Undisputed Review

A worthy entry in the annals of boxing games, but one a bit lite-on in some areas…

For all the pageantry and flair that modern boxing brings, Undisputed from Steel City Interactive lacks the most in those areas. It definitely promotes an in-depth pugilistic experience that is actually really fun to play and manage, but you get the sense that publishers Plaion and Deep Silver wanted to spend more money on its soundtrack than anything else. The lack of ever-present commentary or even basic VO in the game's Career Mode creates an empty environment in what should otherwise be a talking person’s game. Boxing is an analytical sport and while the game throws that depth at you, it’s in written form only which takes away any opportunity for Undisputed to present character and personality. None of this is helped with seemingly poor management of audio levels, though that could be how it works on this reviewer’s soundbar setup, though it’s the only game I need to crank up to 38 to even just hear, while every other game I play is comfortable at 18.

Still, Undisputed is a fun and deep game that pulls you into the world of boxing and teaches you the ropes in a steady cadence as you rise from the ranks of amateur to pro and beyond. It serves up a management system that is engaging and never overbearing and one that will placate boxing die-hards while also inviting am players into the fold as well. It’s not an overly complicated game to play, and as the Tutorial does tell you (in written form), once you start using all of the seemingly complex controls more and more, the more it all also becomes second nature. There is a grind in the Career Mode’s midpoint, but no boxer went from amateur to World Champion overnight, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but as you put in a body of work it can get a bit tiresome, especially when you’re winning all the time.

Undisputed

Genre: Boxing/Fighting
Developer: Steel City Interactive
Publisher: Plaion/Deep Silver
Release Date: October 11, 2024
Classification: M15+
Author: Stephen Farrelly
Date: October 10, 2024

Jab, Jab, Flickit

One of the clear winning aspects of Undisputed is in its analogue control system. Combinations of face-button presses, your use of shoulder buttons and how you utilise the right analogue stick control all of your offensive moves, while the right trigger and combinations of both the left and right analogue are used for defense. It sounds like a complicated mess, but is actually really very fluid and definitely becomes instinctive to use. This is all in conjunction with your fighting style and how you choose to approach each fight from a preparation perspective (more in this shortly). 

"Most of the game is about preparedness and what you’re willing to do to rise those ranks..."

From the game’s Career Hub you manage two key elements when outside of a signed off bout; weight (associated with your class/division) and training. The more you train, the more weight you gain, so you need to strike the right balance between the two, but you can only choose one a week. The game’s entire timeline system is built around weeks, so you might find yourself training to the right pre-fight balance for a number of weeks and these are determined by a simple colour-coded meter. You can enter fights overweight or underdone from a training and weight management perspective, but then you risk injury which can impact recovery, further training and your overall momentum on each association’s world rankings (there’s four).

Most of the game is about preparedness and what you’re willing to do to rise those ranks. You might find yourself fighting the same cats a few times as you build out your WLD record before the big time comes knocking, but thankfully the management of all of this is always engaging, if a little lite-on despite its perceived depth. 

*Click "Would You Like to Know More?" for... MORE!

Would you like to know more?
In addition to the Career Mode, you can just jump into a Quick Fight with a number of licensed fighters to choose from, including the great Muhammad Ali (from two eras), modern legend and larrikin Tyson Fury, “Smokin’” Joe Frazier and Rocky “The Rock” Marciano among many, many others. Each has signature traits and styles, so it’s a good idea to have a bash about with them as you might pick up some moves or strats to apply to your created boxer. Unfortunately this mode and Prize Fight mode both feature commentary and lots of pizzazz (and good commentary and pizzazz at that), which teases that pageantry we were crying out for in Career Mode in both a good and bad way. That said, both modes are a great distraction from your main job and really showcase the effort the devs put in.

Manager My Manager

In my time leading towards major cards, I was at a respectable 9-0 before I took my first sleep on the mat (it was embarrassing too, as I was straight KO’d), so while the game throws a lot of information at you, it’s not a steep learning curve. As a competitor once you leave the amateur circuit, you need to manage a few aspects including your team which consists of a Coach (you can invest points into growing each as well based on completing tiered Challenges), your Cutman who is your in-ring support for between-round advice and health management, and a Manager who is in charge of not only getting you fights, but also negotiating the best deals for those fights. These can be the percentage of the purse you take home, win or lose, whether or not there’s a rematch clause, if media commitments are attached, how many weeks you get to prepare (the longer, the less you earn) and so on.

"You only get to choose one per week and each will impact your overall readiness, meaning you need to manage your “Recovery” because you don’t want to go into a fight half cooked..."

Additionally, you can choose to manually select your own opponent, but you’ll be negotiating on your own which is fraught with risk-reward variables and outcomes, so if you don’t mind ponying up, it’s best to keep a team handy and happy.

Once everything has been negotiated, you need to step out from regular training in the Career Hub and into Fight Camp, which gives you a list of things you can do to ready yourself for the fight from a dedicated training perspective, but you only get to choose one per week and each will impact your overall readiness, meaning you need to manage your “Recovery” because you don’t want to go into a fight half cooked, and the deeper your understanding of all of this, the better off you’ll be come fight night

A Good, Clean Fight 

As stated in our opening salvo, Undisputed’s biggest problem lies in its lack of flair and polish. Fights are great and most animations and animation trees are fluid, but it can still be janky here and there, and when a knockdown happens, some of the ragdoll results are pretty meme-level funny. There’s a damage system that is dynamic and wears on based on where you land blows, and it’s cool to see body blows offer up a different down-to-the-canvas representation by way of a knee, but most of these are repeated fight to fight. If you floor an opponent in the ring corner, for example, you’ll see a visual swipe and when we’re back, we’re reset to the middle of the ring as the ref counts your opponent (or you) up. It might read as semantics, but it shows there’s actually less dynamism here than the devs would have you think is there.

