Review: EA Sports UFC 6

Developer: EA Vancouver

Publisher: EA Sports

Platforms – Playstation 5, Xbox Series S|X (Reviewed)

Review copy given by Publisher

When it comes to showing your strength and determination as a fighter or wrestler, there’s no place better to show it off than the UFC. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, founded November 12, 1993, as an event to compare different styles of fighting to determine which was better, has turned into this powerhouse company now with an estimated network north of 7 billion dollars.

EA is back with their 6th iteration of EA Sports UFC with the promise to push the envelope further than previous years and set a new standard in sim-fighting-style games. All of these major updates and changes sound very promising. Is there a knockout in its future? Or will they fall short and slip into submission?

I have been a long-time fan of the UFC franchise. Whether watching a UFC event or playing the games, I tend to follow the sport pretty extensively.

I have not always been a big fan of the newer UFC games, feeling they lacked a bit of heart and soul, causing gameplay to go numb. I came into this hopeful after seeing some of the early access gameplay; visually, it looked advanced and smooth.

Immediately upon first launch, you’re greeted with that signature intro video mixed with a tutorial. It is very straightforward, teaching a very basic and toned-down way to play to give you the chance to grasp onto the controls and feel before jumping into the thick of it.

The fighters’ scans this year mostly all look very detailed and full of life, making you feel as if you’re actually looking at your chosen fighter(s). Thanks to the new Frostbite engine, it’s possible to bring all these personalities to life.

Making these locations like the MGM Grand feel full of screaming fans hyping you up makes the atmosphere feel on a whole new level. The attention to detail in the faces, muscles, and tattoos just all adds to the fighters’ personalities and unique features, as if they jumped into your screen to fight for you.

Frostbite’s new engine has more than visuals up its sleeve this time, introducing a new “Real Time Contact” system. This adds a now closer interaction window, making all the interactions feel more genuine and actually making a connection with the other player’s body.

According to EA, this new feature will—”In UFC 6, new contact windows help ensure that strikes land on time and drive through the target with more visual precision. We’ve opened up connecting frames from a single frame to a 4-frame window, allowing strikes to register more consistently while still rewarding precision and timing. Startup, impact, and follow-through are calculated dynamically, allowing strikes to connect cleanly, glance off, or miss entirely based on spacing and vulnerability.”

My experience with this new system is fairly good, but that doesn’t mean flawless. Sometimes it glitches out and registers I knocked an opponent out with a punch that didn’t actually touch my opponent, causing an odd ragdoll to happen.

I would assume that this feature will be extensively tweaked in updates, so this may just be a small issue that won’t affect anyone in the near future with further updates; but nonetheless, it was an issue I experienced with it. Credit where credit is due, however; the knockouts do feel and look very satisfying, and when it does what it’s meant to do, it absolutely makes a big difference in your gameplay experience.

This year brings another new feature deemed “Flow State,” which is a new mechanic to reward players with constantly building momentum during a fight. This allows you to have an advantage during the fight for the split moment when Flow State is active. Directly according to the EA write-up, flow state does the following:

Flow State works in three layers:

▪ Base Effects: Passive bonuses that support your fighter’s core strengths.

▪ Flow Boosts: Fighting style-based accelerators that supercharge your Flow Meter when you fight like your chosen fighter’s real-world counterpart.

▪ Flow State: A high-impact gameplay boost that can be activated when momentum peaks, helping create decisive finishing opportunities or turning the tide in a fight.

The feature, in my opinion, does feel a bit gimmicky, and I personally choose to not bother using it during my gameplay because it takes away from the raw fighting and atmosphere of the game.

I am assuming some will heavily rely on this feature for an advantage, but I also feel it’s a feature that could use a bit of work or even an option to tweak/adjust it. I personally think a perk-style-based system doesn’t belong in a simulation-style fighting game, especially where all the fighters already feel and act completely unique with their own attributes to begin with.

UFC 6 ships with a good handful of single-player-focused game modes, some of which are enjoyable and actually good for entry-level players to use as a tool to learn core mechanics without being thrown into an online match or anything crazy. The game’s modes and descriptions, listed below directly as EA describes them, are:

• THE LEGACY: Step into the shoes of Chris Carter, a collegiate wrestling prospect rising through the regional scene with dreams of the Octagon. But his fight goes beyond the cage, grappling with his late father’s legacy and a fierce rivalry. Your choices shape Carter’s journey in this cinematic, decision-driven prologue to Career Mode.

