I’m a huge boxing fan, and I still jump on Fight Night Champion to this day. While that’s still accessible on my Xbox Series X via backwards compatibility, I’ve eagerly awaited the next great boxing game. Enter Undisputed. From developer Steel City Interactive comes that next big swing, attempting to receive the sport in the video game space. We previewed Undisputed last year, and while we enjoyed what we saw, we were certainly keen for a few adjustments and additional modes.
Undisputed is in many ways a satisfying boxing sim. Its controls feel weight and natural, while a range of online and offline modes ensure that there’s something for both casual and hardcore fans alike. I would consider the core gameplay the most solid jab of the bunch, but I do feel that a few missed wings keep it from being the best. The Career Mode relies more so on waves of menus as opposed to training minigames, which feels like a missed opportunity, while certain visuals and animations are at times, a little wonky.
Punches in Bunches
Make no mistake, Undisputed in many ways, feels as good as Fight Night Champion; but only because it feels incredibly similar. You’ll be able to throw jabs, straights, hooks and uppercuts with each of the four-face buttons or by throwing the right stick in certain directions. It feels incredibly natural and easy to learn, while additional controls like dodging, blocking and power and body shot modifiers remain on the shoulder buttons.
Much like a real boxing match, most of the ins and outs matter. You’ll need to concisely measure and monitor your stamina, as a few stray punches can leave you vulnerable. You’ll need to fight at an even pace to manage your heart rate, which can also drain stamina faster when too high. Undisputed does go one step beyond Fight Night Champion in one particular area, and that is overall damage. Damage dealt and sustained is conveyed to you by smaller health bars that appear beside your stamina bar when you take damage in that particular area.
For example, land a few jabs and hooks to the right side of the head, and you’ll see your opponent’s head health bar’ drain from white to red. It can also be permanently drained throughout a fight, meaning punches to those areas can do much more damage as the fight wears on. I love how this new system allows for a more dedicated approach to picking your punches and defending those sore spots.
Swelling and cuts have more impact in fights as well, and can actually stop and pause fights more consistently, much like the real sport. Fighters can even take a knee as a knockout if they’re feeling the heat and need you to back off. When knocked down, the minigame required to get back up sees players holding the left and right triggers in the correct spots for a certain amount of time, and is, for the lack of a batter description, bloody difficult.
Anyone who has played Fight Night Champion will more than likely adjust to this rather quickly, and I’m, glad that Steel City Interactive have taken notes in the right places as far as the gameplay is concerned.
King of the Ring
Undisputed packs in a few online and offline modes, but the majority of them feel relatively standard and par for the course. You’ll find your traditional Exhibition Matches and even online matchmaking with both unranked and ranked matches to take part in. These modes allow you to take your customer superstar out to the big stage to compete for the top spot worldwide. That being said, the game has just been released, servers have been a little shaky in terms of matchmaking, but I imagine that will change rather soon.
Realistically, the dedicated Career Mode is where most players will find something decent to chew on. You can start by creating your boxer, or by taking the reigns of an exiting champion from the roster of more than 70 fighters, both past and present. As far as customisation goes, there’s a fair but you can do, from facial features to wacky hairstyles, and I’m sure players will have a decent time constructing some of the most hideous and hilarious fighters out there.
Unlike Fight Night Champion, The Career Mode opts out of any training minigames and sides with a more dedicated RPG structure that relies on you choosing a huge amount of options for your boxer and their career. I feel like this is a missed opportunity as these portions between fights consist of way too many menus and things to read, but I also admit that there’s plenty to keep players engaged.
Early on, you’ll need to assemble a team, consisting of your coach, cutman and manager, each of whom will affect your stats and conditioning in unique ways. For example, your coach will directly affect how well you progress and in what shape you rock up to fights, while your cutman will essentially determine how you recover during and after fights. Your manager will then directly affect how well you negotiate for fight contracts and how much money you take home.
They also sign up with you for a limited amount of time, and you can either continue to pay your team or upgrade to a newer crew, based on the life of their contract, which is usually only a handful of fights.
Even then, you’ll still need to put a fair bit of attention into your career via these menus. You’ll generally have to keep and eye on your Fight Sharpnmess and your Weight, which can be managed by selecting the most effective training. You’ll then need to manage any injuries sustained after the fight by resting for an appropriate amount of time, before even booking any new fights.
When booking said fights, you must negotiate the purse and any fight terms, to get the best deal. And then, you even have to manage your influence and fame by attending things like media events in between scheduling training, before even upgrading your boxer with any XP earned.
Yeah, it’s a fair bit. The lack of any training minigames we have come to expect feels even stranger when you find out there’s a cutman minigame between rounds, which can help you recover a little better. It’s not necessarily detrimental, but I do feel like the abundance of RPG elements tied into menus takes the overall excitement and steady pace away from the actual boxing, as you need to rely on these elements and take them seriously to progress and develop as a boxer.
Another Round
With boxing and gameplay at the forefront of the experience, I’m glad that Steel City Interactive have taken the time to secure the rights to over 70 male and female boxers, both past and present. From the likes of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and even Rocky Marciano, to modern fighters like Canelo Alvarez, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, there are plenty to choose from.
Visuals and general likenesses are decent enough, and textures and lighting effects are also quite polished. There are a couple of speed bumps here and there though. Firstly, boxers can sometimes clip and clash when throwing punches at the same time, making one of the fighters swing their arms in unnatural ways to adjust themselves, and knockdown animations can also at times look a little wonky and unnatural.
The sound design is decent, but I must mention here that the sound of power punches when they land is hilariously overdone. It sounds like the loudest, wettest whack imaginable, and I got a bit of a fright the first time I heard it.
The presentation also feels a little hit-and-miss. While the entrances and arenas look fine, some fights have no commentary, and the silence is just strange. Even when the commentary does arrive in more prominent fights, it sounds a little awkward and stitched together.
Final Thoughts
Undisputed is, at its core, a very decent boxing game. It plays well and follows faithfully in the footsteps of Fight Night Champion, which I’m sure fans will be glad to hear.
But aside from occasionally wonky knockdown animations and awkward commentary, I wish there was a little more to do between fights. The heavily featured menus and RPG elements in the Career Mode allow for an in-depth look at a boxer’s routine from a statistical perspective, but it just feels like a missed opportunity for training minigames.
But at the end of the day, we haven’t had a boxing game like this since 2010, and I’m simply glad that the sport is getting a little love again in video game form.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Fantastic gameplay; In-depth Career Mode; Plenty of fighters to choose from
Lowlights: Wonky animations and awkward commentary; Lack of training minigames feels like a missed opportunity
Developer: Steel City Interactive
Publisher: PLAION, Deep Silver
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC
Available: Now
Review conducted on PlayStation 5 with a pre-release code provided by the publisher.
