As a fan of boxing, this game just makes me shake my head in disgust.
First the good. The graphics, they're great. Boxers look about as life-like as they possibly can, and subtle things like the way sweat flies off after a punch connects, the way muscles flex when throwing a punch, and the way a boxer's face becomes contorted when hit with a blow all look realistic.
The commentary is great, but will get repetitive after a while. (as it does in any sports game). Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas both do a great job. It's almost just like listening to them on Friday Night Fights.
Sadly, these are about the only true positives in the game. When it comes to gameplay, (the most important aspect of a game) FNR4 is a complete letdown.
This game is supposed to be a boxing sim, but if you have any sort of knowledge about the sport and have watched real fights before, then you will quickly see that this is about as far from a sim as you can get. The way boxers throw punches can sometimes be slow and awkward, rather than quick. For example, when a fighter throws a jab, you expect it to be quick, straight and precise. Too bad most of the time this doesn't happen. When you move the right stick to throw a punch, you're doing so not knowing if the punch will even be delivered correctly. This is a severe problem, and it's just one of many in this game. You can be a tall guy with a long reach, for example. Think you're going to be able to control the fight against a shorter guy with your jab? Forget it. Punches, particularly the jabs, are rarely delivered correctly. In a recent fight (and this has happened plenty before) I can recall being on the outside jabbing. Out of 10 thrown jabs, just 2 were thrown with proper technique, and full extension. The rest were sluggish, and as a result, my opponent was able to counter several times. The strange thing about these awkward punches, however, is that this problem really only affects YOU. The opposition rarely has this problem. Instead, they're constantly throwing lightning quick punches, rarely missing a beat when throwing a combination, while you seldom are able to pull off a combo without the awkwardness and slow punches coming into play to ruin your barrage of punches.
Next, (and this yet again is a huge problem that completely ruins the experience most of the time) fights don't even play out in a realistic way. Plenty of examples will follow:
You can land 4, 5, 6 (or even more) punch combinations, all flush blows on an opponent, yet nothing happens other than a slight decrease in health. Counter punches are all you need to try and throw, because nothing else lands with any type of authority or force at all. You can be annihilating your opponent with a barrage of hooks and uppercuts to the head, do barely any harm, then they do a "perfect block" (this tactic is very cheap, and is something the CPU is extremely good at doing) counter you, then you're stunned or knocked down. I've been knocked down by JABS before, yes, counter JABS. Right after I just bashed the guy's face in with 4 hooks, a straight right hand, and a couple of uppercuts.
So basically, being the aggressor is useless most of the time. Simply counter your way to victories, because these kind of punches are the only ones that ever consistently do any real damage. It is possible, believe it or not, to score knockdowns in one punch, but no matter who you are, or who you're fighting, the opponent always gets up, no matter how devastating the punch may be. It's so predictable. For example. I was George Foreman (young George, 99 power in both hands) facing off against a guy I created (head toughness of 65, chin also 65). I was destroying the guy, managed to knock him down in the first (only after a counter, though. Apparently 5 non-counter, flush Foreman left hooks on a weak chinned opponent do not have a serious effect), only to see him get up... just like in every other fight. It goes like this most of the time: 1st knockdown - They get up at about 4; 2nd knockdown - They get up at around 5 or 6; 3rd knockdown - They usually stumble, then get up at about 8 or 9, etc...
This happens most of the time, no matter what. Finally after 4 brutal knockdowns on my glass chin opponent, he finally stayed down.
Body punching is completely useless in this game. You always hear in real life that body work really drains a guy and will have him tired later on. This is true, and happens in real fights... but not in this game... this boxing "sim". You can land hooks, uppercuts, haymakers, anything to an opponent's body, and no matter how high or low their body toughness rating may be, you see no significant difference in their performance or punch output throughout the fight. Body punching is supposed to drain stamina, but rarely do you see a noticeable difference. Plus, any stamina lost can be easily regained in between rounds in the unrealistic corner mini games. Yep, just spend points earned based on round performance (usually mindlessly spamming punches will get you plenty) then just select stamina, and there you go; stamina has been recovered, and any depletion that your body work did do to your opponent, suddenly goes right out the window. The same goes for health too. Landing a bunch of headshots? Doesn't matter, your opponent will just recover lost health in between rounds with their points.
You should only be allowed to tend to swelling and cuts, like in FNR3, AND IN REAL LIFE. I'm sorry, but since when can boxers magically regain stamina in between rounds?
Stamina and Health recovery should not even be an option in this game, instead, health and stamina should just wear out more slowly, which would be more realistic. You can't regain any health or stamina you lose in real life during a fight, so why should you in this boxing "sim"?
At the rate YOUR (not your opponent's) health and stamina depletes, though, the above is absolutely necessary. You lose an outrageous amount of stamina simply by fighting a realistic fight (if you can somehow manage to do so in this flawed game)
After 1 round, as much as 1/4 of your stamina will likely be gone, whether you threw 100 punches, or 40. Meanwhile, your opponent enjoys seemingly infinite health and stamina.
