Sports games are a dime a dozen. Each year, franchises like NHL, Madden, NBA and MLB release titles that stay more or less the same each passing year adding roster tweaks with graphical enhancements and the all-important +1 to the end of the title’s number. This is where UFC 5 breaks the mould. A gritty MMA blood sport simulator that builds on everything the previous entry offers and adds more to the overall experience. UFC 5 isn’t just a good sports game. It is a damn good fighting game.
UFC 5 throws returning players into the octagon with heavily updated graphics that are apparent even before starting the game. Out with the old Ignite Engine and in with the Frostbite Engine. This is a bold choice, but it pays dividends on just the home screen. This game looks stunning, and Electronic Arts also thought so, to the point of ditching actual athlete portraits in favour of the in-game character models on the front cover. This is the first time in any mainline sports game that this has been done. I tip my cap to EA and UFC 5 for showcasing the incredible graphics on the cover. It is a game and should be advertised as such.
For the uninitiated, UFC 5 deploys fighters in an eight-walled cell called the octagon, and two combatants enter, with one leaving as the winner. I am a huge fight fan, and once you see the dapper threads of Bruce Buffer, followed by “Ladies and Gentlemen,” you know the hype is about to get serious. For fight fans, this is like coming home for Thanksgiving and knowing not to equip a belt. Bruce Buffer lent his voice to UFC 5, as well as commentary team Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier, making it truly feel like the real octagon.
Funny enough, Anik, Cormier and the UFC 5 Career Mode Coach Davis continue to remind the player that ‘this is not a video game.’ It’s a cool concept that works incredibly well. Many fans of real-life sports tend to compare real-life games to video games when scores get outrageous, and it’s rare self-awareness from a sport and the game creators to recognize this and use it in a positive way.
“UFC 5 isn’t just a good sports game, it is a damn good fighting game.”
Seeing as how the stage is set perfectly for fights, next will be entering the cage. Upon entering the octagon in UFC 5, you can deploy strikes, combinations, choke holds, grapples, clinches, and basically anything relevant to MMA to dismantle your opponent. Each match lasts 3 (regular) to 5 (main event, championship) rounds inside the cage.
The impact of each strike is buttery smooth, and performing combinations feels more fluid than ever. Former Featherweight UFC Champion Max Holloway said on the Joe Rogan Experience in 2019 that he used UFC video games to train for real fights, and in UFC 5, not only does the simulation feel weighty like an actual bout, I believe Holloway will have a big advantage moving forward in his career.
UFC 5’s CPU has individual fighters perform as they do in the octagon, fully outfitted with the same style they deploy in real life. I tossed Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier in a CPU vs. CPU fight so my favourite could get a better result than their last bout, and it was fun watching a simulation of a rematch, considering how closely the character models emulate their real-life counterpart’s behaviour. This is actual sorcery.
But how does it play? UFC 5 is a great fighting game, not just a great sports title. Each entry into the octagon is a chess match, and you must deploy your fighters’ strengths and defend their weaknesses to get ahead while managing damage gauges to individual body parts and a stamina metre.
A fight fan will have no issue exploiting weakness, which is a notable advantage and super cool for those who watch UFC religiously. But this is the first time in franchise history that I would say it is also friendly to newcomers. There are different control schemes to use to level the playing field, like the new assist submission system, and there are MANY modes in the game.
“UFC 5’s CPU has individual fighters perform like they do in the octagon, fully outfitted with the same style they deploy in real life.”
I loathe minigames in the middle of a fight, so the smooth ground transition system here is light years ahead of UFC 5’s predecessor. From a clinch, I was able to Judo hip-toss an opponent and immediately move to full guard. From there, I swung a straight punch, and my opponent countered and turned the tables, and I was now the one receiving the beating. In former UFC games, I felt this was too janky, but here it works incredibly well.
This one exchange started with a ground-and-pound and moved into my opponent attempting to choke my character out with a guillotine, which I strategically transitioned into a Von Flue choke (the Von Flue is confirmed!) and just like in the UFC 5 preview, transitions worked perfectly. This was some serious action that kept my heart racing as much as it does when a PPV is on. Just excellent technicality.
Fans who don’t like messing with grappling can skip it and opt for the Stand-and-Bang mode. Here, UFC 5 lets fans throw straight-up bombs at each other without having to worry about the pesky ‘mixed’ part of MMA. There are leg kicks that wear your opponent down, body shots that dismantle your opponent’s stamina metre, and a well-placed kick to the head can break a fighter’s nose, leaving them bloodied and unable to perform as well because they can’t breathe. This adds strategy to an already in-depth experience, and I’m here for all the smoke.
