Two and a half years have passed since the release of the last installment of the UFC Fighting Series, EA Studio Vancouver promised to develop the game in all respects and bring the true feel of Mixed Martial Arts Organization (UFC). Did he fulfill his promise? I got the game and I will review it for you to find out the answer.
In this part, many game systems have been re-designed, the standing position has become more flexible than before, distance factors and timing of punches are important, and jab strikes have become useful and stop many of the opponent's offensive movements, and at the appropriate timing, one blow may be spent on the opponent. Using overhand, you can also reverse some of the opponent's blows to bring him down if you have a fighter like Habib, or make a counter punch with Connor's left hand as the developers succeeded in giving each fighter his own personality in the fighting mode.
The game offers an amazing number of various movements in a standing position, and one of the new things that has been added is the clinch system, through which you can control the movement of the opponent and hinder him from escaping from your punches or even moving to multiple drop movements, and here there are many projection features New: For example, if you rush to touch the opponent, you can push him into the net or in any direction you want, and on the ground you have approximately 8 different positions to stabilize the opponent, and you can punch that opponent or subjugate him with different surrender movements, and on the mention of surrender movements, they have been completely rebuilt. It has become more realistic and with various movements distributed in different positions, and when you can make a surrender movement, a mini-game will appear in which you control a red circle trying to touch the blue circle to successfully carry out the receiving movement and vice versa, and of course the fighter's characteristics have a role, for example a fighter with a style Boxing does not have the arsenal and power of surrender movements that the Jujutsu fighters have, and fortunately ground combat has become easier and clearer than before, so when projecting, three options will appear that you choose through the right analog and these options are affected by Bored with the fitness and resistance of the opponent, and I think this system will be accepted by new and old players.
What distinguishes UFC 4 is the excellent artificial intelligence of the computer, for example when you encounter a wrestling opponent who will exploit your mistakes to drop you to the ground, or when you hit him with the feet constantly, he will try to move away or confront them, and so you cannot repeat strikes to win, you must diversify the strikes to hit the opponent. The characteristics and strengths of fighters play a big role in the strategy of fighters controlled by artificial intelligence, so that most matches with the computer differ from others according to the opponent's strengths.
One of the most important stages of the game is the career stage, where you will build your own fighter with his varied options and without a doubt it will be a long journey to become the best in history, and your companion on this trip is your coach Davis who tells your story, as he will appear in various movie clips in which he talks about your career, in The beginning will make your way through mini-tournaments to reach the UFC, and before each match you will have between 6 to 4 weeks to prepare for the fight, during these weeks you can train and get points to be exhausted on the strength of your fighter or train with one of the famous fighters to get his own moves, and You can know the opponent's strengths and weaknesses and his fighting style, or even increase the enthusiasm for your matches by suspending them on your social media account or declaring the outcome of the match, in order to increase the fame of your fighter to get more opportunities to fight for the title and get more money in matches.
Money is spent on your character's clothing and training with the most famous UFC fighters or receiving treatment, and the weeks before each match must be balanced between training and suspense matches and knowing the opponent's strengths. There is a training counter and you should pay attention to it, as if you train less you will not reach full fitness, or if you over-train you will face fatigue in matches, and your fighter will suffer training if you are not careful, which makes you lose a week to treat the injury. The developers stated that every player in the career stage will have different experience from the other and that the career path is not prepared in advance, as you can build enmities with opponents, build relationships or refuse fights to get a better fight, and I think the application was good.
The graphics in the game did not develop greatly, we note that the lighting was modified and some aspects of the fighters improved, but in the end there is no significant difference from the previous version in terms of graphics, although the previous part was released two and a half years ago, and we felt that this was lazy. The design of the menus is good, but it suffers from a lot of weight and annoying waiting screens, and sometimes the game stops in the career mode menus. As is usual with EA Sports, UFC 4 offers good variety of songs. And in the fights ... the voices of the commentators, the fans and the voices of the coaches will make the player immerse in the almost real atmosphere of UFC sport.
The game offers 11 different weights, and each weight there are 15 fighters, some fighters repeat in more than one weight according to their shifting between weights during their real career in the organization. There are a number of modes in the game, such as the fast fighting mode, and you can modify the fighting conditions and choose the conditions for similar boxing, kick boxing, or the regular mixed fighting mode, and there is a phase that enables you to build a tournament with your friends, as for the network phases, there is the Rank phase And developed to offer fast matches on conditions that change constantly.
This part is a love letter from the developers for fans of UFC sports, and I see it as the best game in the series, and I hope the game will be released on new generation devices and take advantage of higher frames and smoother menus.
Positives
- A professional and fun combat system and hundreds of different movements, developed an excellent and profound career that offers various options and ways to reach the top, excellent artificial intelligence for the computer, high quality of sounds and music.
Negatives
- There is no graphical improvement in the game, as they use the same templates as the previous part, heavy menus and long waiting screens.