‘UFC 5’ is a giant leap forward in MMA video games

It’s not perfect, but this is still the best UFC game of all time.

Combat sports have always been near and dear to my heart in video games. From Mike Tyson’s Punch Out on the NES, to the legendary Fight Night Round 3 on the PS2/Xbox there’s just something magical about blending the intensity of a traditional fighting game with the real-life complexity of sport. The quality of UFC games have always been a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to quality, but EA Sports’ latest entry UFC 5 is unquestionably the best the sport has ever been in video games.

In terms of control and in-fight features there’s a lot similar between UFC 5 and its 2020 predecessor, but taking three years to round out the rough edges definitely pays off in big ways. The newest entry in the series ditches the decade-old Ignite engine to move over to Frostbite, used in the majority of EA games, including the Madden series (for better or worse).

Frostbite works brilliantly in UFC 5. It’s not always spot on, but the physics and collision it offers makes fights feel more dynamic that ever. Numerous times in my 20+ hours with the game I found myself throwing a kick to the body while my opponent was shooting in for a double-leg takedown — only to see knee connect with head and result in a knockdown. This is one example of something that occurs countless times in the game in a variety of different ways, really rewarding reacting to an opponent’s movement instead of just spamming moves.

More brutal than ever, but in a way that makes sense

Injuries and blood are simply part of MMA, but UFC 5 pushes them into being critical gameplay features, rather than gory indicators of body part damage. EA calls this the “Real Impact System,” and it makes a huge difference to the ebb and flow of fights on both ends. A big overhand in the first round might caught swelling to a fighter’s eye — and as rounds progress it will continue to get worse, decreasing their ability to see out of the peripheral vision. Few things are more satisfying that seeing swelling, before targeting the area with a perfect head strike your opponent can’t block in time, resulting in a satisfying K.O.

The same goes for the defensive end. Suffering an in-fight injury is something you really have to scheme around. Take too many big body shots and the stamina reduction you suffer makes throwing big strikes more of a liability than a boon. A Superman punch is worth nothing if you don’t have enough gas to block after it because your conditioning has been damaged, for instance.

A big chin isn’t the be all end all either. Even the most rock-solid fighters can see the fight paused for the fight doctor to check on an open wound before determining whether it can continue. This doesn’t happen often (I saw it roughly three times during my times with the game), but it’s enough to add another layer of realism to the sport.

It’s not just the stand up game that seems innovation either. Gone are the multi-stage minigames to lock in submission. Now transitioning to a submission is done in a similar way of changing position on the ground, making them both easier to reach the position, and easier to defend as a result. It feels much more fluid, which makes advancing position on the ground more fun and rewarding — whereas in the past your ability to get succeed at the minigames was a limiting factor on whether trying to make someone tap out was even worth it.

The new “Fight Week” is a brilliant way to play

If you’re not an avid online player there aren’t always great reasons to keep booting up a game like this after the honeymoon phase wears off. UFC 5 attempts to change that with “Fight Week,” a familiar addition akin to Madden, NBA 2K or MLB The Show. This gives weekly recreations of fights set to happen, with players locked to a specific fighter. To accurately depict the uphill battle an underdog faces the player might not only need to contend with the attribute differences between fighters, but a predetermined difficulty boost for the challenge. This is coupled with challenges where you play the fighter who is clearly better, with a normal or easy difficulty depicting their likelihood to win the fight.

Rewards are given for successive challenges without a loss, and it’s a great way to try out fighters you might not normally lean towards — shaking up the experience.

Career mode is a missed opportunity

For all the great things UFC 5 does in the octagon, it’s sadly lacking when it comes to the single player career mode. It’s a bare bones boilerplate story about an up-and-coming fighter rising from backyard brawls and bouts under a literal overpass, to climbing the UFC ladder and becoming champion.

There’s a profound lack of story accompanying the mode that tarnishes the experience. The loop of budgeting training camp points to spar, promote the fight, and watch tape on your next opponent is interesting at first — but quickly becomes easy to min/max and determine the ideal six week course of action for every fight to maximize attribute points and fulfill promotional obligations. In addition these chances to hype the fight are woefully lacking context, with beef between fighters being resigned to chirping back-and-forth on social media, with no weigh ins or branching stories outside of it.

Some players detest too much story content in sports games, but when it comes to MMA half the drama is in the weeks leading up to the fight. Even when you form a “rivalry” with another fighter it rarely amounts to more than an extra line of dialogue from commentary about how they don’t like each other. Roadblocks are few and far between, and quickly things like injuries suffered in sparring can simply be ignored thanks to mounds of in-game currency paying for treatment options, rather than something you need to scheme around in your next fight.

The most intriguing thing I came across during my time in the career was the opportunity for a superfight, moving up to 205 pounds and try to become a double champion. Unfortunately after this it was back to the normal grind, with the only significant event being the chance to permanently move up a class.

After nine title defenses and a career record of 28-0 it was unclear what the motivation was to continue. I had over $30M in cash, with no prompts from the game how I could spend this money outside of inviting fighters in for training camps to learn their moves, or spend funds on medical treatment.

From a presentation standpoint the ebb and flow of a fighter’s career does add to the experience. Before fighters touch gloves there’s always a mention of how the last fight ended, your overall record, and the “Tale of the Tape” does a great job picking out the style you fight with.

Still, the overhaul to the fighting itself makes the career mode disappointing. With a little more time and effort this could have been something special, but I’ll always have glorious Aussie dirtbag middleweight champion “Clarence Van Buren,” who walks to the ring to “Land Down Under” by Men At Work.

Yes, that is a giant rooster tattoo on his stomach. Thank you for asking.

UFC 5 is an amazing experience that feels a little too bare bones outside the octagon

Fighting has never felt like more of an art than UFC 5. The new physics and collision engine are an incredible fit for MMA, and create a better feeling game than ever. If you’re a player who loves to recreate cards and model matches after their real-life counterparts then UFC 5 is an amazing companion to following the sport.

Outside of the action things fall apart a little more. In classic EA fashion there’s a tendency to overhaul either engine and gameplay, or features — but rarely both at the same time. “Fight Week” is a great addition, but the lacking career mode really really pushes much of the long-term appeal into online play — and that’s a mixed bag for a lot of gamers.

That said, this is an incredible step forward for the franchise. The dated graphics and feel of UFC 4 has been replaced with a game that truly feels like the current-gen game the sport deserved. This is the foundation of something special when more features are added (and hopefully a fleshed out career mode) in the next title in the series.

UFC 5 releases on Friday, October 27. It was reviewed courtesy of a code provided by EA Sports on Xbox Series X.