"It’s the first true boxing game in some time, so it’ll no doubt scratch an itch for those of us who enjoy the sport..."

The ease at which you can push through and climb the ranks and game the game belies so much of the depth it did feel a bit empty, but that also felt on-brand when we go right back to our original gripe of the game feeling empty due to a lack of more audio, specifically in Commentary and no Cutman feedback in between rounds (further amplified because most of the written dialogue is also repeated and does not appear at all dynamic). You’ll enjoy the sim-ish aspect to it all, if you're into that sort of thing, and having access to the other modes which you can read about in our “Would you like to know more?” boxouts is great, so there’s plenty of meat on the bone here, but there’s also a lot of smoke and mirrors. That being said, it’s the first true boxing game in some time, so it’ll no doubt scratch an itch for those of us who enjoy the sport and have pined for something new since the brilliant Fight Night Champion.

Would you like to know more?
In multiplayer you have Quick Fight options or you can play a Ranked Match against similarly skilled players, with the other usual elements in Leaderboards and a Lobby creation suite (which is pretty straightforward). Unfortunately you’re only able to use supplied fighters for online matches, and not your created boxer which is a bit of a missed opportunity for those of us who put in the road work with them to get their stats up and to learn their abilities and traits intimately. Surely the Ranked Match setup could have had this as an option as well. Perhaps if enough people jump up and down about it, it could be implemented down the track as part of the game’s post-launch Roadmap.

What’s Boss?

  • Excellent control system that is daunting at first but easy to master
  • Showcases a deep understanding of the sport but never presents as overbearing
  • Career Mode is an excellent experience that has players managing many facets of life as a boxer on the rise
  • Dynamic damage, stamina and health model that makes management of the self in fights important
  • Legends being able to square off in Quick Fight mode

Not Boss Enough?

  • The lack of Commentary or pageantry in Career Mode leaves the experience often feeling a bit hollow
  • Our audio experience was very, very low
  • A lot of repeated animations, written lines and what few words there are in Career Mode killed some of the touted 'dynamism'
  • Equally, in Quick Fight we heard the same line from one commentator every round at exactly the same time
  • The lack of being able to use your created boxer in online multiplayer is a huge loss

Undisputed is the first dedicated boxing title in a decade and comes packed with licensed current and retired legends of the ring. A robust career mode and a star-studded soundtrack round out what is an enjoyable and at time deeps romp into the world of the squared-circle.

About the Author

Written By Stephen Farrelly
Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment, lifestyle and sport under his belt. He is a proud pug dad, loves art in all forms but particularly street and tattoo culture, and is the director of Swear Jar...
More from this Author
  • + Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review
  • + Rebellion's Fallout-ish-Like, Atomfall, Gets a Release Date and a Menacing New Trailer

    • Explore More in Gaming

    Halls of Torment is a new roguelike survival game that might not stray far enough from the formula laid out by Vampire Survivors, but it has enough new things to keep you coming back. That is, in addition to the awesome retro Diablo-style visuals that look like they're straight from 1998.

    Our definitive Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 review. We dissect its three key pillars in Campaign, Zombies and, of course, Multiplayer and how they stack in the grand scheme of things. There's more here than initially meets the eye, too, so strap in and give it a digest of some possessive reader-type form...

    After a year of Seasonal updates and overhauls and a brand-new expansion introducing new story, a new class, and new activities, Diablo IV is in a great place. In fact, so much has been improved or refined since the game's initial June 2023 debut, that the game feels like it has grown into what it was always meant to be.

    Half-Life 2 turns 20 this year, and to celebrate NVIDIA has released a new retrospective video on the game's legacy from the talented team behind the impressive Half-Life 2: RTX mod currently in development.

    Atomfall from veteran developer-publisher Rebellion becomes increasingly more and more enticing. Is it Fallout-like? Dying-Light-like? Metro-like? Is it completely new and something we shouldn't be comparing to other games? And won't somebody answer that damn phone?!

    Reckon you could solve a 'time-loop' day? How many days would it take you, and how long before you just took the opportunity to be a dick about it all? Rue Valley might just be the game to see how well you'd actually do in a Bill Murray-type environment...

    While plenty of racing games feature drifting, few use it as their entire point. That's where JDM: Japanese Drift Master comes in. Launching next year and featuring an open-world to explore and drift in, powered by a manga-inspired narrative, this has "unique racing gem" written all over it...

    Bethesda has updated its long-running MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online, with Update 44 now available on PC and consoles and, as expected, it brings a lot to the fore. We've got some deets for you inside if you're willing to come on in...

    The Aussie-made Servonauts is set to test relationships this November with its chaotic party game makeup with up to three friends in four-player co-op. Play from the couch on Switch or with Steam Remote Play, or online against others with Steam. Details, trailer and images all after the jump!

    Fancy another go around with Astroneer? Wait! You've never heard of it?! That's okay, it was released back in 2019 officially -- probably before a bunch of you were even born. Well at any rate, it has awoken from a cryogenic deep sleep apparently and comes packed with a new expansion for old and new audiences alike!

    Comment

    Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.