Haymakers are also useless. Land a big hook, and rarely will it ever do anything other take away a slight amount of health. (and it quickly gets regained in a second or two anyway, no matter what their heart rating is)
One thing about the fighting that is improved, but at the same time still flawed, is the fact that you can now fight on the inside. As you may recall in FNR3, there was this imaginary line that kept you a certain distance from your opponent. In FNR4, you can now get as close as you want, but here's where yet another flaw will come into play.
When you stun an opponent, and have a chance to put them away, that invisible barrier seems to make a return. And always when you're about one punch away from sending the guy down too. I can't count the number of times I hurt a guy, almost had him down, only to not even be able to get near him to finish him off. It's as if he just floats away, then finally when their health is fully regained, you can magically get close again. Weird how that works. When you get stunned, though, you can forget enjoying this invisible barrier. Your opponent will be all over you, and there's nothing you can do but sit there with your hands up, hoping you don't get knocked down. You can try clinching, but you may as well not bother, as the CPU can somehow completely prevent you from clinching them. They however, are able to almost run towards you and literally bear hug you when they're hurt. You can push them off, but by the time you're about to throw a punch, they're already clinching again. Funny how the CPU can do this stuff, but you can't, eh?
Now to Legacy (career) mode, and boy is it awful. Your goal is to take either a created boxer, or a real boxer from the amateurs all the way to trying to retire as the "Greatest of all Time". You start out in a tournament as an amateur. The goal here is to win it, and it should be very simple as these fights are very easy to win. (enjoy it while you can, though, because the fights will literally become impossible to win later on. More on that soon)
Once you complete this, you become a pro. From there, you have a menu full of options. You can choose your next opponent, change settings, edit your boxers apparel, etc... The most annoying thing you'll find here is your inbox. Your "trainer", whom you never even see, sends you the same 3 or so emails over and over throughout your entire career. Useless things like "Belts are changing hands in other divisions, check it out!" I mean, really? What real-life fighter would give a **** about another division and its belts? Apparently EA thought this would be so important, though.
Next, is the "you keep on winning" email. WIn a few fights in a row, and this useless, pointless email gets sent to your inbox.
There are several more, but enough about this. You get the idea.
Now to training and fighting. Once you choose an opponent and a fight date, you then have to sit and watch a calendar as the days are simulated up to your training session. This is so boring, as you can imagine. Why can't you just instantly jump to your training? After this, you finally get to choose from several frustratingly difficult training games. Now this is something that should not be frustrating, as training is your only way to build up your ratings and improve as a fighter. Too bad they're frustrating and difficult to learn. I actually did manage to master all but one of the games, but it's just so much easier to simulate these sessions, as they are extremely boring, and can be tedious and very frustrating for many. You'll earn fewer points by simulating, but it's better than playing a training game, having a bad session, then ending up with fewer points than you would have if you had just simulated training.
Now to the fights. Enjoy winning and fighting against evenly matched opponents while you can, because this will not last long. You should be about 15 or so fights into your career before it becomes a complete joke. You'll be fighting guys with ratings that are far superior to yours, so unless you fight on amateur difficulty, prepare to lose -- a lot... by knockout. Seriously, you have no chance on higher difficulties, none. Your opponents are so much better. If you're a heavyweight, you'll fight guys who look like they're on steroids, yet they can throw punches faster than a young Ali or Tyson. It's impossible to hurt these guys. Your power will be too low, their chin will be rated too high, for you to do any harm to them. Even if you manage to master all or most of the training games, earning yourself maximum points, your stats will still be way below that of your opposition. You can try to avoid the best guys who are ranked ahead of you, fighting the easiest opposition possible, but eventually, you will have to fight guys whom you have no chance against.
If you do somehow manage to make it through the ranks and become the "greatest", your reward is nothing more than some lame apparel, and yet another stupid email from your trainer. "Yeah. good job champ. You're finally the greatest"... something similar to this.
Gee, thanks coach. How awesome.
Just kidding. It's not awesome, or the least bit satisfying to complete a career with a fighter, as there is no real sense of progression, or sense of accomplishment during your career, because to truly be the greatest in this game, you have tone the difficulty down. What's fun about that? Nothing. Career mode is either way too easy, or way too hard to be any fun.
If you decide to take your game online, you'll see that it does not get much better. If you hit someone too much, they disconnect. (Almost all of the online population apparently cannot finish a fight and accept a loss)
If you actually manage to get someone who will fight you, they just employ cheap, unrealistic tactics like constantly spinning or bobbing and weaving. Mindlessly spamming punches, or just running away unwilling to fight.
In short, online is not enjoyable, and the same can be said for FNR4 as a whole for the most part. The game is far too frustrating and unrealistic to ever be consistently fun. Punches are slow and sluggish most of the time, body punching is useless, unrealistic corner mini games allow you to have full stamina all throughout a fight, assuming you have enough points; the career mode offers nothing in the way of excitement or the feeling of taking a fighter through the ranks in a realistic manner, and the little things like the annoying menu music, to the laggy menu navigation all combine to make this nothing more than a mediocre fighting game for most. When everything works, the game can be enjoyable (Fight Now mode, not Legacy. It's impossible to enjoy) If you're a diehard boxing fan like me, maybe you can handle the gameplay flaws and find some enjoyment, but if you're just a casual player looking for a good fighting game, look elsewhere, because FNR4 is not what you're looking for.