UFC Undisputed 2010 Review

9.0

Review Score:

To say that I have been looking forward to UFC Undisputed 2010 is an understatement, not to say that last year’s offering was poor, just the fact that after playing the demo a short while back I knew we were going to get a much more polished and updated game with 2010’s edition.

As soon as you load the game there is a different look and feel to the menus, a much simpler and easy to understand menu. To some gamers UFC 2010 will feel like the game does not play that much different to that of 2009 but there are quite a few changes in the general gameplay that increase the realism of fights.

Most of the combat system has been revised and the most noticeable change is the addition of the Sway System. Four-way head and upper body movements provide a new ‘evade’ dynamic to the fight and makes counter attacking much similar to the way of MMA. THQ have also thrown out the old combo system where the combos were pre-determined and limited what you could do and have instead implemented a new system where you can string together sways, punches, kicks and counter-attacks. Submissions have now been tweaked to make them much more precise. Submissions are more real and more effective and require you to pay close attention to the camera on the screen, how much of the submission is applied and how close the fighter is to the joint that is wished to be bent. Still now I find it hard to make an opponent submit in UFC 2010 and everything has to be in the right place for it to be effective.

Visually UFC 2010 is much the same in terms of how sharp the fighters are but with the new styles and new systems with polished arenas and the accurate blood displays I feel that it is a slight step up from last year’s game. UFC 2010 offers various new game modes; Title Mode is where you fight a set number of matches in what can be best described as a gauntlet with the winner becoming the champion, it felt a bit like a cross between the career and exhibition modes, Title Mode offers there different ladder sizes of 8, 10 or 12 including all the weight classes, alternatively Title Mode allows you to use a custom fighter.

Title Defence is another mode, similarly to the Title Mode can use your custom fighter or a UFC roster fighter. There are a few differences in that every match is defending your title and is much, much harder as the AI soon becomes more difficult. In Title Defence, restarting is not an option. This means that there are rewards not only for surviving one match but three and then twelve consecutive matches.

Fighter Condition is a new mechanic present in these new modes. A stat modifier and condition is represented by the overall health of the fighter over the course of defending your title over 12 matches and is meant to reflect a real fighters varying degree of preparation going into each fight. For example: if you’ve taken a fair amount of punches to the head, you’ll be more likely to get knocked out in the next fight. The quicker you end the fight and the less damage you endure will make it much easier to progress through the mode. In saying that, you still have to be strategic in how you approach the fight as while it is true that constant damage to a certain area of your body will mean that it will be a weak spot for you, recovery can be made by guarding that area for enough time. You will regain a percentage of your health back at the end of each match.

Some people did not like the career mode in the last game and for good reason. The length of the career mode was arguably too short spanning over only 7 years. This has now been increased to 12 years, meaning that there are around 60 fights overall to be beaten. Also in 2009’s edition, your fighter never aged. A new stat decay feature has been implemented to change this, as you progress through a career your stats will go down if you do not maintain them. Increasing an individual ability such as strength over a period of a few months and leaving the speed and cardio will mean that they will decrease over that period so raising your stats evenly is a must. Rather than just starting out your career by automatically joining the UFC roster, you are given an opportunity to face some amateur fighters of which are of variable difficulty to test the waters before you go professional. When turning pro you do not automatically join the UFC roster but join the World Fighting Alliance for a while to prove that your fighter is worthy of playing in the big leagues. Sometimes there will be a need of winning matches by a huge margin to impress Dana White and get that invitation to join UFC.

This time round you are not limited to one weight division unless you start out as a heavyweight, ideally it is more rewarding and satisfying by starting out as lightweight and then move divisions through your career giving fresh competition and more ability to learn all the techniques from all the classes. Marc Laimon, ultimate fighter coach, will be your mentor throughout your career and provides quite a lot of advice about improving techniques and how to be a better fighter. This is new to the UFC game and is a welcome addition. Unlike in 2009, you don’t have to wait until further into the career to unlock the big name sponsors such as Tapout. By performing well and being undefeated, you will unlock these sponsors earlier.

In UFC Undisputed 2010 there are opportunities to make friends and rivals depending on what actions and choices are made throughout the career. Insulting an opponent during a weigh-in or a post-match interview will bag you a rival. Extra credit and popularity is earned when fighting a rival. There are some perks to making friends and joining camps as well, such as being a boost of technical progression and learning new techniques. Just before a fight there is a neat little cutscene where you stare down your opponent and you could touch gloves and be friendly or flip them the middle finger to enrage your opposition. The choices you make can be made in the Create-a-Fighter mode.

There is a new feature to the career mode that is also present in the Title and Title Defence mode where the commentators recall exactly how well you have done in previous fights and I did not notice at first when playing through my career but as I won more fights and used the same knockout kick I would hear Mike Goldberg say “The Wolfman has won the past 6 of his fights using that same knockout kick” – A really nice touch that adds to the realism and immersion of the game.

The Create a Fighter mode has been greatly improved and your dream fighter can be created in a matter of minutes rather than hours, however, if you wish to fine tune your fighter then this is still possible too and in more detail. UFC 2010 sees an addition of 50 nicknames to choose from and over 100 first and last names to choose from for your fighter, this is a huge improvement over 2009’s 10 nicknames. Logos and tattoos can now be dragged and dropped anywhere on the body or clothing, last year there was only a pre-determined spot on the arm for a tattoo or on the fighters shorts for a logo. Last year we had to take an awful long while to keep changing logos to the back of pants or to add extra bonuses to help get CRED. In 2010, when a sponsor is chosen, a list of new logos, shirts or shorts will pop up and all that is needed is a push of the confirm button to see these changes come into effect. An addition of post-fight clothing makes the experience much more like UFC in real life. My fighter was wearing a red beanie and a Spike TV hoodie but there are over 200 items of clothing to mess around with so there is always a sense of your fighter being unique.

It’s hard to review the multiplayer aspect of UFC 2010 without being a bit disappointed with having to use an online redeem code to even play the multiplayer mode. This means that pre-owned purchases of the game will have to spend extra to access the online mode of the game. This is similar to what we have seen in Mass Effect 2 or Bad Company 2, however rather than the code being for DLC; it is required to access the multiplayer altogether, something that has really vexed me. However, the multiplayer itself is great; fighting has become much more strategic than in the previous game. The easy flash KO’s are no more! There is a unique online mode called Online Fight Camp. Similar to a clan in a shooter, Fight Camps advance online as a single entity on average value of all of its member’s individual rankings and online accomplishments. This replicates an experience of a real UFC Fight Camp by building a sense of a common goal while fostering a competitive environment. There are also leaderboards for the fight camps and milestones and achievement/trophy unlocks depending on how well you do as individuals or as a team.

NXT Score: 9/10

Pros

• An array of apparent improvements over 2009′s UFC game
• Vast improvements to the Create a Fighter mode, giving much more customization
• Addition of a sway and counter-attack increase realism of fights
• Tons of new fighters!

Cons

• No huge improvement on 2009′s visuals
• An online unlock code means pre-owned purchases will be left without access to multiplayer