Great visuals, authenticity, complex fighting scheme, sheer amounts of fun, but out of the ring and online are terrible!
Visuals/Authenticity - 10/10
Inside the octagon, the characters look great. Sweat flows over their bodies, bloods drips from newly ripped cuts, faces absorb the impact of their opponent's strike, and you see the shock wave of the force ripping through their body. Characters models are nailed to the exact detail. The fighters prefight rituals, winning celebrations, and everything else are exactly alike to their real life counterparts.
Gameplay/Fighting Scheme - 10/10
The fighting scheme is so complex, and demands much strategy, and practice. Its fits perfectly to real UFC fighting. You have to know how to quickly change from position to position whether it be striking toe-to-toe, Muai Thai clinching, wrestling/Judo clinching, or working through transitions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
***Cons***
Online Play - So terrible...First off the game is ridiculously laggy, its like trying to fight in a slide show (and thats on a 16MB/s connection mind you...). The lag also SEVERELY HINDERS the timing of the striking and most definitely the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Second the leveling system is an absolute joke. Being 5-2 and rated only level 6, and fighting people at level 30 sounds scary but when their record is 9-30...its like wtf???? All people ever do is run away and try and super man punch you and get a hella lucky knockout. Almost all online fights i've fought were against people running around and trying to go for a lucky 1 hit knockout. Not a single one of them tried anything else. Sadly button mashing and lucky hits still ruin fighting games...
Learning Curve - (VERY steep)
Obviously its the first of what appears to be an installment in a annual franchise (hence the 2009 at the very end), and the control scheme is brand new. Not only that but every single button/analog stick has extreme importance in one way or another. If you buy the game and expect to crank the difficulty up to start beating people up...think again, youll spend the first few hours in the tutorial getting walked through moves and drilling specific positions.
Menu Systems
Its unbelievable how much time is wasted in the menus. You have to click through so many screens just to get to do one simple thing. Also the lag or pause in between the menus loading is very annoying too.
***Final Thoughts***
Don't get me wrong, UFC Undisputed 2009 is a very good and fun game, but the game is still very raw and rough around the edges. However looking at the 2009 title and seeing that this could become an annual sports game like those of the 2K9, and Madden series, i'm really looking forward to seeing where this game series goes.
9/10
Pros
- Visuals
- Complex, strategic fighting scheme
- Authenticity
Cons
- Online Play is horrifically laggy
- Too many one punch or random knockouts
- Horrifically steep learning curve
- Terrible interface and menu system
- Still rough around the edges