• CAREER MODE: This is the big stage; are you ready? Enter Career Mode with your created fighter, a UFC star, or continue Chris Carter’s journey from The Legacy. With an expanded decision-driven system, dual-title opportunities, a fight for the BMF title, and a dynamic world that reacts to you, every choice shapes your path to greatness.

• HALL OF LEGENDS: Their performances in the Octagon cemented them in history; their upbringings forged them into fighters. Hall of Legends is an immersive experience where you explore the stories, environments, and moments that shaped UFC superstars. Relive iconic fights through a seamless blend of footage, cinematics, and gameplay.

As well as the normal modes you would expect in a fighting game, there are quick fights vs. computers or friends locally or online.

I spent a lot of time extensively in the story mode. Developing my own fighter from the ground up has always been the first thing I do when it comes to a new UFC game, and boy, has it not changed much.

If you’ve played a UFC game before, then the process is immediately easily known: pick your contract, lock in a fight, spar the same drills, and then fight. The repetition is fairly repetitive. Once you do the same drill over and over constantly, it tends to get… Well, boring.

Of course you can simulate to speed up the process, but then it’s the same repetition with no work needed. I eventually got to a point where my fighter’s punching power was so strong I was knocking my sparring partners out before finishing a drill, and the whole training week was ruined; so, I’m stuck not running drills.

Let’s spend a few minutes focusing on some pros and cons of UFC 6 and work towards a conclusion on if this game is meant for you or even worth picking up for a returning player.

THE PROS:

If I’m being honest, my time with UFC 6—albeit at times a bit sluggish—I’ve been thoroughly enjoying. The knockouts this year feel so good and satisfying, especially when you’re toe-to-toe throwing blows with another fighter and it’s an evenly matched fight.

The visuals this year have once again stepped up thanks to the new Frostbite engine, adding more immersion to your gameplay experience. The atmosphere feels alive, and all the fighters have their own unique attributes and styles. Even down to their fighting stances, how they throw punches, etc., all feel unique and different.

An easy win for the pros is the soundtrack, which is an easy positive for any EA Sports title. The soundtracks are always really good and stacked with fantastic artists, some as far as Post Malone to Ozzy Osbourne.

Lastly, and most importantly, the game is at least fun to play in small sessions or large playing sessions. I never felt fatigue during my playtime and found myself forcing myself away at times because I was addicted to learning a fighter’s moveset.

THE CONS:

Now let’s get to the subject that tends to always be the hardest part of any review, and that’s the cons.

There really is no way to reinvent the wheel when it comes to a fighting game, but the sparring really needs a more immersive overhaul. Let us train with other big-name fighters and run custom drills like they would. Give us more options on what we train to develop the skill sets, instead of just doing the same 4 short drills and then adding to a skill tree. This is one of the biggest downfalls for us who want to create our own fighter and compete; it just becomes repetitive. If you’re not one of those, then this con is subjective for you and avoidable.

My second biggest gripe is the submission side of the UFC. It consists of the exact same, very outdated and slow system. When you’re on the ground, every action feels so slow and sluggish.

The controls on the ground are clunky and annoying to deal with at times, not even consistent with what you are trying to press or do. This is, in my opinion, the downside that turns players away, and I strongly believe an overhaul is needed in this field to be completely revamped and a viable option for more players.

The new Frostbite engine does work well when it comes to punches connecting the large majority of the time. But when it goes wrong, it goes wrong, and the outcome is a weird glitched mess. I’ve knocked someone out by completely missing their head, and I’ve been knocked out by a kick to the leg and my head took damage.

I hope this gets updated to be more consistent in the future, because it’s good, but it’s still far from perfect.

CONCLUSION:

UFC 6 is a mix of both new and familiar ideas, but don’t let that stop you from stepping into the Octagon. Despite a few minor issues and some occasionally clunky ground controls, the game remains an absolute blast to play. Whether you’re creating a realistic fighter or running wild with a character sporting a cannon for an arm, knocking opponents out never stops being entertaining.

Like any seasoned fighter, UFC 6 carries a few scars and imperfections, but it refuses to stay down for the count. It provides an excellent entry point for newcomers while giving longtime fans a comfortable and familiar experience enhanced by a handful of welcome improvements. It may not be flawless, but UFC 6 delivers a fun, engaging, and accessible MMA experience that keeps you coming back for one more fight.

UFC 6 strikes its way to an 8.5/10.