Steel City Interactive set some ambitious goals when they announced Undisputed a few years back. Setting out to make the first boxing sim in the last 14 years already had eyes on it. Their goal of trying to create a highly immersive boxing sim however did get some diehard boxing fans excited to see if they could deliver on it. In some areas, Undisputed does shine quite well. In some others it falls short and it’s that, that keeps it from being truly great. The product however is still an enjoyable one overall and they have a strong foundation laid out should another game come in the future.

Pros

Undisputed shines the most through its core gameplay mechanics. At first glance, it did feel like they tried to copy much of what Fight Night Champion did. Punches can be thrown through either the four face buttons or by utilizing the right stick similar to Fight Night’s total punch control system. They can be modified with either the left bumper or L1 for body shots or right bumper or R1 for power shots. The game also features a weaving system that seems similar to Fight Night at first glance.

I realized very quickly however that I can’t play the game like Fight Night. The more I played Undisputed, the more I realized where you are when you throw your punches matters more as does the kind of boxer you’re using. The game features 4 different kinds of boxing styles each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Out Boxer which focuses on mobility and long range tactics, Slugger which focuses on pure power punching, Swarmer which focuses on overwhelming the opponent and Boxer Puncher which is an all rounder style.

As an Out Boxer for example, it wasn’t uncommon for my punches to whiff if I was a bit too close to someone due to my punches just not being as effective up close as well as my height and range. Playing as a Swarmer I had to pay very close attention to my opponents movement so they wouldn’t step out of range and force me to eat a hard counter as I was throwing combos.

Once I understood these systems and  how the game’s mobility works as well, delivering perfect counter punches for a knockout felt very satisfying.

Mobility is probably one of the biggest things Undisputed does differently from Fight Night as the game allows you to switch between a loose movement style where you’re dancing like Muhammad Ali and throw quicker combinations, or a flat footed style where you sacrifice mobility for a tighter guard and stronger punches. The type of boxer you play as benefits one movement style more than the other but, there are some fighters you’ll face where it’s beneficial to switch.

For example the game will warn you if you’re about to fight a good body puncher, which can be detrimental to an Out Boxer. In these cases sacrificing the mobility an Out Boxer would usually prefer was worth it as it kept them from sapping my stamina quickly when they did manage to get in close.

Undisputed’s weave system also adds another layer to the defense. On the surface it may look similar to Fight Night to some players but, I found it harder to make players miss if I just tried to lean back and it perhaps has a few more wrinkles than the systems that were in place in Fight Night. Holding the left trigger allows you to weave around, a familiar system to most players and you can block while weaving as well. You also can execute a more risky weave if you have a read on your opponent by clicking the left thumb stick. This creates a quick weave that can leave you open but, also leaves your opponent open for a huge counter punch if you read them correctly.

Outside of the gameplay, Undisputed is also a game that’s impressive visually in most areas. The fighters key features are there such as their various tattoos and a concern that the game wouldn’t capture how brutal boxing can be during the beta has also been addressed. There were plenty of fights where both me and the other fighter looked absolutely mangled by the end of things.

I’d say outside the gameplay however the thing that perhaps surprised me the most about Undisputed is its AI. I tried quick fight on each difficulty and to my surprise, even on amateur difficulty, the CPU isn’t a complete pushover. Another credit to the AI is that the boxers very much behave like many of them would in real life. For example during my career I fought Arturo Gatti and he was absolutely relentless vs me and I could not keep him down no matter how many times I hurt him and only got a stoppage due to how much swelling has occurred by the last round. And when fighting notably adaptable fighters such as Sugar Ray Robinson during I noticed I had to adjust my style as he’d adapt to my punching patterns well and almost put me out a couple times as a result.

Speaking of career mode, although it’s not perfect I mostly enjoyed running through it. Career mode in many ways feels like a management sim compared to other games and it’s more interesting than I thought it’d be. You have to hire your own coaches, cutmen and managers.

Coaches can be upgraded to give you better stat bonuses and each has their own unlockable traits you can equip to a fighter such as more damage on body punches. The coaches can greatly benefit the kind of fighter you’re building. Cutmen determine how fast you’ll recover from injury as well as help your stats that prevent swelling and cutting during fights. Managers help get the best fight deals and also determine the advantages you’ll have during negotiations such as getting better fight purses. I ended up enjoying these aspects more than I thought and thankfully it didn’t feel grindy to upgrade your boxer.

Cons

So while Undisputed has great gameplay, one glaring flaw is with its quick dodges. You can’t throw punches while performing quick dodges or quick weaves which does feel off.

The presentation is also unfortunately a bit bare bones. The fighters look the part but things such as signature ring walks are missing for some of the more notable boxers. This may not seem like much but some boxers such as Muhammad Ali and Tyson Fury are known for their personalities as much as they are for their abilities. There are other aspects too such as no training mini games in career mode. Winning a title doesn’t change your entrance, in fact it doesn’t change much either outside your trainers holding the belt and the commentators mention it when you win it or retain it. The commentators in general are also a bit off overall as they often don’t accurately describe what’s going on within a fight. Such as saying I’m not throwing enough jabs or combos despite literally throwing more jabs than any other punch.

Another problem with career mode is how long it took to get a shot at the world title. I got a shot at the national championship fairly early but I was 40 fights in before I got a world title and had even beaten all the top contenders multiple times.

Lastly, Undisputed could perhaps use a couple more game modes. There’s local play vs a friend or CPU, career, online ranked or quick play and Prize Fights which are weekly rotating challenges. Something like a classic fights mode would be cool that lets you play through the Ali vs Frasier trilogy or the battle between Roy Jones Jr. and Joe Calzaghe.

Speaking of online, it mostly does function well but I also noticed there were times where I’d get hit by punches that never seemed to actually come out. On top of that… They just really need to tone Canelo down for online play as he’s a bit too strong right now.

Final Thoughts

While Undisputed falls short in it’s presentation department and I know how much that means for some, I’m personally always a gameplay over graphics guy and once I started to understand how Undisputed plays, I didn’t want to stop playing it. I don’t want to knock it too hard for the presentation points since it’s easy to forget that this is a new studio trying their hand without a massive budget. It’s not trying to be better than Fight Night, rather it took the blueprint those games built and tries to do it’s own thing. Steel City built a good foundation that they plan to keep building on so if a sequel happens we could see a jump similar to the first UFC Undisputed game to the much celebrated UFC Undisputed 3.

Undisputed was reviewed on Xbox Series S. The game is scheduled to be released on October 11, 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.