There are a myriad of modes I was able to tinker with outside of Stand-and-Bang. Everything from UFC 4 is present, a create-a-character career mode that is basically MMA RPG goodness. Starting from the beginning backyard stage to selling out MSG as a champion. There are, of course, the straight fight modes and a training system that is optional.
“The best thing UFC 5 has going for it is the new Online Career.”
There is also a staggering roster of fighters that will continue to increase with the addition of Alter Ego characters that can be unlocked by completing challenges thrown at the player in the form of Fight Week. Remember that match between Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor in 2016 or that infamous knee Jorge Masvidal threw against Ben Askren?
Instant classics may also be added to the Fight Week challenge matches, and upon completing some of them, you can unlock the fighter from that period in their career. Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson is also on the roster, which is just a reminder of how big of an impact he had on the MMA world. I love history.
One of my favourite additions is the new online quick-match mode called Blitz Battles. These force a set of rules on combatants, such as ‘Women’s Strawweight, no hands,’ which means hand functionality doesn’t work for both players, and you must use a fighter from the women’s strawweight division. Fighting with handicaps like a dwindling fighter pool and not playing with some functions was an incredibly fun time, and knowing my human-controlled opponent was suffering with the same affliction just hits different.
The best thing UFC 5 has going for it is the new Online Career. This mode rocks. I took my created character with Elden Ring’s basic catchphrase “YOU DIED” emblazoned on his chest into the Middleweight division. There, I was able to die (get KO’ed) like in Elden Ring numerous times until my division ranking happened.
Then, fights became incredibly well-matched. Solid matchmaking is an absolute must in fighting games and sports games, and UFC 5 hits a bullseye. As I got better online, so did my opponents, which is just like the real UFC ranking system. Online Careers is complete with a championship you can win and defend and also a real human championship experience that is just great fun.
“UFC 5 is an evolution of the sports combat genre. The graphics and sound quality are better than ever, and the Frostbite Engine provides all the horsepower to keep this title at peak performance.”
I do have some issues with gameplay. There’s a new feature in UFC 5 that gave it an M for Mature rating for the first time in combat sports video game history. Gore often happens in UFC 5, and it shows that this is a true blood sport, like in the real-life octagon. Throwing an elbow at close range can viscerally cut your opponent’s lip open, and continuous hits to that injury can force doctor stoppage, and paint the octagon mat red.
This is an awesome concept in practice, and it’s still a cool function, but in a fight, too much is left to luck. I was handily beating an opponent with combinations and front kicks to the face until they hit me with a single knee. The knee shot blood off my character’s eyebrow, and being that was the only clean strike I was hit with in four minutes, I thought it would be okay.
A doctor examination was subsequently called, and I was unable to continue the fight and lost, although the judge’s scorecard had me winning round one 10-8. If this only happened one time, I would be okay with it, but it happened many, many times. Although it is a cool feature, when playing ranked online, I would prefer an option to turn it off because it just feels dumb, fluky, and unfair in a ranked skill-based fighting game.
There are also big strike balance issues. Body Roundhouse Kicks are slow and weighty, but they barely do any damage relative to the risk (even with reach). But uppercuts are the worst enemy a fighter can face. They are far too powerful for how fast they come out and how little stamina they use. I was able to throw uppercuts for a full online match and win readily, and on the flip side, I’ve absorbed uppercut KO’s.
I’m unsure if this is a continued feature in UFC 5 from previous titles, but it needs to be altered to make the title more balanced. Strong strikes like elbows are extremely close range, so they miss if you’re too far away, but the uppercut (like in Mortal Kombat) is way too powerful and lacks the extra frames of vulnerability the bloodier fighting game has so punishing or countering becomes impossible.
UFC 5 is an evolution of the sports combat genre. The graphics and sound quality are better than ever, and the Frostbite Engine provides all the horsepower to keep this title at peak performance. Bold design choices, such as the removal of the submission mini-game, show the franchise isn’t afraid to take risks to make gameplay better, and it pays off.
Smooth fighting gameplay, complete with excellent transitions, makes this a UFC fan’s ideal sports game while also leaving room for newcomers to jump in. Early doctor stoppages are awesome to see, but UFC 5 should have added a toggle for ranked fights to keep the game fair and less random, especially in competitive game modes. While balancing issues and the doctor team up to stop this game from being an instant classic, it’s a great game to hit people in.
