EA Sports UFC 2 review – Polygon

The career mode doesn’t have a lot of trimmings, but you can now create a woman and take her through a career as robust as the men’s division — a noteworthy if overdue addition. Still, it’s going to be up to the player to concoct any real narrative for themselves if they want to feel like a big-time fighter, as there isn’t much in the presentation that acknowledges your progress, outside of winning a title.

The between-bouts portion of the career mode adds a wrinkle to the training exercises, in that a fighter can hurt himself or herself if they attempt a higher-difficulty drill, particularly if it’s in an unfamiliar discipline. There’s also a wear-and-tear factor to the fights themselves; you might take a hell of a beating and still win, but that’s going to shorten your career. It’s a competent package that keeps the mode from being just a series of fights strung together, but not by much.

UFC 2 also adds its own take on Ultimate Team, the microtransaction-driven staple of team titles like Madden and FIFA, and Knockout Mode, which became quite a guilty pleasure. Knockout Mode is more for casual play and better with a couch companion, but you can also whale on the CPU and get right to the point of a fight game, which is a KO. In the mode, players are reduced to hit points and strikes take one off, so when a fighter is out of hit points, he drops to the canvas like a 40-pound bag of puppy chow. I found it useful as sparring practice in ways the more structured striking drills aren’t, without going through an entire match that might involve grappling and other things I don’t want to do.

Ultimate Team is essentially a career mode with online multiplayer, leaderboards and championships. Players create a stable of five fighters, either gender, and the card-collecting concept comes in to give them fighting moves, styles and other upgrades that you can distribute among them. Yes, there’s the option to just buy something for real money rather than earn the virtual dough needed. Where I found Ultimate Team useful was in getting me to play outside of the familiar style of my career fighter, because sometimes I’d get a great card for something like a judo style. You can earn the virtual currency that buys these cards by playing the mode a lot, but of course EA Sports is hoping people also splurge on something they want right now, for real money.