Let me be the first to admit how terrible I am at UFC. The first game had me floundering in places and I was restricted enough in career mode but it did give me something to keep at. Now that UFC 2 is here, I’m determined more than ever to rectify some sins of the past. Speaking of sins, it seems that the EA cover curse still reigns. Two of MMA’s biggest names fell in succession. Ronda Rousey and Connor McGregor’s surprising losses only enforced the weird insidious curse of EA sports cover can extend to other titles.
Think of UFC 2 as a MMA simulator, you have to understand movement, judge distance, how your attacks affect, not just your opponent but your stamina too.
Fighting titles for me have been about skill and timing and shamefully admitting, button mashing back in the days to get the combos right seemed to be the best way to go about. While skill and timing still apply, button mashing has no place in UFC 2. It’s methodical and if you’re not too careful with the way you move, it could quickly cost you. In my playthrough of the game, I had a chance to look around what UFC 2 had to offer sans online play. I would highly recommend for any newcomer to actually go through this process since the tutorial only scratches the surface to what you can potentially do. Think of this as a MMA simulator, you have to understand movement, distance, how you’re attacks affect not just your opponent but your stamina too.
UFC 2 can remarkably be a stress buster or stress giver depending on which side of the match you’re on.
If there’s anything UFC 2 does from the get go is have you figure out MMA the way you like it. You can enter the career mode with your own personal character that you make, heck even Conan O’Brien did it and had his ass gloriously served to him from Connor McGregor as expected. It’s also something that gives the game bit of its soul as you see your fighter climb the ranks, fight blood sweat and tears as you belt it out. Personally I found that I would play more defensive and take a few hits before taking down an opponent and give him the deserved beatdown, it can remarkably be a stress buster or stress giver depending on which side of the match you’re on.
So what’s new with UFC this edition ? There’s a grappling management game mechanic, which when in a submission move, a stick map appears to the positions you can move to depending on whether you’re on the receiving end or delivering damage. The same kind you would remember from classic WWE games, of course you’re battling for dominance from the counters the other player might pull on you and of course this is determined on your available stamina. It seriously helps but a minor nitpick I’m going to point out is that you’re going to be focused on that progression counter so you tend to miss out the actual submission when your eyes are trained on it, it’s glorious to choke hold an opponent which brings me to my next point of observation.
UFC 2 is graphically a pleasure to look at, and it helps when you get the real thrill of delivering a knock out punch.
In the midst of how unpredictable a fight can go, UFC 2 gets all points on the way it looks. Unlike what you would expect, EA sports has made a lifelike representation of the fighters you get to play with and I’m happy to mention that I didn’t encounter the weird animation bugs that made the first game a bit of comedy. Animations feel more representative and when the hits connect, you’re definitely going to feel it. As fights go on, you can see fighters take a toll, injuries stay and continuous damage will reflect it. You can be assured if you beat down a player, their face will get pulped.
Expect a knockout that’s very representative to what goes on in the real fights and in a sense, to get to pull this off, is a very beautiful thing to experience.
Submissions can be still difficult to pull off, It took me a while to do it in the first matchup, and I would try at length to not take it to that situation because it does take a great deal of investing practice and in that time frame I can see some players skip it altogether. That said, don’t expect to be making sensational combos from the start, blocking controls are separated on bumpers and you’ll be focusing on finding the right points to attack than to pull off a crazy roundhouse kick but if your hit connects with full force, you can expect a knockout that’s very representative to what goes on in the real fights and in a sense to get to pull this off is a very beautiful thing to experience.
Game modes include the familiar Career mode, which is relatively unchanged. Face off a bunch of random players and get your name on the board until you finally meet an opponent you know.
Career mode though now comes with training, another grind where you have to train through a set of exercises to improve your skills, interestingly though, if you train more harder you can get a better stat and how much damage you can dish out. However, there’s also a chance you can injure yourself and get significantly lower stats in the fights to come. So between winning, training and making sure you don’t get damaged too much, Career mode will take most of your time.
The highlighted addition to this game is Ultimate Team mode. Create a fighter as standard and play either online or offline. However you can improve your character by opening a set pack of cards that upgrade attributes and new moves, you can purchase these cards with virtual coins that you win by fighting or accomplishing daily goals that the game decides. There’s also the other method which I met with disdain. You can buy these card packs for real money so you can send your fighter out without the grind. Though you still have to fight other opponents and I didn’t last long enough to play through this completely. If competitive fighting’s your thing you’re going to have to check this mode out. Live Event mode reflects up and coming match ups that happen in real life and you’ll also get the chance to predict the winner of any upcoming fight and the way you’ll win. If your prediction’s accurate enough, you’ll get the coins to buy card packs.
EA Sports UFC 2 is a solid fight action game that you’ll enjoy if you can maneuver your way around the difficulty curves the game will throw at you. Some aspects of the game mechanic may be a bit hard to grasp at first but it’s rewarding later. It’s the kind of the thing that will make you value every victory because it’s going to be hard fought and in my case, it was rare. EA has definitely learned lessons from the first game and has made a MMA game worthy of your attention even if it can be a bit tedious and take you to the grind.
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