Now that Undisputed’s career mode has been out for a few weeks and I’ve had some more time with it, we can revisit my initial impressions and update the community on what areas need tweaking, possible features to implement, and a host of other improvements that can make Undisputed’s career mode a more robust and enjoyable experience.
Belt Letdown
There’s a food pun in here somewhere, but in all seriousness, everything surrounding obtaining belts is a major letdown. For starters, there’s no actual belt ceremony in the game so when/if you’re lucky enough to win one, you don’t get to see your fighter physically take hold of one. Think about that for a second. You move your way up the rankings and get a chance to fight a title fighter only for you to see some screen that tells you that you won the belt:
No belt ceremony where Jimmy Lennon announces you as the new winner. No seeing your fighter in jubilee after this major accomplishment. In actuality, you don’t even get to wear it when you’re defending one. They’re simply just a paper achievement that goes against the grain of the actual game’s name, Undisputed (the process of obtaining ALL of the belts available within a specific weight class).
Lack Of Movement In Weight Divisions
Speaking of weight classes, once you climb the ladder, collect the belts, and successfully defend them there is nothing you can do for an additional challenge unless it comes to defending your belts. Imagine Oleksandr Usyk having to stay at Cruiserweight because he can’t move up to Heavyweight and take on the big boys. What’s even more confusing about this limitation is how the game does allow you to gain and inversely lose weight in between fights so it begs the question, “why can’t I move up or down?” The long-term effects of this are a sense of boredom as you’re forced to defend your title(s) against the same crop of fighters that you disposed of on the way to becoming champion.
More AI-Generated Fighters Needed
As noted in the last section, the lack of movement between weight divisions creates a stagnant pool of fighters with outlandish records (seriously, you can have a top-five ranked AI fighter with upwards of 10 losses). There have been some outstanding trilogies in boxing (Ali-Frazier, Ward-Gatti, and Morales-Barrera to name a few) but have you seen me fight some bloke named Cleveon (seriously, how many people named Cleveon/Kleveon are there?) five times?
Jokes aside, because the licensed fighters age and deteriorate you could end up fighting a 45-year-old Sergio Martinez who happens to be a 65 OVR now. The dynamics around licensing aside, Steel City Interactive simply need to create at least 15-20 more fighters in each division or open up the game to allow the sharing of rosters/created fighters.
Leveling Up Is Too Slow
This one is a bit of slippery slope and one that requires balancing to bring out the best of the game. While everyone should enjoy the grind of getting to the top, once you reach the mid-to-later stages of your career you should be able to really work with your trainer and hone your skills. While I particularly enjoyed the unpredictability of my early fights, I felt like I should have been much further along stat-wise once I reached my peak (25-ish). Instead I was maxing out a few areas in the high 70s with most stats in the 74-76 range despite taking a more targeted approach as compared to starting out when I was looking for balance amongst my attributes.
Career Mode Needs Mini-Games
- Schedule Fight
- Fight
- Recover
- Rinse & Repeat
That’s about as much as you’re going to get when it comes Undisputed’s career mode. In between fights the only thing you can do is lose weight or stay sharp. When you create your fighter, there’s a host of styles and punch animations to choose from but there’s no real way you can actually hone your skills in a non-competitive environment.
Instead of just simming the “Offensive Sparring” in Fight Camp as you work your way up to fight night, why not let me put the protective gear on and get in there with some random sparring partners? What’s even more frustrating is how you can sustain injuries during training that you have absolutely no control over. Sustain a right wrist injury hitting the punching bag, well at least let me get in the gym and take the pre-fight training under the guidance and tutelage of my trainer.
Imagine being an orthodox fighter (right-hand is your rear-hand) preparing to fight a southpaw (left-hand is your rear-hand) and not being able to get in some rounds against a southpaw. Seriously, just being able to work on combinations with your trainer would open the mode up some, especially utilizing the new over-the-shoulder camera.
More Commentary Lines Needed
Look, I’ve never been a huge fan of sports commentary in video games. It’s either repetitive and/or not dynamic enough and Undisputed is plagued by both. As you can tell, my name is a fairly common name and one that should be able to be read aloud in the game. I’ve been fortunate enough to see a few major fights live in-person and the excitement of when a fighter enters the ring and is announced is unrivaled in ANY sport. The letdown when you’re a world champion in Undisputed and Jimmy Lennon says “in the blue corner wearing the white shorts with blue trim”….that’s it, not even my nickname “Sweet” is read aloud. Nearly every other sports franchise mode that has a first-person option at least has some names the commentary team can pronounce, so it’s time for Steel City to step their game up in this regard.
Fight Purses Need To Increase
Sorry Dana White, this ain’t the UFC so I’m going to need my money! Imagine my surprise when holding all the belts in a title defense and my purse is 550K after paying my team? Even though money means very little when you get near the top, it would still create some realism if fight purses were somewhat realistic (for example, Teofimo Lopez’s last purse was in the $3-4 million range).
Bottom Line
Even though Undisputed has been out for over a year, we still need to remember that the game is still a glorified beta and career mode highlights this point. There’s quite a few gameplay areas as well as areas within career mode that need to be ironed out before the game is officially released. The team over at Steel City has acknowledged this as they work towards getting the game on consoles as their main priority, but rest assured that we should be see them polish up this mode among other things in the coming months.
