Electronic Arts has brought the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) back to our homes via our consoles, and they haven’t held back with EA SPORTS UFC 5. I was lucky enough to attend a digital preview event a while ago, which you can read about here, and needless to say, when features were announced for this title, I was beyond hyped to see the outcome, and the developers have not disappointed with the content that they packed in this year. It really does look, feel, and play like a mixed martial arts game, and it shows the true beauty of combat sport.

If you have had a long day at work and just want to go home, but don’t want to jump online and beat the crap out of someone, then “Fight Now” is the game mode for you. You can jump into some quick fights with whatever weight class you want and fight until you are entertained. Let’s see how many people get that reference. I spent a lot of time in this game mode because it was a great place to build on my submissions game as it was lacking, and being able to put someone into an arm bar and watch them tap out is satisfying. The only thing that bothered me, which applies for all game modes, is that the referee seems to just vanish from the Octagon while you fight, only reappearing to enforce rules, stop the fight for medical reasons, or to announce a winner. This broke the immersion a little, and I would have preferred that they stayed there for the entire match.

Career mode has been split down the middle into two different game modes with EA SPORTS UFC 5, with the first being the offline career mode, where Coach Davis is back to help you become the G.O.A.T, as well as getting some guidance from former UFC Flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko. Like previous UFC titles, you start from the bottom, working your way up from a backyard brawler and into the smaller MMA franchises. Dana White will soon reach out, offering you a spot in the contender series and giving you a chance to join the Ultimate Fighting Championship. You’ll take on big and smaller names as you try to finish the challenges, all in an attempt to become the greatest.

There were times the fights seemed super simple, where you could go for a knockout hit in the first round, but other fights would go to the judges for a decision, and as you fight, you earn points that you can put onto your fighter to increase attributes like punching speed, kicking speed, and power. I did love that if you were winning too many fights in your weight class, Dana White would offer you to go up a weight class to compete for that belt, and you’d have to switch between classes to defend existing titles.

The second part of career mode takes you online, which was so much more fun than I expected. It could be because the game is fresh off the press, but the online community doesn’t feel toxic. In UFC 4, I found you would jump online and get put into a match with someone who had nothing better to do, and you’d get your ass handed to you with a spinning back fist followed by a roundhouse kick, so one of the things I loved the most about EA SPORTS UFC 5 is that it uses skill-based matchmaking, and players are put into divisions to ensure that you’re not thrown up against someone who will walk all over you. This made the online career mode feel a lot more competitive, and there are some very skilled players out there that keep you on your toes, so there were a couple of times I had to submit after being locked in an armbar or a guillotine.

Online felt better fleshed out in EA SPORTS UFC 5 than in previous titles, and it wasn’t just because of the skill-based matchmaking, which felt absolutely great. Holding private matches and playing against fellow MKAU team member, RedGrave, was loads of fun, and while there used to be weird little sync issues in previous titles, such as delays for when you’d throw a punch to when it would connect with the competition, this doesn’t seem to be the case this time around. I’m still yet to have an online match I have not enjoyed. I used to try and avoid online as much as I could because I didn’t find it enjoyable, but the developers had made it feel like it’s been overhauled internally, and now I look forward to jumping into an online fight.

Fight Week is something I am so hyped for as it syncs up with real-life UFC Cards and offers a new outlook on the game, letting you predict fights, take part in challenges, or better yet, compete in the fight yourself and see who wins, but unfortunately, it’s not released properly until November 6th 2023, so I couldn’t do a whole lot with it, but watch this space, because it will be getting updated.

As you fight, you earn money, regardless of playing online or offline, and you can spend it at the in-game store, and when you’ve climbed the ranks, your cashflow is seemingly abundant, but if you’re really impatient, you can purchase cosmetic items through microtransactions for both your account and your fighter. This adds to that online customizability, and there are some weird things people will come out to the octagon with, always drawing a laugh. The shop also changes from time to time, so keep checking it for something that might tickle your fancy.

I loved the controls because everything was the same as UFC 4, but it felt so much better. There were no input delays or anything, and the new submission system is so much simpler than UFC 4. You don’t need to play minigames to get out of an arm bar. Instead, you struggle and move to get out, which feels and looks a lot more realistic. It has simplified the controls, but it’s made it feel more real, and it’s something I can get behind, 100%.

I touched base on it during the preview write-up, but EA SPORTS UFC 5 uses the Frostbite Engine and the power of the current generation consoles to make an absolutely stunning game. Everything from the octagon to the crowds, right up to the UFC Training Centre is incredibly detailed, and there are some awesome new additions to the game. The first thing you will notice off the back is the Real Impact System.

In previous games, you’d maybe put a little cut on your opponent’s cheek after landing a few punches, and there might be a little blood, but now, there are eight regions built into the fighter’s face that can bust open, making an absolute mess of their face and the canvas, and thanks to the Authentic Damage, there are times where you don’t even need to bust them open to get the doctor to come into the Octagon. You can hit them enough times to close their eyes up or even break their nose, and yes, you read that correctly, the doctor will come into the Octagon if the referee calls a stop to the fight for medical issues. It really helps to add to the immersion.

There is also an absolutely stunning particle system, so you can see blood and sweat flying off your opponents as you kick them in the face, and if you are lucky enough to finish the fight, you will get a new cinematic K.O. Replay, which is bloody awesome to watch, and hearing someone’s bones crunch under your knuckles in slow motion is so satisfying. The character models looked stunning, and with the technology available these days, you would expect no less. Everything looked true to real life, and I couldn’t blame you if you thought you were watching a Pay-Per-View event.

I loved the audio in this game. As soon as I created my fighter and saw I could use “Down Under” as my entrance music, I was sold, and from then on, it only got better and better. The soundtrack was as awesome as it always is, and while some songs aren’t streamer-friendly, you look past that aspect. The commentary is always awesome in these games, and the sounds when hitting and cutting the opponent’s face open with your fist are satisfying as heck. The voice acting was great, and hearing Bruce Buffer come out and announce the fights was just as good as going to the pub on a Sunday to watch the UFC. Hearing Bruce Buffer yell, “IT’S TIME!” will forever send shivers down my spine.

EA SPORTS UFC 5 is the perfect representation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, showing the true beauty of combat sport. It wouldn’t matter if you have never played a UFC game before because this is the easiest one to pick up and the most fun, and as Bruce Buffer would say, “IT’S TIME!”

Written by: Hayden Nelson