The writing was on the wall for sure.
An EA Sports game so late in the console life cycle? It’s a cash-grab. They’ll phone it in even more so than they regularly do, and that’s pretty much what happened.
That’s not to say if you liked UFC 3 you won’t like UFC 4, it’s more to make it clear that UFC 4 doesn’t hide the fact that it’s a few new cosmetics paired to dozens upon dozens recycled game material.
UFC 4: Seen That Before
A quick example to illustrate what I’m talking about: way back in 2010 EA Sports released EA Sports MMA for the PS3/Xbox 360, their first mixed-martial arts game ever, back when Dana White was telling EA Sports to suck sh*t since he felt that they snubbed him and the UFC (they likely did).
The game featured nearly every fighter that was ex-UFC or legend status that wasn’t involved with THQ’s UFC franchise. I enjoyed both titles, and distinctly recall making a second career character in EA Sports MMA with the last name: Wantanabe, which to me sounded like one of the most unique pre-loaded last names the game had to offer.
Fast forward 10 years later: You might have already guessed it, yup, “Wantanabe” is still one of the pre-loaded names that’s available for use.
10 years later, and EA Sports is still using the same names and likely sound clips carried over from a dead franchise they only created due to lack of UFC licensing.
Here’s some more recycled material you can expect in UFC 4: PS2-Era audience members, identical ring walks, identical body types, hairstyles, and tattoos in career mode.
Even some of the “social media accounts” in career mode are entirely recycled: same username, same profile photo, same comments as UFC 3.
What hurts about this is they really tried to market this game as having more cosmetic options meant to appeal to streamer crowd. So they included things like anime hair wigs, animal masks, chains, a variety of shorts, shirts, and more…the only problem being they’re implemented in an incredibly stupid manner.
Here’s how cosmetics work: If you’re in career mode and you choose to wear a gold chain, you’ll wear that gold chain during training, during the minor cutscenes, and during fights.
Yeah, it makes you look like a full-time jabroni, that is until you get to the UFC, where you’ll just wear whatever the game throws on you for a uniform, even if you choose all UFC branded gear.
It’s a reflection of a clash of philosophies, likely DW’s insistence that UFC branding remains consistent in the game against the want to give gamers some larger than life customization options.
Ultimately, it results in an customizations system that rarely works the way you’d hoped.
So why would you even bother with UFC 4?
They fixed submissions. Best way to illustrate this is to say that my first career consisted of nearly a 50/50 split between knockout finishes and submission finishes.
It is extremely satisfying, and much more manageable to sink in a submission and either have an opponent tap or go to sleep than it ever was in UFC 3.
You also can readily defend submissions, rather than have getting into a submission be a near instant-loss. The only other fighting system notably improved is the clinch.
Dirty boxing feels much more natural than it ever did in UFC 3. Entering and exiting the clinch provide natural windows to dish abuse to your opponents and quickly close fights.
Career mode is undeniably better, but in incremental ways rather than big strides.
Many of the new narrative features fall off fairly quickly. Coach Davis disappears without a word, fighters stop chirping you on social media, money starts out as an issue (which is more reflective of the sport), but soon becomes trivial.
Reaching GOAT status requires many of the same achievements required from previous UFC career modes. Specific fight contract challenges do add another layer of challenge for advanced players.
Generally speaking, the new sparring training system is an improvement, but there are still times that the game gets in its own way.
A great example is the land 10 round house head kicks sparring challenge: by the time you’re near top rank you’ll knock out your sparring partner (and probably injure them) before you land all 10 head kicks.
There’s other notable duds, like needing to transition off your back to complete the challenge against an AI sparring partner that refuses to take you down. They don’t knock off the whole experience by any means, but they’re definitely frustrating.
All in all, is UFC 4 better than UFC 3? Sure, and it’s certainly going to be the best MMA game made for the PS4, but that doesn’t change the fact that’s it’s much closer to a UFC 3.5 than a fully-fledged game of its own.
There’s so much that EA Sports can improve, if they choose to work at it.
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Oh, and that pre-order DLC that I was concerned about? Total dogsh*t. They gave that content away anyway, and guess what? Playing as Tyson Fury sucks! You can’t move with the same fluidity at all as the “gypsy king” does, and of course he throws weak shin baby kicks.
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