Well, I promised them, and it’s finally over: one month of playing UFC Undisputed 2009, and I’m ready to render my verdict as to whether or not all my thinking and head-scratching was really worth the game.
To outline, I like looking at three components I think are key in the Next-Gen world: Gameplay, Online, and Replay.
Spelling it out, Gameplay is essentially the nuts and bolts of the game. If the game doesn’t play well, it doesn’t matter how pretty it looks. Farcry 2, which I pretty much hate because it’s too realistic, falls on the low end of this scale, while Super Mario Galaxy falls on the high end, because its’ controls and use of game mechanics pretty much created one of my favorite Next-Gen experiences so far. I’m not going to bother to go into detail about the game’s mechanics. No reason to, unless it really annoys me. Plus, I’m waiting a month to review a game. Get off your ass and go play the game before I review it!
Online is pretty much the replacement for Multiplayer, but also includes the hard-hitting category of DLC, which is important, as well as server performance and availability of matches for online multiplayer after the peak period of two weeks after release. DLC, naturally, keeps expanding the game. A great example of Online is Left4Dead, which has essentially lag free gaming as well as the excellent Survival mode expansion, whereas Two Worlds, even though I adore the core gameplay, has shitty multiplayer and horrible DLC that not even the upcoming overhaul could possibly fix (Also, the best maps were online-only for it. What gives!?)
Finally, my most important factor in a game is the Replay value. How long is this game going to keep spinning in my drive? What outside factors (Like communities and modding) will keep me interested after release? I point to the Rock Band franchise as a great example. Even though after a full school year of weekly Rock Band meet ups, every September brings a new, fresh library to my band at the dorms which keeps them coming back for more. It’s multiple communities also help keep it alive. A horrible replay game is Bioshock. As much as I think that is one of the best games ever, replaying it simply isn’t worth it. Once you know the story, there’s not much left but scrounging for more background info you can just go find online.
I believe that there is only two accurate ways to rate a game. 1-10 doesn’t mean crap. The real value of a game is how long it stays around. So, I give each game two time-based ratings. The first is how long I think I’ll keep the game before reselling it, which is the fate that befalls all of my games at some point. On average, I keep a game for about 3-6 months, with Rock Band 2 holding top honors at almost a full year of play.
So, how does UFC 2009’s Gameplay work out? Well, with actually having done about a year of MMA training myself, I was flat out surprised how well I can rattle off position tables now with the help of playing this game (Still can’t actually pull them off… *sigh*), and the ease that a lot of my IRL combos transferred into the game world. Believe me, a good leg-leg-body-head kick combo works just as well in the game as it does IRL.
The fact is that with enough subtle variance between each of the programmed fighters and the ways you can develop a truly unique, custom-tailored fighter in the Career mode that really compliments your play style contributes to a truly entertaining gameplay experience. Add in the real-time damage and how it affects your fighter, and every day that I turn the game on, I’m still seeing new, awesome things happen.
Now on the flip side, THQ really needs to work on this game’s career and create-a-fighter modes. I appreciate that they abandoned mini-games for training, but they did some things that really annoy the crap out of me:
1.) Sparring doesn’t last long enough. To be honest, they need to expand the time that you’ve got to make an impact. I don’t feel like I learn as much about my style and how to use my fighter in the 1:00 sparring sessions as I do in the camps, which brings me to the next point:
2.) Camps don’t realize that you are as good as you are. I realized about halfway through my fourth career fighter that if you keep switching camps, they keep starting over on their difficulties, making it really easy to quickly advance your levels. Granted, I’m still unlocking camp patches for my shorts, but I’ve used it to do my second draft of my UOC character in record time. I’m hitting Jiu-Jitsu 3 at the end of Year 3, and am most of the way through Kickboxing 2. Make them realize that you’re actually good and keep the challenge level across all camps.
3.) It’s kind of boring. I dread going through Career this fifth time for my second draft of my UOC character. Bleh… it’s bland. The payoff for doing appearances and such aren’t that great unless that’s practically all you do, and let’s face it, unless you’re working the Hall of Fame Acheivement, who friggin’ cares? They don’t pay off, and that sucks.
4.) I’d like the option to wear clothes at the appearances. Seriously. Who the hell does an appearance at a school in just fight shorts and ankle wraps?
5.) Let me continue to customize my fighter’s physical appearance after completing career mode. It locks the morphing options from the get go, and then after completion, you can no longer change the variable parts of the character like hair, tattoos or feet and leg equipment. This sucks. Change it.
6.) Give me my entrances! Originally, I believe these were in the game, complete with custom MP3’s. I want to walk out to the ring to “Pork and Beans” by Weezer! Seriously! Please include these, especially because they offer more opportunities for Cred.
Well, yeah. The gameplay itself is awesome, but the core Career mode needs a lot of work to make it really worth the time it takes. Also, the major CAF glitch that allows you to create super-skilled fighters really ruins the online component, which we will get to.
TL;DR: Overall, the game has no major hitches in its actual fighting gameplay. It’s rather good, and should probably become a benchmark for realistic fighting games in years to come. I’d love to see Street Fighter mapped to this control scheme, just for shits and giggles. However, the modes it’s linked to kind of blow, and have room for improvement.
