While boxing has never been my favorite sport, I can’t tell you how many hours I put into the Fight Night series back in the 2000s. The combination of realism and focus on presentation lived up to EA Sports’ motto of making you feel like you’re in the game. Despite my nostalgia for that franchise, it only took an hour-long preview of Undisputed at PAX West to realize that the boxing video game genre has a new contender on the horizon. I jumped right into my Undisputed preview by challenging Steel City Interactive CEO and Co-Founder Ash Habib to a sparring match. In reality, it was more of a tutorial, as he ran through all the basics of the mechanics while explaining how and why they were put into the game. It only took until the character selection screen for me to get my first rush of excitement with Undisputed. It’s sporting a huge roster of notable boxing stars past and present, including Mike Tyson, Katie Taylor, and Eddie Hall. Undisputed – September 2024 ScreenshotsYou read that right; you can even play as one of the World’s Strongest Men. Naturally, I had to go with Hall as soon as I saw him, even if it was a slight mismatch against Habib’s choice of Muhammad Ali. Despite the disadvantage, I was confident that my history with Fight Night would serve me well. Ali might be the greatest of all time, but Hall is an absolute monster of a man. It didn’t take long into the fight to show how wrong I was. Every detail matters in Undisputed, from how characters move to their size and attributes.At first, the gameplay felt very similar to what I was used to, thanks to my previous experience with boxing games. It wasn’t long before I felt comfortable dodging, jabbing, and throwing power punches in rhythm with my opponent’s movements. As the fight continued, I began to see small gameplay features that emphasized how important it was to the development team to make matches feel as true to life as possible. Every detail matters in Undisputed, from how characters move to their size and attributes, with each giving way to a certain strategy that changes how you can approach each fight.Alongside the 60 different punches and different defensive tools in the game, footwork and positioning also play a huge part in controlling the flow of matches. Thanks to a combination of speed and agility, characters like Muhammad Ali can back themselves into a corner, then use the bob and weave mechanic to turn the tables and unleash a flurry of body blows that can deal heavy damage to both health and stamina. Just like in real life, there are tactics to recover stamina if you want to play the long game. Refrain from throwing punches, get your opponent into a clinch, or even take a strategic knee, and you’ll be rewarded at the end of the round with increased health and stamina. These tactics aren’t guaranteed to always work, as all it takes is one power punch to send even the strongest fighters to the mat. Once down, Undisputed uses a disorientation system where you must simultaneously try to line both triggers into a green area, mimicking what it is like for a boxer to try and get up after a knockdown in real life. While this may sound easy, each side’s green area moves differently, so it felt like I was trying to rub my belly and head simultaneously in different directions. Not too long into round two, Eddie Hall suffered a hard-fought loss to Muhammad Ali, signaling the end of my first fight in Undisputed. The decisions made outside the ring are just as important as inside in Career Mode.After the exhibition, I looked at the in-depth career mode and was shocked by the level of detail that had gone into it. In it, the decisions made outside the ring are just as important as inside, and many factors determine your path. Stick with the same manager throughout your career, and you’ll get to see their attributes grow alongside you. The downside to dedication is that you’ll only have three attribute slots for them instead of the maximum of five, which more notable valets boast. While going the heartless route and replacing your equivalent to Mickey Goldmill with Don King may have some unique benefits, there are also downsides. Any time you get a new manager or even a cutman, you’ll have to start from scratch whenever you hire new people for your team. This means some of the unlocked skills that work as buffs to your attributes need to be unlocked again by completing new challenges. Other cause-and-effect decisions like fighting above your skill level, growing your fame instead of training, or refusing to rest have consequences that could lead to an early retirement. Even though I only saw about 10 minutes of career mode, I was genuinely impressed with how much effort went into trying to make it as realistic as the gameplay I’d already seen from Undisputed. Even with my limited experience with the sport, I can already tell Undisputed is crafted by people who understand and love boxing. While it’s been over a decade since a proper game in the genre has been released outside of VR, this one may prove to have been worth the wait.
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