EA Sports UFC’s public demo has gone live just two weeks before it’s anticipated released on Playstation 4 and Xbox One. With the power of the Ignite engine behind it, EA Sports UFC is one of the first games to showcase the true power of the next-gen consoles. But, how does gameplay fair against the beloved THQ UFC games?

Unparalleled realism in the Ignite engine shows just how powerful the Playstation 4 & Xbox One truly are.

I’ve never really been much of an MMA buff (I’m trying to get into it), but every year THQ released their UFC games my brother would always pick up a copy and we’d end up playing them together. I loved the fast paced gameplay and easy to learn controls, and not to mention THQ had a knack for picking a kick-ass soundtrack for the games. With EA Sports’ UFC game, things have been completely re-worked from the ground up. A new engine, new gameplay, and of course a new soundtrack. The demo only provided us with a mere sample in the strongest of meanings of what we’re getting just 10 days from now.

Female fighters are present.

THE GOOD: The Ignite engine is a truly amazing piece of software, it shows off just how real EA Sports UFC looks. From post match cut scenes to in-game gameplay, the sense of realism graphically is unreal. Gameplay took strategy and memory which may be a bit difficult for some with EA Sports UFC. Controls ranged from pressing certain buttons for kicks, punches, and power strikes, to using the right stick for take downs.  I enjoyed the clever use of the analog stick, it made gameplay feel like it would take actual time to get used to rather than just hot shooting your way to victory. I also liked that almost every button had a legit use in-game so must of the controller didn’t just feel like dead weight for the most part.

A large character roster will be featured in final product.

Though not present on the demo, one thing I’ve taken notice of is the inclusion of female fighters in EA Sports UFC. This is a feature that wasn’t present in THQ’s video games, this of course was purely due to circumstance more than anything else, but is a significant enough addition that makes EA’s UFC game feel totally different from THQ’s.

Kick-punch, kick-punch!

THE BAD: While a demo, I found it rather annoying that the tutorial leads directly to the actual fight between player fights Jon Jones & Alexander Gustafsson. It would have been nice to have had some of the soundtrack available in the demo. Due to the amount of controls in the game, some players may find it difficult to memorize all of the, thankfully though this simply means that the game will take some time and effort to get used to.

The Legend himself, Bruce Lee is featured in EA Sports UFC.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: EA’s UFC demo only provided us with two playable fighters, but it was sufficient enough to let us understand how the core gameplay works, and that’s basically it. EA Sports UFC is fun, but gameplay will take some time to memorize and get the hang of them. There was no soundtrack in the demo and the straight zoom into the fight post tutorial was annoying, but somewhat understandable. And witnessing the Ignite engine show off the power of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One first hand was quite a sight.