rolltide1980

While its apparent that a lot of effort and resources went into the fighter animations to help make them all feel unique from one another, I can't help but feel like much more should have been done in the developmental period. UFC 5 felt like such a minor improvement over its predecessor, that many of us I think were expecting a lot more than some new striking and blocking animations. Career mode is virtually untouched, every gameplay aspect outside of striking went largely ignored(grappling,clinching,ground work/transitions,submissions,ground and pound,etc.),the controversial star rating system returns, and the Create A Fighter tools reuse most of the archaic assets as previous games. Instead of focusing on the new throwaway single player modes, such as Legacy and Hall of Legends, you can't help but wonder why more focus wasn't placed on other aspects of the gameplay,especially the ground game, which continues to be a sore spot in the series. And not only is there a serious lack of innovation over previous games, it seems like the trend has been to remove certain aspects and features that have been present in the older games. As an MMA enthusiast, and long time fan of the UFC, I wouldn't be able to recommend this game to the more hardcore MMA fans, not in good faith anyways. I feel like this game is much more directed towards more casual fans of the sport, or those with only a passing interest in MMA. The stamina system is still way too forgiving, allowing fighters to throw an inhuman amount of strikes each round with little consequence. Damage dealt through counters could use a healthy buff to minimize the amount of knockdowns per fight that we are currently seeing, which was an issue that plagued the last 2 games. Flow State is a new mechanic that has been introduced, and has been met with a large volume of pushback, namely due to the jarring visual aesthetics of it, which really pull you out of the immersion of the game and its otherwise gorgeous visuals. The way Flow State was implemented was also a questionable decision, allowing you to store your Flow State to use at your convenience, rather that when your fighter is actually locked in. What stings the most is that this game is on a 2.5-3 year dev cycle, so we are stuck with what feels like a minimalistic effort, til at least 2029. Maybe EA surprises us with a new game mode in its upcoming expansions that brings more depth and replayability to UFC 6, but we will have to wait and see.

While yes, there may be people review bombing the game, there's also just as many people hyping the game up way more than it deserves to be , so I figure the fair thing to do is go about right in the middle with a 5, which is average. The game is decidedly average, it's not awful by any means, I've played way worse games, but it's also not that good, it's pretty mundane, none of the missions have stood out, if you've played one AC game you've played them all. It's just a reskin of the last few AC games. Personally I miss the older ones like AC2, Brotherhood, AC3, Black Flag, etc. I miss solving puzzles, and when it was actually a challenge to climb some of the taller structures in the game. I miss when you had to rely on stealth to be able to complete a mission. Now, they literally designed a character who is more of a bruiser, and is used solely for combat. It doesn't really feel like an Assassins Creed game, kind of like the last 3 or so. I feel a 5 is the right score for this game. It may not be a 0 like some are giving it but it's far from a 10, let's be honest.