UFC 6 Review

Player(s): 1
Extra Features: online multiplayer (2 players), leaderboards, download content

EA Sports UFC is a series that I have grown to like quite a bit over recent years. The games reminds me of a Virtua Figher style of play only with UFC rules and objectives. I started with UFC 2, and I feel I have been through much of this series through its good and bad games. EA Sports UFC 5 really left a bad taste in my mouth. That game was just basically a UFC 4 add-on. But enough about part 5, EA Sports UFC 6 is here to finally evolve the series into a much better direction. UFC 6 finally gives us more single player modes along with several other enhancements!

UFC 6’s gameplay is top notch. If you enjoyed the gameplay from the previous games then this one is definitely just as good. The visuals have improved a lot and the gameplay is silky smooth. The main new feature for gameplay is the “Flow State”. All fighters have their own style of fighting, and if you utilize their style strengths, you’ll build up your flow state meter. Once activated, the Flow State improves your fighter’s attributes in a certain area (depending on their fighting style) for a certain amount of time. It’s not a full “comeback” feature, but it does help out enough to get you out of tough situations or give you enough of a slight edge to finish off your opponent a bit faster.

The best part about the Flow State is that it makes each fighter even more unique and forces you to play according to their real world style of fighting. For instance, you’ll have to focus more on ground games for a submission style fighter. Each fighter also have their own unique moves and perks as well. All fighters have a different blocking style. There are four main styles that a fighter can have. The game’s physics have also been reworked as well. UFC 6 uses the Frostbite Physics Engine. The new physics engine is much like a ragdoll style of physics. This makes the knockout for each fight look very different every time and each impact seems better overall. During single player matches, the game will sometimes slow down and give you a tutorial on how to dodge or block an incoming attack (how to stop a takedown, etc). This feature can be turned on or off. It’s a very nice way of learning commands and reaction timing while playing offline however.

UFC 6 has a very healthy amount of additions to the already great gameplay from past games, but it goes a step further and finally (yes, FINALLY) adds in some new single player modes. The new single player modes are The Legacy, Hall of Legends and The Gym modes. The Legacy is UFC’s first attempt at a story mode. The overall plot is actually pretty decent and very fitting for a UFC game. The mode followa the story of Chris Carter and his rise in the UFC. You get a bit of choice in his rivalries, friendships and other decisions during his rise. The game actually breaks down and lets you decide at certain points whether you want to create a friend or a rival out of your current opponent.

The problem with Legacy is that it is basically just a career mode with cutscenes for the most part. It has some unique battles every now and then that might take place in some sort of building resulting from a disagreement, but the majority of the mode is set up just like the Career mode. Train, train, train, get exposure to boost your fans and income, train some more, then advance to the fight in the octagon. Honestly, the training simulation with the weeks leading up to each fight make the mode unbearable to play at times.

Hall of Legends allows you to explore a fully interactive museum based on iconic fighters. Right now, there are only three fighters to choose from, but hopefully they will add more later on. You get to explore the museum with your created character. The museum for each fighter is extremely different. You can go through the museum and watch videos and examine other memorabilia for the chosen fighter. You can also engage in a total of three fights per museum where you have to accomplish certain objectives in order to complete the fight and this will unlock bonus outfits for that fighter. This mode is actually a good idea, but there just isn’t enough interaction for the player. For the most part, you just run from one area to the other to watch videos or read information. I really feel like the style of exploration in Hall of Legends could have been combined with The Legacy to make that mode more enjoyable to play.

The Gym mode is a total grindfest of a mode, but it helps you to get many of the game’s unlockables without putting in as much effort. You are in charge of a Gym and must recruit fighters. You have starting coaches and other unlockable coaches once your gym levels up to a certain level. Each fighter has their own percentage that determines if your coaches will be able to unlock them or not. Some coaches will increase the percentages and you can also perform tasks in other modes that increase the percentages (such as playing as or fighting against that fighter). After fighters are unlocked, you can train them (via coaches) to boost their experience and unlock extra unlockables exclusive to that fighter. You can also play as the fighter in other modes to gain experience as well, but the The Gym helps out in doing that work for you by grinding them while you’re away or playing other modes. Each coach has a certain amount of real world time that they require to recruit or train fighters.

The Gym can actually get kind of addicting with all the different unlockables that you’ll be getting while training and recruiting fighters. It’s definitely a lot better than having to play each fighter yourself in order to get their items. The only main problem I have with The Gym mode is its laggy menus. This game has already been updated once before I started this review and that update improved the slowdown on the menus a bit, but it is still all very much there. There is so much lag at times that it will eat inputs while scrolling through the menus.

Along with the new single player modes is the usual Career mode. You can go back and read my review of UFC 4’s career mode (that I actually referenced in the UFC 5 review) to get an in-depth look at that mode. There is literally no change. You create a fighter then go through so many weeks of training and publicity then advance to the fight and win or lose then repeat. There is also an online career mode that returns from UFC 5. Created fighters seem to have a bit more customization this time. The created fighter hair and the hair of established fighters also looks a lot better in UFC 6.

The game also still has the Fight Contracts mode that returns from UFC 5. You can engage in fights that have a certain time limit in order to gain in-game currency. There is also an option to predict upcoming real world fight and that will give you in-game currency based on if you predict fights well enough. You also have your own Punch card with unlockables that change every few weeks. As you build experience, you’ll unlock different items or in-game currency on the Punch card. You can gain quite a bit of in-game currency from The Gym mode as well. Currency can be spent in the game’s online fight store where you can buy custom character parts and new fighter skins.

The online is still much like it was from previous years. You have the standard Quick Fight, Standard Ranked, Kickboxing only Ranked (no grappling) and (as already mentioned) there is an online career. Also, there is an option to invite a friend into a fight – many games are leaving this out nowadays so it’s worth mentioning! This is definitely the type of game that you want to buy to play online. The game’s single player is stronger this year (actually the best its ever been), but it still just doesn’t have enough to do to keep a single player amused for too long. It’s not near the level of a WWE game in terms of single player content.

Overall, EA Sports UFC 6 is a much needed improvement to the series when compared to UFC 5. If you’re in it for the actual gameplay and fighting online opponents, you’ll like UFC 6 the most. If you want to play it for single player, it has the most single player modes compared to any other UFC, but many of those single player modes are lacking. Just like UFC 5, you still have to be a hardcore fan of the series to enjoy this game the most, but I feel like they are getting somewhere in single player mode variety with EA Sports UFC 6. No matter what though, the overall core fighting to this series is still so very solid and keeps getting better with each installment. Is that enough for you to take the plunge? To hardcore fans, I think that would be a yes!

The Good:
+ The visuals have improved as usual. Hair textures for all fighters look way better.
+ The Legacy mode, Hall of Legends mode and The Gym
+ Many gameplay improvement – new physics engine!

The Bad:
- Career mode is so much of the same as it was in UFC 4 and 5
- The new Legacy mode is basically just a Career mode with cutscenes
- Laggy menus, especially in The Gym mode.