Published , by Nick Tan
Published , by Nick Tan
Ever since Electronic Arts stepped away from its critically acclaimed Fight Night series after 2011, very few developers have dared to create a realistic boxing game in its place. Fans of the genre have had to settle for other types of boxing titles, like Nintendo’s Punch Out, the management simulator Punch Club, and the VR-exclusive Creed: The Road to Glory. So it was a shock when indie developer Steel City Interactive revealed Undisputed for Steam Early Access in January 2023. With nearly two years of user feedback and development updates, this upstart is finally ready to step into the ring. But while Undisputed has more than several moments of excellence, it still feels like a work in progress.
Fight Night veterans will feel right at home with Undisputed as it adopts the same twin-stick control scheme without making too many additions of its own. The left stick controls movement around the ring while the right stick maps each punch type — left and right jab, hook, and uppercut — to one of six directions. These punches are also mapped to the face buttons, but the right-stick controls offer more fluidity and precision. Holding down the left bumper has punches target the body and lowers the block from protecting the face to guarding the abdomen. All punches can be turned into slower but more powerful blows by holding down the right bumper.
Undisputed also borrows much of the health system from EA Sports MMA by tracking damage done to every body part, in addition to guard strength and the swelling and cuts to the face. Defensively, this means that the block can be worn down, allowing punches to land when they normally wouldn’t. So learning how to slip, weave, and dodge oncoming strikes is important, especially on higher difficulty levels and in online play, as it gives some breathing room for the guard to recover.
Meanwhile on offense, opponents who block too often are vulnerable to power punches that wear down the guard quickly. Power straights are particularly useful for their speed and block penetration, while power hooks have a solid range that can interrupt combinations. Depleting the health of an opponent’s head or body will trigger an adrenaline state, where the player can throw punches without costing stamina in an attempt to find an opening for a knockdown. Even if that doesn’t lead to an immediate victory, causing swelling and multiple cuts to an opponent’s face can eventually lead to a fight stoppage in the player’s favor.
The combat in Undisputed is able to capture the thrill and dynamic nature of a boxing match, though there are several glaring issues that are left unaddressed. Much of the intensity in a bout comes from finding an opening and punishing an opponent with a wicked combination or well-placed uppercut. A lot of attention has been placed on the lifelike character models and animations, particularly those for actual boxers like Muhammad Ali, Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury, Rocky Marciano, and more. The signature fighting styles for the more than 70 licensed boxers on the roster are adapted well, either through motion capture or careful study.
That said, the touted authenticity of the fighting system is marred by a jarring get-up animation, the lack of a clinch, and generally inaccurate punches while in the pocket. No matter where fighters are knocked down, their bodies are magically transported to the center of the ring where they rise from the canvas in a canned, unskippable animation. Some tactics boxers use, like entering a clinch and cutting off the ring by moving laterally against an opponent who is running away, are sadly absent. Punches also tend to whiff more often than they should when combatants are within very short range. Even in the tutorial, the boxer will miss simple combinations against an opponent who is standing still without guarding.
On presentation, the game has a solid soundtrack, strong commentary, and a decent collection of arenas, but it misses on some of the finer details. In addition to the short and sweet playlist, with tracks that are mostly royalty-free, the commentary from Johnny Nelson and Todd Grisham has enough variety and flow to keep it from becoming stale. However, the audience could be more dynamic when reacting to knockdowns, and every NPC around the ring apart from the boxers are alarmingly stiff, including the referee, coach, cutmen, and judges. It’s also strange that the fighters barely make any sound when getting knocked out by, say, a hook to the jaw or a body shot to the liver.
As the game’s main single-player campaign, career mode gets the job done, albeit without many bells and whistles. It challenges players to take a created or licensed fighter with relatively low stats and turn him (or her) into an Undisputed champion with title belts from all four major boxing organizations. The character creator is easy to use and adequate, providing detailed facial sculpting but lacking options for different muscle types and tattoo rotation.
The journey from rookie to world-renowned legend in Undisputed takes roughly 12 hours and plays similar to a stat management game. Between fights, the player needs to juggle fight sharpness, body weight, energy, and potential injuries, all while raising attributes and signing contracts with support staff. Earning special traits from coaches and completing objectives for bonus stats provide optional challenges for progression. Fight contracts can also be negotiated for a higher cut of the purse, a longer fight camp, and fewer stipulations. It takes a few matches to figure out how all these moving parts work, but as long as the boxer remains in the green and stays healthy, no debilitating stat penalty will be applied for the next scheduled fight.
Nonetheless, career mode isn’t as engaging as it should be. Introducing several training mini-games, a special match, or at least a sparring session would make the mode feel less like a lesson in accounting. A stronger endgame with objectives befitting a legend would help extend the mode as well, since there’s not much to do once a boxer has earned every belt and capped out every trainable stat. Being able to change weight classes and use a career mode fighter in quick play or a restricted mode online (which notably has anti-cheat now) would give it more relevance.
Pound for pound, Undisputed doesn’t yet have the chops to compete against the likes of Fight Night Round 3, but it’s pretty much the only game in town. This effort is far above other attempts at a realistic boxing game, and it mostly delivers on intense combat and solid animations. As it was with the game’s roadmap in Steam Early Access, Steel City Interactive is well-prepared and already committed to provide continual updates and improvements moving forward. Despite several weaknesses, Undisputed has a solid foundation for the developer to build upon. While it’s not a champion now, it is a contender worth watching out for.
This review is based on a PC (Steam) copy of the game. Undisputed will also release for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5 on October 8 for the digital Deluxe WBC Edition and October 11 for the Standard Edition and physical Deluxe WBC Edition.