Games worth discovering

Undisputed - An AMAZINGLY DETAILED Boxing Game

5K View2023-02-01

Undisputed just came out on Steam in Early Access, and I thought I'd give it a go, and wow I must say, for an early access game, this is quite a game. Gameplay wise, the controls come off as pretty intense though, with the tutorial teaching you many different techniques you can use on the controller, and yes this game can ONLY be played with a controller. Mouse and keyboard is NOT supported, according to the steam page.

Thankfully I own a controller so I was able to give this game a good try, and while the game does say you can use the buttons X,Y,A and B buttons for punching, or the right joystick, I found the right joystick was much better for landing punches from different angles, It also just felt a lot more intense when you were swiping up or down on the joystick to do swings and uppercuts. Blocking is key and so is dodging, and also finding the right boxer for your playstyle.

I did try the heavyweights, specifically using Eddie Hall since he's someone I admire a lot, but heavyweights hit slow, and I just couldn't match it up with my type of playstyle. Eventually I did find the female lightweight boxers were more my style. They would hit hard and fast, and it just felt more like a playstyle I enjoyed more. You can control how many rounds you want, and the difficulty of the AI opponent, I highly recommend playing on the arena maps because it just feels a lot more intense when you have crowds cheering, compared to doing a match in a gym.

Gym matches are very quiet, with no background music or any sounds other than the boxers going at it. While the arenas have crowds cheering you and commentators narrating while you are fighting. It just feels more immersive in the arenas. There is even a mini game if you get knocked down, you have to try and get the two lines to stay within the red bars before you get counted out. It sounds easier than it is, especially for someone like me who isn't good with these types of things. And I only managed to get back up once, the other times I got knocked out. It just takes a bit of getting used to.

The game has 6 tabs to choose from in the main menu screen. You have your main hub, this is where you set up a quick fight against an AI, or even watch 2 AI fight one another, you can also select the online option from here too, the news, prize fights, which from the looks of things are high difficulty matches that you can get on the leaderboards for. The Career and Store are coming soon however.

The Second tab is where you will find local play, so you can play with a friend if you have 2 controllers, and the training can also be found here, as well as the prize fights. The career tab is all greyed out with coming soon notices, so it will be nice to see what that's all about. I'm assuming it would be the main campaign for the game.

I tried to do the online matches, and did get matched with someone but both our pings were saying "High" before the match and then we got disconnected. I did try to find some more online matches but didn't get matched with anyone. It's probably still too early I suppose, since the game just released, but I was hoping to try at least one online match. It is nice that they tell you your ping is high though, I hope they find a way for people to get better ping though. Time will tell, this is in Early Access after all.

There is also a profile tab and a create your own boxer tab. The create your own boxer was also greyed out with coming soon notices. I would love to try to create my own boxer, could be pretty cool. Visually this game is fantastic. The graphics are phenomenal. I love how everyone looks. The skin textures are great, you can see the sweat dropping on their bodies, and the tattoos are clear as well. If the fight goes on long enough and you do some damage to them, they also show blood on their face as well.

There is a lot of detail and it looks amazing, The crowds don't look as impressive, but the crowd isn't the main focus of the game. Overall I'd say that Undisputed is in a really good place at the moment as an Early Access game, and at $29.99USD for an Early Access game that can only get better from here, I'd say this game is going to do really good.

If you love boxing I think this is the game for you to play. The controls are a bit weird at first, but when you get in the groove of things the controls and combat should feel a lot better. You will need a controller though, so if you don't have one, then you won't be able to play it.

I highly recommend you get this game if you love boxing, and even if you only kind of have an interest in boxing, this could still be a fun game for you. There was plenty of times where I shouted out and cheered when I was close to winning, and when I knocked out my opponent in the third round in one of my games I was ecstatic. I felt like I was really improving. This game is so much fun, you should definitely get it NOW on Steam.