Undisputed Review – Video Game Boxing Makes a Comeback With a Robust and Fluid Experience

As a lifelong boxing enthusiast and a die-hard Fight Night fan since its inception, I’ve been eagerly waiting for a worthy contender to step into the ring. With more than a dozen years of anticipation, Undisputed, developed by Steel City Interactive, has finally arrived to fill that void.

Has it been over thirteen years since the last Fight Night game was released? A considerable time span during which there’s been a noticeable lack of quality boxing games, and no contender has dared to take on the challenge – until now. Meet Undisputed, developed by Steel City Interactive, a Sheffield-based studio that passionately combines their love for video games and boxing. Their dedication is evident in a simulation reminiscent of EA’s Fight Night series. Get ready to wrap your hands and put on your gloves… we’re stepping into the ring!

In essence, the game Undisputed closely resembles the Fight Night series in terms of controls and mechanics, having adopted them from EA Canada’s game with some slight modifications. This is a testament to the original Fight Night’s success, making Undisputed play very much like a follow-up game. However, it falls short when it comes to creating the atmosphere and excitement that usually accompanies major title fights. The graphics show blood and sweat flying, muscles flexing with every powerful punch, but it doesn’t quite capture the expected level of intensity.

In this game, the boxing matches are more tactical and slower-paced, with a physics simulation that mimics real-life dynamics. The strategy lies in conserving your energy by careful button presses, while throwing powerful punches can make your opponent dizzy and open to attack. Each boxer has a stamina meter as well as health gauges for their head and body, allowing you to strategically target weak spots to achieve a knockout or earn more points at the end of the fight.

In Career Mode, you create and develop a male or female boxer, starting from humble gym fights in local clubs and eventually progressing to high-stakes matches in grand stadiums. The essence of this mode revolves around managing your boxer’s training schedule and weight maintenance to ensure they are at their peak performance. Once ready for a fight, you must arrange the bout, negotiate the prize money, and decide which gym activities to engage in. You could opt to focus on increasing your fanbase by avoiding intense workouts or invest in better team members like managers, cutmen, and trainers, though they may come at a higher cost. The decisions are yours to make.

It’s pretty uncomplicated stuff, but it’s all rather absorbing nonetheless, as you steadily climb the ranks of the WBC, WBO, IBF, and Steel City’s own SCI rankings. It does eventually settle into a bit of a repetitive cycle, however – choose training options, organise fight, do the fight, rinse and repeat. That’s Career Mode in a nutshell. Outside of that, you have a rotating series of Prize Fights to tackle for a spot on the online leaderboard, whereas Quick Fight mode offers up your standard solo matchups against the CPU or local 2-player face punching.

The game boasts a variety of competitive online modes, in addition to an impressive collection of contemporary and legendary boxers. This includes figures like Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, Ricky Hatton, Amir Khan, Frank Bruno, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Rocky Marciano. Although it’s noticeable that some professional boxers and legends are missing from the roster, such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Anthony Joshua, and Nigel Benn (with the latter, it would be great to have him fight against Chris Eubank, who’s also absent), it’s still impressive that there are over 70 fighters in the game. Moreover, the boxer likenesses are consistently well-done.

In simpler terms, while Undisputed has all the necessary options and features like its predecessors, it doesn’t significantly advance from older boxing games such as Fight Night Champion, which was released in 2011. To put it bluntly, if you were to play Fight Night Champion in 2024, it would still be quite enjoyable. One of the key aspects that Fight Night Champion excelled at – creating a sense of excitement and tension similar to a real boxing match – is lacking in Undisputed. The crowd sounds are dull, commentary is mediocre at best, and there’s a lack of energy in the ringside atmosphere. However, the gameplay itself is quite solid. It’s unfortunate that Undisputed doesn’t meet expectations in terms of presentation, but its boxing mechanics are still strong.

Without a doubt, Undisputed stands out as a strong contender, and after such a long hiatus for a decent boxing simulation game, it’s refreshing to return to the ring and witness the sport receiving the focus it deserves. However, Steel City’s game doesn’t quite take things to the next level. With Fight Night Champion still considered a viable option, and in all honesty, a superior game, Undisputed falls short of delivering on its promise as the highly-anticipated boxing comeback we were expecting. Nevertheless, if you’re seeking an authentic, contemporary, accessible, and smooth gaming experience for boxing enthusiasts, then Undisputed is essentially your only choice on the market.

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2024-10-09 20:42