EA Sports UFC Reviews
As great as it looks, EA Sports UFC fails to capture the high stakes excitement that makes MMA such a great sport.
EA Sports UFC is a game capable of brilliance. It's let down by some curious design decisions, signs of a team perhaps too interested in capturing non-essential moves seen on YouTube rather than nailing the essence of the sport. But when it flows against human competition, it offers beautiful destruction and glorious drama. Landing a picture-perfect head kick in the final minute of the fifth round of a title fight? Well, it doesn't get much better. And if that's not worth a fistbump, I don't know what is.
A surprisingly hesitant start to EA's new sports series, in terms of both the amount of content and the disjointed action.
EA Sports UFC boasts incredibly detailed fighters and great combat. However, this debut effort from a new publisher lacks the single-player balance and the variety of modes that previous UFC games brought to the ring.
The fighting system has a bit of a learning curve to overcome before you can appreciate the combat
EA Sports UFC feels barely held together, a collection of parts that are often as frustrating as they are poorly explained. Somewhere, in all of the complication and opacity, is a game unlike anything else out there, that finds the unpredictability and wildness that set MMA apart from other combat sports. But there's an awful lot of bad to dig through to find it.
EA Sports UFC looks almost as good as a real MMA fight, but poorly balanced systems dull the excitement.
As Bruce Lee, one of the DLC characters for the game, would say: "Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them." Nothing could be truer for the future of EA Sports UFC.
I would recommend anyone with a little bit of interest in the sport and a lot of patience check out EA Sports UFC. There is a fun game in here somewhere -- it's just behind a lot of barriers.
The worries I had regarding passing the reins over to another developer and publisher are laid to rest here. It is far from a perfect game but the fighting, particularly striking, is the best it has ever been. EA Canada has done a good job of showing that the UFC series is in good hands by delivering an excellent game.
EA Sports UFC hits pretty hard for the debut of a new franchise.
EA Sports UFC wouldn't be bad for a first shot at the MMA genre. But EA had already dipped their toe into the genre, and seem to have done little to move on from there. The striking is very satisfying, and the new submission system is interesting and creates a more level playing field than in the past, but the game is let down by poor wrestling and transition mechanics. There's enough here to show that a second UFC title from EA is likely to be a great game, but this one just needed a bit more time in the gym.
EA Sports UFC is what every fan wanted from the game but it still leaves room for improvement.
EA Sports UFC could have been great, but thanks to a lack of modes and customisation options, it's simply ok.
EA Sports UFC is great next step for MMA games. The career mode and realistic gameplay will gain the love of diehard UFC fans and hardcore sports gamers.
EA Sports UFC has some solid bones to begin with, but the series is going to have to do much more to win over casual sports fans if it wants to be a Madden-like success.
It was obviously EA and UFC's goal to give fans of the sport a video game franchise that encapsulated all their was to love about it. EA Sports UFC is absolutely that, even if all aspects of the sport are not adapted equally.
In the end, EA Sports UFC is still a winner, but by split decision. Some of the omissions like cut and leg stoppages, and the odd bug here and there, make for a debut that is certainly better than EA Sports MMA. Here's the hitch though – somehow despite itself the game is ridiculously fun. Although very ambitious, this title still could have used a little more time in the gym. I look forward to the sequel though – the second fight is almost always better than the first.
Undoubtedly, there's enormous potential for a UFC series that will in the future become a staple part of the EA Sports family. A few tweaks are needed, but things are on the right track.
UFC is not as refined as an experience it could be and compared to other sports franchises it lacks in the depth department; however, there is no question EA Sports UFC game is fun to play and overall is a satisfying fighter.