EA Sports UFC 5 Review: A KO You’ve Seen Before

The crowd roars with disappointment as the fifth and final round of Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic comes to a screeching halt as referee Herb Dean pauses the fight. Jones has taken a beating and has a cut on his right eye, resulting in the introduction of one of UFC 5’s newest features: doctor stoppage. The doctor lets Jones continue, but as the champ makes his way back to his corner he can be seen touching his left eye and inspecting the blood. You know, the left eye…the one that is actually fine and has no cut above it…oh dear. Maybe I was looking too deep into this silly mistake, but as my introduction to UFC 5, I had a feeling it was a sign of things to come.

For the first time in three years, we finally have a new UFC game; and for the first time in the series’ history, UFC 5 is built on the Frostbite engine. So we’ve got some flashy new character models, a gruesome new damage system, and even some fancy hair physics thanks to the Frostbite engine. But this is the UFC, after all, the creme de la creme of MMA. This is the everyday man’s opportunity to feel like a combat sports legend without having to get up off of the couch, so you’re going to need a little more than a fresh lick of paint to impress us, EA.

Right off the bat, UFC 5 feels different thanks to the Frostbite engine. There isn’t a massive improvement visually, but the way your opponent’s sweat bounds off of their face as you land a clean shot, or as you witness the opening of a gruesome cut, really makes you feel like the stakes are higher when you step into the octagon. These new visuals work hand-in-hand with the game’s audio, which exemplifies every punch, kick, knee, and elbow to make UFC 5 sound as authentic as possible.

EA calls it the new ‘real impact system’, which is a fancy way of saying you can now get cuts, bruises, and swelling on your face, depending on where you’ve been struck. I’ll admit, when I first saw the gameplay reveal, I thought the feature would be more of a gimmick than anything else. But after finally getting to go hands-on with UFC 5, I was shocked to find that it genuinely changed the way I approached fights. As soon as I saw a cut open up on my opponent’s face, I changed the strikes I threw to target the cut and even prioritized ground-and-pound over a submission attempt.

Nine times out of ten, I’d end up getting a knockout before the doctor stepped in. But knowing that there was another way to end the fight other than a KO or submission changed things up more than I expected it to. It’s not just about getting a stoppage either though. If I took a few strong jabs to the nose, for example, the real impact system displayed a lung symbol in the HUD, indicating that my breathing has been affected due to the fact that my nose is probably broken from the constant jabs. In turn, this meant my stamina was going to take a hit. Likewise, if I received a cut over my left eye, my defensive abilities on that side would be decreased, while taking too many kicks to a certain leg would affect my speed and mobility. It’s a great addition that isn’t just there to appease the “JUST BLEED” fans, it changes the way you approach a fight.

In terms of gameplay mechanics, simplified submissions and the new real impact system are all you’re going to find in UFC 5.

Submit With Ease

But when I wasn’t getting my head caved in by the likes of Tom Aspinall and Alex Pereira, I was practicing my virtual jujitsu and pretending I wasn’t an actual couch potato in real life. While I’d usually avoid any sort of groundwork in previous UFC games, I made a conscious effort to try and get better at it with UFC 5, and I picked the right year to do so. I clearly wasn’t the only one struggling with UFC’s ground game, as EA has introduced a new simplified submission system with UFC 5. Gone are the days of multi-stage animations and fiddly mini-games just to lock in a rear naked choke or armbar.

Instead, locking in a submission is seamlessly integrated with the rest of the ground game. The same way you’d move from one position to the next is the same way you’d attempt a submission. The only thing is, if you’re more of a casual MMA fan who has never trained a day of jujitsu in your life (like me), remembering which position you needed to be in to attempt an armbar, for example, can escape your memory pretty quickly when you’re trying to remember the million other controls. But, with that being said, I’ve been more successful in winning via submission in UFC 5 than all of the other UFC games combined.

In terms of gameplay mechanics, simplified submissions and the new real impact system are all you’re going to find in UFC 5. After a three-year wait, I’m a little disappointed that that’s all EA could cook up. There are some other welcomed additions, like the epic new replay camera that shows brutal knockouts in slow motion. Then there’s the new ‘fight contracts’ mode, which allows you to play out a handful of fights, all with different rulesets, difficulties, and fighters to earn UFC coins. It’s a nice change of pace, and something I’ll continue to do as new contracts roll in each day, but given that I completed all of the available contracts in about 30 minutes, it’s not exactly anything to shout home about.

Where’s The Love For Career Mode?

So far, the majority of my time with UFC 5 has been spent in career mode, which is where a lot of my disappointment stems from. It’s practically just a standard copy and paste from UFC 4, aside from the fact your custom character now has a voice. I started off as a nobody, went viral for a backyard brawl, got a shot in the UFC, and then became a champ. There are no press conferences, weigh-ins, or any fun additions to mix things up. Even something simple, like the ability to be a last-minute replacement when a fighter drops out of an upcoming fight, would be a nice addition.

I’d love to be at the fighter hub and receive a text from Dana White offering me a list-minute title fight because somebody has dropped out of the next PPV event. It would force you to weigh up the pros and cons: take the fight with no training camp, which means you’re out of shape and haven’t been able to evolve any moves, but know you could become champ quicker than what you would if you climb the rankings. Or, lose the fight, get injured, and set yourself back even further. Ultimately, UFC 5’s career mode is the same thing we’ve seen before with absolutely no attempt to immerse players into the world of MMA.

Then there’s the training aspect of career mode, which once again remains the most unrealistic thing I’ve ever seen. Listen, I’m the furthest thing from an MMA fighter, but I’m a big enough fan to know that you don’t spar your opponents with no headgear, and you most certainly don’t try and knock each other out. But, believe it or not, this is exactly what goes down in UFC 5’s career mode.

After a three-year wait, UFC 5 feels like a slap in the face to fans of the series.

Training is broken down into different martial arts: boxing, wrestling, muay thai, brazilian jujitsu, and bagwork. But when the AI decides to go full pedal to the metal, some sparing sessions just feel like one big risk. Fighting an opponent in sparring feels exactly the same as an actual fight. Not only is there never any headgear involved, but your punches don’t feel any lighter, and the AI doesn’t go any easier on you. Combine that with some questionable objectives, like having to land five overhand rights on your partner, which resulted in me knocking them out and making them unavailable for the remainder of the camp, and you’ve got some odd design choices that really make it difficult to immerse yourself in.

I Waited Three Years For This?

Unfortunately, career mode isn’t the only downside of UFC 5. There are buggy camera angles when in the clinch, which can easily ruin your momentum and lead to a flash KO if you’re not careful. Then there’s the plethora of missing fighters, some of whom are actually ranked in the UFC, like Bryce Mitchell and Drew Dober. But don’t worry, just give EA an extra 30 bucks and you can have Muhammad Ali, who doesn’t even have his own custom animations. Sure, Ali hasn’t been with us for quite a few years now, but if Undisputed can recreate his movement perfectly fine, why can’t EA?

After a three-year wait, UFC 5 feels like a slap in the face to fans of the series. The fundamentals are there, and there are definitely some nifty features that made me go “oh, cool”, like the Kumite mode being one 25-minute round with all decisions resulting in a draw, but it’s hard not to feel like the only substantial change from UFC 4 is the upgraded engine. If you enjoyed UFC 4, you’re going to enjoy UFC 5. But don’t go in expecting a brand-new game, because this feels more like UFC 4: The Cuts And Bruises update.