I respect the effort, but they MUST fix the fighting mechanics next year
As a huge UFC/MMA fan, I can definitively tell you that apart from the ONE main (and major) flaw, this is as authentic as it gets. This game was made by people who obviously have done their homework on the various fighting aspects of MMA (or were fans of it to begin with), and the broadcast production of UFC. They've incorporated every single last aspect of the sport here. Everything is authentic, from the graphical presentation and layouts, the commentary, and the different aspects and positions of fighting. Unfortunately, this last point I just mentioned about the fighting is the game's biggest flaw, and ultimately dropped the fun factor way down for me.
Now here's what's wrong with it:
I'm sorry to say this, but in this fighting game, the fighting is pretty flawed. Three major problems with the fighting mechanics:
1) Hitting your opponent just doesn't feel satisfying at all. With the exception of the high head kick, none of the punches or kicks have any impact behind them, and you never truly get the feeling you're damaging your opponent. I guess the boxing style hook punches are pretty impactful too, but not as much as you would think they should be. I don't know if it's a combination of the sound effects and the animation of the fighter when they get hit, but every hit just feels so damn weak. Here's the thing, I don't expect a mere jab to knock you down, unless you're Forrest Griffin, but I expect it to have a little more impact than a yellow spongy Nerf ball being shot out of a plastic toy gun.
2) I have a problem with the standup fighting in this game. It feels so mechanical, robotic, and formulaic. The two of you walk towards each other awkwardly, begin exchanging punches, and whoever has the frame advantage will continue to get their shots in first, so the other person is forced to defend and slowly backstep out of reach. Rinse and repeat; this is how every fight goes if you keep it on the feet. Sure, there will be moments where you stay out of the pocket and stay in kicking range, quickly throwing out a quick leg or body kick, and quickly back off again, thereby trying to slowly pick apart your opponent, but ultimately the fight is going to be a variation of the two of you getting into each other's faces, trading weak looking punches, until one of you gets a flash KO, assuming that his stamina bar was low enough. Obviously you have the option of taking the fight to the ground, or clinching, but I'm specifically criticizing the standup fighting mechanics here.
3) The movement of the fighters: The fighters are very mechanical and awkward to control. There's no fluidity to the movement when you move them around the ring. I was going to criticize the lack of upper body and/or head movement, but this is the UFC, so this is absolutely authentic (with a handful of exceptions like Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, Rampage, Melvin Guillard, and a few others I'm sure I'm missing). Seriously though, I would like to see the right analog stick used in conjunction with a modifier button to control your head and body. Imagine the precision you would have as you move the right analog stick slightly to the side, and see your fighter barely slip a jab or cross, or press the analog stick completely down, as you duck a wild hook. That would make the fighting infinitely more versatile and deep. It sure beats the Rock Em Sock Em Robots style fighting mechanics they've got going now, don't you think?
The single other major problem with the game is the pathetically shallow career mode. Why is it so short? You could finish this in two days. Also, the method of training and upgrading your stats needs to be fixed. It consists of you clicking through a few screens to simulate what attribute you want to train that week, then rest, train some more, then sparring. Yes, I realize this is exactly what happens in real life (more or less), but they WAY you do it here couldn't have been more boring. Basically you're just pressing A or X through a few screens, repeating it, until your upcoming fight, and then you fight. You repeat this press again over and over, and there's just so many cumbersome screens you have to skip through (because at this point you're trying to skip through all those inconsequential screens about sponsorships and new training camps [do those training camp sparring partners even make a difference?]).
I also wish they could've given the option of using a current UFC fighter in career mode. Basically, you play a sports game usually to use the stars you like. Other than a meaningless exhibition battle, or an online match, you NEVER get the chance to use the UFC stars. You can't tell me "well if you want to fight as a current UFC star so much, why not do an exhibition match, you can use them all you want then." That's complete nonsense. An exhibition match is completely MEANINGLESS. It's purely for practice. I'm not sure if sports fans will back me up on this, or if this is just my extreme opinion, but that's like having Madden, or NBA 2K, and not having the option to do a Franchise/Season/Association mode. You can use your favorite team for ONE meaningless match, but you can't progress through a stat tracked season, where the consequences of winning or losing are in full effect. You can play a bunch of random exhibition matches over and over, or play online. I NEVER play exhibition matches in a sports game other than the first few, just to get the hang of the game. So with this career mode being this short, and if you happened to buy this game and agree with me about exhibition matches, then guess what? Once you beat the career mode, YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO DO. You either start a new career, or you play online, and that's going to get old very quickly.
Random points:
**I really like the ground game here. Between all the transitions from half-guard to full-guard, side control, submission attempts, and all the different struggles on the ground, they really knew what they were doing here.
**I like the feel of the game and how they incorporated this whole "finishing your opponent" mechanic into the game. It's realistic how you can hurt your opponent (standing or on the ground) and have the small window of opportunity to "finish him off," or have your opponent recover.
**Commentary is great, with Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg enthusiastically reacting after a huge hit on your opponent, or as you finish him off.
**When you're playing online, and have the prefight presentation feature turned to ON, why is it that you can't skip ANYTHING? Conversely, if you have the presentation option turned OFF, they show NOTHING. What, not even between the round replays? Nothing at all.
**They have a lot of signature style fighter specific things in the game, but fighting style is not one of them. I really hope next year they can make each fighter fight more uniquely. Each fighter just feels like a palette swap of a boxer, kickboxer, or Muay Thai style fighter. The pre-fight stances as they introduce you are accurate to their real-life counterparts, but during the fights themselves, the movements and the striking all feel the same.
With all this said, I'm actually going to be keeping a really close look at EA's MMA game. I'm just not too confident of how the next UFC Undisputed game will be, because of the developer, Yukes. Yukes also makes the Smackdown VS Raw games, and after almost a decade, I just don't like the 'feel' of their fighting mechanics. Something about the button inputs to do moves on those wrestling games didn't feel intuitive to me. I much preferred the last two N64 wrestling games made by the same publisher, THQ, but an entirely different developer. Imo, those were better than any Smackdown VS Raw game put out. We'll see how it goes, but if I don't like Yukes' fighting game mechanics after a decade, I'm not sure how this is going to change in just one year.