EA Sports has had a rather busy year and it continues with the release of their feature combat sports simulator in UFC 5. EA reached out to BSO to see if we wanted to review UFC 5 and we were all too happy to do so. Though EA has provided BSO with a copy of the game, everything that follows is our opinion and was not influenced by EA Sports. Always review the games you’re thinking about buying and look at reviews from reviewers with a similar taste as you, it will improve your chances of success.
I’ve long been a fan of the UFC and UFC games. Before covering games and college football, I covered MMA and hosted a podcast for an MMA site. I’ve interviewed Ronda Rousey, Michael Chandler, Rampage Jackson, Greg Jackson, Miesha Tate, and many, many others. I began watching UFC back in 1993 with UFC 1 and remember the first UFC game on the Sega Dreamcast with fighters like Bas Rutten and Tito Ortiz. To say that UFC 5 has come a long way since then would be an understatement.
UFC 5 presents one of the most complete packages in video games for combat sports enthusiasts. From the music to the career mode to legacy characters and beyond, there is a lot for fans here to sink their teeth into and EA did a great job reworking some things from UFC 4 that did not work. The biggest change is noticing when one of your power strikes lands and lands well. One of the hardest things to transmit in games is power and this game does a great job balancing the need to have these strikes feel like they put you in danger without everyone being tuned the same way. If you select someone with power in their strikes, that will translate to the Octagon.
Grappling has also been given a facelift and I will be the first to sing the praises of the new system. I am not going to claim everything is perfect with the grappling or even intuitive, but I don’t think grappling could ever be intuitive, and having a solid base for your system is better than having no system at all. It also led to some really interesting exchanges on the mat. Whether I was in training or actual fights, I found that pulling off submissions was both easy to learn and difficult to master; as anything worth doing tends to be. It looked real as hell to see both myself and the computer continuously working for top position and for really dangerous situations to be flipped on their head in a second.
I spent the significant majority of my time in career mode during my review period. I tried to launch into a few one-off fights against the computer in different weight classes, but I found out quickly that it would behoove me to learn the new controls except for one thing; we had no way to take lessons of any kind without going into career mode and starting there. That was the case during my time, anyhow. I have to learn a certain way and having tutorials is key for some players.
Between the striking lessons and the ground session, I was ready for my first fight. Unfortunately for my opponent, he was not. After several rounds of coming this close to getting a submission, I finally opted to accidentally knock him out with a hook I never meant to throw. I found this strategy to be the key to most of my matches because the controls were both really tight and really wonky at the same time. It’s nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a patch and I’m sure it will be fixed soon enough, but initiating a clinch was next to impossible for me when I was intentionally trying to do it.
Fortunately, it never got in the way of me enjoying the product or the lessons. If something was too difficult for me to do, EA is really cool and offers the ability to skip that lesson or that fight. This is going to be beneficial for people who want to enjoy career mode but also want to avoid reaching that spot in a career where you log-jam because your skills seem to have plateaued, but the game wants you to hit a new peak. In past games, this meant your journey had come down with dysentery and wouldn’t be making it through the Oregon Trail.
The soundtrack for this game is going to make you want to run through a wall or punch the crap out of your next opponent. I am not sure how EA manages to do it, but whether it’s UFC 5 or EA FC or Madden, the soundtracks always feature a healthy mix of songs that always end up in my iTunes library. UFC 5 is no different. Whether it’s Killer Mike, Run the Jewels, Kid Cudi or Busta Rhymes, UFC 5 has the the right stuff on the jukebox.
UFC 5 is an extremely enjoyable game overall. It has an engaging career mode, a worthwhile roster, and a great soundtrack. It essentially has all the things a sports game needs to have outside of a functioning server for people to play against each other online. EA has always excelled in this arena and it’s no different here. UFC 5 could use a patch for the controls, but is definitely worth your time if you love combat sports.
BSO Rating: 8.75-of-10