar, “Game of the Year” stuff etc.. EA Sports UFC 4 clearly wanted in on the act, showing the skill and raw power that made its title sport the most compelling way to watch humans try render each other unconscious.
Made for Video Games
As combat sports go, UFC is, more or less, perfect for video games. The intrigue of clashing styles, the variety of tactics, and, of course, the visceral yet measured aggression. There have been instances where it goes wrong and quite a few poor MMA games do exist. But when it goes right, as it mostly did with EA Sports KFC 3, it can thrill as the real-deal should.
EA Sports UFC 4 brings what worked from UFC 3, builds on it and adds a set of immersive touches that will tickle fans of the sport. Above all of that, 2020’s edition finds the right balance in so many vital areas.
Rounded Fighting System
UFC 4 is accessible without pandering to button-mashers and it rewards those willing to get to grips with its combat’s finer points.
Missed blows and grabs force enough recovery time to leave a fighter open to the easiest of foes. A system of counters with proficient blocking leave the careless vulnerable. A lack of discipline and poor stamina management will see the fittest fighters gassed out and punished before the first round is over.
Automatic transitions on the floor are intentionally conservative and unimaginative. However, the game will sometimes alert you to a better manual selection, tempting you to take control. This gentle coercion will help many players move out of their respective comfort zones by offering an edge to those searching for it.
The mini-games provided for submissions, while simple, are intuitive. Players get a sense of how suitable the fighters are in these situations or how their stamina or awkward motions affect their chances. These mini-games go beyond mere decision and demonstration, they add an air of tangibility to the tussle.
Knowledge is Power
In real-world sport, what gamers refer to as ‘cheesing’ is known as ‘maximising a strength’. Suitably, the game makes no secret of the fact that players need to know what where their chosen fighter’s strengths lie and mercilessly maximise.
Whether its boxing, kickboxing or wrestling, you will need at least a few moves than can reliably finish or greatly damage an opponent. You’ll need to learn to when to cheese and how to force cheesing opportunities.
In single-player modes, all offensive strategies seem viable once you master the craft. Fighting non-career matches I veered towards the grapplers and wrestlers but tried the whole menu.
Choking foes out worked as it should. Kicking people until they fell over worked when appropriate. And during my first career run I tried a pure boxer and that definitely worked (see below).
An Extensive but Not Exhaustive Line-Up
The game features over 230 fighters across eleven weight classes, male and female. The lack of a women’s featherweight is odd but made up for by the addition of flyweight division. The list of missing fighters is obviously extensive but the true household names are here.
There are some odd inclusions amongst the 200+. Bruce Lee is unlockable in-game and is an above-average novelty. Another oddity is that Cris Cyborg fights at a digital weight she never actually fought in. The line-up has an array of these little niggles that don’t spoil the experience or make EA Sports UFC 4 a lesser game.
Thrust Kicking and Screaming into the Octagon
The career mode is nothing short of excellent. It offers an comprehensive tutorial while guiding you up the first rungs of the ladder. Your first taste of blood is mostly your own. Outmatched by a vastly superior foe, you are charged with lasting till the end of the round, a clever way of forcing even the most impatient of players to learn to guard, bob and weave.
Whether we lose on points or by being finished, our coach introduces the first steps in moulding a fighter to our chosen style. Players pick a partner, devoting what little time and XP we have to prepare for our next battle to a few select moves.
Once free of the short pre-career path, EA Sports UFC 4 should have imparted enough knowledge of the game’s mechanics for you to think about more than just basic moves. You will need a plan.
My strategy of choice was punching the man in the face as many times as possible in the first round. After an initial struggle to find rhythm and distance, our Guillermo Andrade started to become a furious punching machine.
When the distance was right he became known for a crowd-pleasing superman punch learned from a helpful fellow pro. Other times he could tuck his compact frame into the pocket and offer an uppercut, high or low. The whole career is underlined by the satisfaction of refining a set of tactics, training a fighter appropriately and watching it pay off.
Immersion Built…
The overall attention to detail around the game is noteworthy. Loading screens showing fictional social media posts are particularly well done. Between bouts and training in the career mode, players see a mixture of events from their career timeline, amateur footage of a highlight from the recently ended fight and ‘iconic’ moments from UFC’s history. These help ground your career play-through in the sport’s history.
Impressive considering they just needed to divert you from the typically frequent loading screens of a sports game.
The pre-fight commentary is seamlessly cut with an appreciable flow and a little chemistry between Jon Anik and DC. Aside from the limited options for describing fighting styles, stances and strengths, it’s convincing enough to capture the required atmosphere.
The pageantry of fights featuring the sport’s best and brightest is condensed into a watchable highlight reel of the footage around the fight itself. Intros and winner’s announcement don’t outstay their welcome, something that should encourage players to watch the whole show more often.
…But Undermined
There are a few issues in certain areas that crack the immersion. Even though it’s possible to attack effectively with all styles, learning to defend against strikes is more difficult than learning to avoid takedowns or clinches. Online or on-couch, the average opponent will be unable to block every blow so it’s all too too easy to just ‘git gud’ at punching.
It must be said that the AI scales all of its defences equally with difficulty so it isn’t an issue in single-player modes.
The various arenas, real and imaginary, lack consistency. Lesser octagons have too little to distract from the wooden, repetitive crowds and underdeveloped crowd din. The larger venues cover these sins with scale and spectacle. But once you have seen through the trickery even the biggest occasions seem a little less ‘real’.
Similarly, the impeccable motion capture seen throughout the game seem to make the ropier animations stand out all the more. Occasions where a devastating knee to the head misses by inches aren’t uncommon. Sometimes, strikes seem destined to really hurt a fighter and drag the opponent back to perfect distance for the blow.
The game wouldn’t accept any entries for Guillermo’s social media account so he ended up with @CreatedFighterSocial. As small a gripe as it sounds, this botched handle was became painful to behold. Especially considering the work done on how other fighters, Dana himself and the fans chat online with and about our player character.
Title Contender
Despite its issues, EA Sports UFC 4 is amongst the best games that the sport has ever had to offer. The game’s accessibility doesn’t compromise the complexities of what it’s trying to emulate. For hardcore fans, there is also an impressive roster of fighters across a laudable range of weight classes.
Ultimately, what gives UFC its broad appeal is mostly captured here. And all supported by a set of mechanics that translate the look of MMA into something that plays like MMA.
