Time has come to step back into the Octagon for EA Sports’ third effort.
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UFC has ventured into the world of video games once more with UFC 3 on PS4 and Xbox One, and to start off with, the presentation in this game is utterly brilliant. When it comes to a realistic framing of the sport, EA Canada has done a wonderful job, and everything from the loading screens to the menus, from the career paths to the commentators, has been caught with a crispness that few other sports games can compete with. To a certain extent, it feels almost real when our fighter battles inside the Octagon for his first fight. There’s plenty of quality here, ranging from great graphics to decent music, clever use of Joe Rogan’s iconic voice, and the increased presence of UFC-kingpin Dana White. The atmosphere is just superb and it really, truly feels like the UFC.
Another aspect that has gotten better is the striking portion of UFC 3, as EA Canada has finally worked on the animation system, which now makes it possible to hit and kick while actually circling left or right. The fact that this didn’t work in the previous EA UFC games says quite a bit about how incredibly rigid the entire striking system really was. In UFC 3, the fighting still feeling somewhat stiff and robotic, but it’s not as bad as it was in the previous two games, as 5,000 new animations have been added. When you’re competing as some of the most iconic names to grace the Octagon (McGregor, Anderson Silva, TJ Dillashaw, Mighty Mouse, Luke Rockhold, Nate Diaz – among others), it’s nice to see how hard the team at EA Canada has worked to really capture their different styles, special attacks, and individual movements.
However, we still wouldn’t call this an MMA-simulator, or even agree with EA that the game simulates real fighting inside the Octagon, because it just doesn’t. The very best fighters inside the UFC today are all geniuses when it comes to mixing loads of different techniques and stringing together moves from loads of different styles, from striking and kicks to clinch-fighting, something that’s damn hard if not impossible inside this game, even with the new animations. In this sense, EA’s UFC game still feels a bit primitive. After all, it’s all about the fighting and the combos.
In addition, the transitions from striking to the ground still feel awkward and stiff, which one might argue should have been the main focus for EA Canada instead of all the different game modes they have put in this time around. This part of the experience never feels natural, not even after trying to get really good at it for hours and hours. For instance, look at the former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez who – when he’s not injured – has been absolute master when it comes to stringing together his impressive pressure-style of striking with these amazing takedowns, wrestling, and ground-and-pound. None of that seamless transitioning between disciplines and fighting styles can be found in UFC 3.
The submission part is just like many other aspects of UFC 3: it’s unchanged. It’s still the same tired mini-game with the same focus on chance instead of skill and actual training/patience, something that makes the grappling part feel pretty hopeless. While well-known ground wizards like Demian Maia, Jacare, and Nate Diaz describe the ground fighting aspect of MMA as a “human chess game” where you always have to predict and defend against the opponent’s attacks while preparing your own and laying down so-called “traps”, the submissions inside UFC 3 feel more like a bad mobile game.
When it comes to the visuals, UFC 3 looks good, but the differences compared to how fighters and cages looked in its predecessor isn’t massive. There has once again been lots of talk about how detailed the skin of the athletes is, how real the bruises are, and how realistic it looks when they start bleeding, and although we agree, much of it already looked this good in the previous game. The same applies to the audio as well. It sure sounds great, but it’s essentially the same as it was in the last game. Commentators Joe Rogan and John Anik sound good too, offering a varied, insightful, and comprehensive commentary that impressed us. It’s also really fun to see UFC president Dana White and interviewer Megan Olivy have more of a presence in the career mode.
It’s the career portion of UFC 3 which has been focused on most during the marketing of this title. It’s called GOAT Mode (Greatest of all Time) and in the role of an inexperienced MMA beginner, you go on a journey from aspiring rookie to the greatest UFC fighter to ever set foot inside the Octagon. One golden belt is of course never enough to get mentioned in the same breath as Anderson Silva and Jon Jones, as you need to hold and defend at least two of them at the same time, and the way to this goal is both long and demanding. The improvements here range from the smallest details to the actual framing, and although there are things to complain about, it’s generally a really successful mode that feels diligently and carefully made. Lots of small details have gone into making it look and feel like the genuine UFC experience, and they was much appreciated. The actual highs and lows of your personal narrative and the way you progress through the weight classes isn’t told through slow-paced cutscenes either, so there’s no risk of encountering the sort of bad acting that sometimes plagues career modes of this sort.
What’s not great is the updated Ultimate Team mode, which is now based on microtransactions and loot boxes. It works like it does in NBA 2K18 and it’s all about getting players to open their real wallets to avoid having to grind fights and training over and over. The main portion of the online component of UFC 3 is based on this system, but to us, this isn’t ideal because if there’s one genre which really depends on combatants having a level playing field, it’s the fighting genre. Players who don’t care to sit through weeks of the GOAT mode to reach a high level of health/stamina plus having the ability to throw advanced strikes will instead pay for them, which means you can face people online that know moves that you will have a pretty hard time defending against.
There are of course additional multiplayer modes, game types that don’t rely on microtransactions, but overall we’d argue that they’re pretty shallow, and the attention that has been paid to Ultimate Team clearly indicates that this is where EA wants you to play.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though, and UFC 3 is in many ways better than its predecessor. The new animations have made the fighting feel faster and more fluid than ever before, and it looks fantastic with plenty of detail and an authentic atmosphere. On the whole, however, the differences are not as big as we’d hoped for, and the loot boxes and microtransactions that ruin Ultimate Team are simply unacceptable.
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Keyword: UFC 3