Verdict: Excellent main gameplay, crappy Career Mode.
Online is sort of the main draw of UFC2009, and I think THQ’s online division fell on its face here. Its’ not as major as in something like an FPS, but it’s still the main reward for completing Career mode, along with a 95% unlock of all items in the game.
First thing you’ll notice: The lag is killer. Install it to your hard drive. It helps because some is graphical. It’s also not as bad as you think, and makes the ground game more intense. Seriously people, four people can play plastic instruments online seamlessly. Suck it up and pay the licensing fees for that technology, preferably from Harmonix.
Second thing you’ll notice: Everyone online quits. Even though THQ is working a patch for this, it probably won’t fix it as well as it should. This creates a lot of frustrating moments where you’ve fought hard and finally win, just to have the asshole on the other end of the tube quit on you. An easy fix is to only host matches, and turn off the “Match Presentation” option, which cuts out all of the TV crap and makes it a little harder to slip out before the results are saved.
It really ruins it. It really does. Not kidding. I don’t play online outside of league play because I hate the quitters and the lag isn’t worth the achievements to me.
Finally, the game’s only two DLC fighters, available through Game Stop, aren’t really that great or anything to write home about. Just don’t worry about them or getting that. There’s also no plans to keep expanding the game’s roster through DLC, so just wait for UFC 2010, announced at the beginning of this week by Dana White, who had better suck it up and be in the fighting roster this next time around.
As a lighter note, offline multiplayer is awesome. It responds excellently, and gets a pretty good crowd going if they don’t really realize that you’re playing a game, especially in HD. Plus, who doesn’t want the bragging rights from this game?
TL;DR: Online Lag sucks, as well as everyone quitting online. Gah. Also, the exclusive DLC fighters aren’t worth it. Offline Multiplayer is amazing though, and definitely party material.
Verdict: Shitty online. Great offline. Stick offline.
The thing about the UFC is the fact that it is a sport that shouldn’t be here. For no reason should anyone that isn’t psychotic have thought this was awesome, but one bald guy took that and smashed it on the head. This created a fanatic fan base that rivals the WWE in weirdness and unpredictability. That is kind of a benefit here. Even with the crappy online mode, there’s a huge community out there that you wouldn’t believe how crazy into this game they are.
Both the game’s official website, www.ufcundisputed.com and the Undisputed Online Championship (www.undisputedonline.net) an online league for the game that is semi-endorsed (Or at least is getting picture support) by THQ, both have huge communities that are helping keep the game fresh with plenty of Create-a-Fighter formulas, discussion about the game and how best to win, and so on and so forth with plenty of awesomeness sprinkled in.
Notably, I’m biased about the UOC because I’m a part of their Xbox360 Writer Staff, but hey, gotta pimp what you can, eh?
Anyway, that is part of what makes this game so replayable, is that there is a massive amount of room for personal choice and change in the stats. (Not so much in the actual CAF’s, but better than a game like Guitar Hero: World Tour where everyone’s an Ethiopian) This creates an extremely replayable game, because even though I’ve repeated Career 5 times as a Kickboxer/Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu guy, I still want to try Muay Thai/Judo and Boxing/Judo, just for kicks, as well as some other things because I haven’t done them. That’s important.
That is really important, because that keeps the game spinning in my Xbox and me happy with starving because I could have spent that $60 on food. And that, is a successfully replayable game.
Again, I’ll stress the importance of Offline Multiplayer and the trash talking that happens because of it. If any game designers read this, always include offline multiplayer. Let’s face it, it’s still the best way to play a game.
TL;DR: Awesome online communities, and the nuances of the skill system and such keeps the game going.
Verdict: Very replayable. Plus, the offline multiplayer keeps me coming back for more virtual abuse with friends.
So, what have we learned from this? Gameplay is pretty awesome, though the modes could be improved, and online leaves much to be desired. However, Offline is a true strength of this game, even with the awesome online communities behind it that stick together through the lag.
How long am I going to keep this game for?
I believe I will probably hold onto this game all the way through until more details about UFC 2010 emerge, and at least up until the resale value plummets from the impending release of that game. Mostly, it’s because of the online community that’s built up around it that I’m interested in hanging out on this game. Plus, seeing people’s faces when some crazy shit goes down in the virtual Octagon is awesome.
So, estimated from 1 month after purchase, I will be holding onto UFC 2009: Undisputed for about 10-11 months.
How long will this be a top-shelf game?
It’s hard to say, and a patch will definitely help keep it from being sold. At writing, the 360 version was at $54.00 USD, or 90% of its original sale price, used at Gamestop on June 19th, 2009. At that rate, it should continue to depreciate and be at $30.00 in about March of next year. Again, I think a patch will keep this number up and get some repurchases, extending that to the release of UFC 2010, given a 1 year release cycle. Now, with EA’s upcoming MMA game, it could change things. If that game is better and is better received, which would be pretty amazing, it could shoot the value of UFC 2009 down quite quickly. I don’t see this happening though.
So, based on the price 1 month after release, I believe that UFC 2009: Undisputed will be holding its value well into next year, dropping below the $30.00 price point at the release of the 2010 edition.
Should you buy it? Yeah. If you’re into MMA, you’ll love it, and showing it to some friends who aren’t may get them hooked on the idea.
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