EA has had the UFC video game license for around 12 years now. Since then, almost every game has been compared to THQ’S last outing, Undisputed 3 which by many is still considered the best MMA game to be released.
After some missteps with the 4th and 5th entries, EA UFC 6 is a step in the right direction. The core striking mechanics are possibly the best they’ve been for the franchise, the game’s Legacy Mode shows promise for what future entries can do, and it perhaps does the best job at helping people learn the game with its accessibility options. Some issues from past games still remain, unfortunately.
Pros
The improvements to the game’s striking mechanics are the best they’ve been so far for the series. Past games were criticized for watering things down as things went on per entry, but that’s not the case with UFC 6. Striking not only feels more fluid overall, but not every fighter strikes or defends the same either. Depending on what kind of fighter they are has an impact on how they attack. For example, someone whose base is boxing or kickboxing will have a quicker jab or a tighter leg kick. Someone who’s a wrestler will throw their shots wider but may have a bit more push behind them.
This also extends to things like blocking. Some have tighter guards where they shell up pretty hard, while others will have looser guards to allow for better head movement and slips.
This greatly extends to when you create your own fighter, as well as the new flow system. The flow system is a meter that builds and gives a fighter certain boosts – such as significantly increasing their damage on kicks or making HP recover faster. I was skeptical when I first heard about it; it sounded a bit fantastical. However, fighters have often talked about going into a certain state whenever they do line up the perfect K.O shot or if they see a finish lining up, so trying to capture that in a video game makes sense, even if it is supposed to be a simulation.
The flow system also adds depth to creating your own fighter, as it’s not simply choosing a base but rather choosing what you excel at. For example, if you choose a kickboxer, you can pick perks that focus on better roundhouse kicks or having better knees or elbows in the clinch. These things are noticeable during gameplay and are fun to play around with.
The UFC games have generally had solid presentation as well and that’s no different here. The game captures how brutal MMA can be as a sport effectively, as fighters will very much look FUBAR after taking significant amounts of damage.
Blood flies off fighters if a certain spot keeps getting attacked and cuts and bruises form at a realistic pace rather than just getting hit once and they’re gushing. The damage extends elsewhere as well. Repeatedly hammering someone’s legs and body with kicks will show lasting damage and welts as things go on.
I’ll talk more about Career Mode later but, I’d say the biggest highlight this time around is the addition of Legacy Mode. Legacy Mode is a take on Career Mode where you play a cinematic story in the shoes of Chris Carter. Chris is the son of a legendary collegiate wrestler who tries to become a UFC legend to escape the massive shadow his father, Big Mack Carter, casts. This leads him to join Believe MMA and his relationship with Danny Lopez forms. This isn’t the first time EA has done something like this, it was done with Fight Night Champion years back. The story follows some cliches of sports drama films but it was still enjoyable to play through as well as putting you in a couple of interesting scenarios.
Particularly, the relationship between Danny and Chris was enjoyable to watch unfold. The two come from extremely different backgrounds but as events unfold, they become as close as brothers before eventually becoming rivals. You do get to make a couple of decisions that’ll determine how Chris handles things as well so it warrants playing more than once.
The game also features a fun history lesson in the form of the Hall of Legends mode. This is an interactive museum where you view the life of some of the most popular fighters currently, such as Alex Pereira and Weili Zhang.
Cons.
So while UFC 6 made good strides towards its striking, the same can’t be said in the grappling department, unfortunately. After UFC 2, the grappling was criticized for being watered down constantly. While some things have been addressed, such as being able to do over/under clinches without needing takedown transitions again, overall grappling just doesn’t feel as in-depth as striking.
Submissions that were in past games are not there anymore, things such as whipping knee strikes aren’t possible in the clinch, and the submission game overall feels a bit too simple and somewhat unrealistic. You eventually submit someone by repeatedly attacking with them until it brings a defense bar down. The problem is, it doesn’t matter where. Say you begin attacking with a rear-naked choke. The game won’t care if you go for another choke or go for a leg lock. It’ll bring the defense bar down altogether. It’s just unfortunate to see the grappling not be brought up to the same level as the striking. In past MMA games, including EA’s early outings prior to them even getting the UFC license, picking a grappler was just as fun as picking a striker.
On top of the grappling, UFC 6’s Career Mode still has its issues overall. While the Legacy Mode is enjoyable, it unfortunately doesn’t last long enough. There aren’t even really special moments for certain milestones Chris will reach, which is odd considering they had those with the coach Davis character in the past two games. This extends to standard Career Mode as well. Past MMA games such as Undisputed 3 had ceremonies for things like you getting inducted into the Hall of Fame and even EA’S earlier UFC games had things such as fighters sending you video messages wishing you well when you’d retire and things like that. Them not being present in 6 is just unfortunate.
On top of these issues, Career Mode still feels a bit too grindy and some things just don’t make sense either. The game offers you the option to simulate training after you clear all the drill objectives at least once. The problem with this is that the game will only give you half your fitness boost for doing this. This can make it an unviable option to gain max fitness as sometimes the game will randomly only give you 4 weeks to train instead of 5 or 6. In these cases, you’re forced to repeat the tedious drills while also trying to build hype for your fight, among other things to gain maximum rewards. Being max fitness grants you both bonuses for your cardio as well as your flow state, so it’s not something you’d want to lax on in harder difficulties.
This system also makes it more annoying to learn new moves as well. Learning new moves can be done directly with the cash you earn, which is a welcome change. The problem is, learning a new move can take up your whole training week, depending on what you learn and unlike past games, they won’t add to your overall fitness either. So this can make it so you don’t have much time to learn new moves.
Lastly, another aspect that makes things feel too grindy is the fact that it takes a long time to level some moves up. During career as you learn moves, they naturally level up as you use them. The problem is it takes forever for strikes to a degree that doesn’t make sense honestly. For example, I made a kickboxer for my custom character, who would drop opponents with roundhouse kicks repeatedly and scored many kos with them. Yet, more than 20 fights in my kicks are only level 3. That’s just far too long and it’s the complete opposite with moves like submissions as they level up pretty quickly, to the point where I had my armbars at level 4 just from training alone and finishing about 3-4 fights with them.
Final Thoughts
UFC 6 overall does feel like a good attempt by EA to make a great MMA game. With its improvements to striking, it’s always solid representation of the brutality of MMA and its promising Legacy Mode, there’s a lot to like here. If they can make the same progressions towards the grappling and the Career Mode, perhaps one day people will stop holding Undisputed 3 as the gold standard for MMA games. For now, UFC 6 still makes for a fun time in its own right.
EA UFC 6 was reviewed on Xbox Series S. The game releases on the 19th of June.
