While most MMA fans have been gearing up for THQ’s UFC Undisputed 2009 (and, honestly, after a period of heavy skepticism I’m excited for it as well), Grey Dog Software‘s World of Mixed Martial Arts 2 is the title that I’ve been looking forward to. WMMA 2 builds off the groundwork laid by the flawed, but fun WMMA 1. Grey Dog’s title puts you in the shoes of Dana White and Joe Silva, controlling your own mixed martial arts promotion as booker/matchmaker/president. The game takes after such titles as Out of the Park Baseball, Front Office Football, and Grey Dog’s own Total Extreme Wrestling – text-based simulations of sports (entertainment). So, how does WMMA 2 shape up?
THE GOOD
-Grey Dog scaled back the business aspect of the game. While you still control fighter contracts, work on TV and PPV deals, and a new feature of buying out smaller promotions, you no longer need to set your marketing budgets or work for sponsorship deals. Some may have enjoyed the minutest of micromanaging, but objectively the game becomes much more fun with a more narrowed role.
-Fighter AI and match outcomes are much more robust. WMMA 1 displayed the results of cards in repetitive blocks of text. WMMA 2 now handles fights on the fly, opening up a near-infinite amount of possibilities in terms of fight progression. In addition, Grey Dog has improved the back end of fighter A.I. Fighters now have personalities in the cage, allowing for paradoxical entities like Jorge Gurgel who’s main talents in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are eschewed for “exciting” fights standing.
-In addition to improved an back-end, WMMA 2 boasts a large fighter database. WMMA 1 suffered from a universe of fighters that in all honesty was too small for the needs of the game. Grey Dog learned from that mistake not only with an expanded rosterset, but promises of future fighter downloads.
-Game performance has been much enhanced. Unfortunately, text sims will always be bogged down by memory limitations, especially when players advance decades into the game universe. Still, Grey Dog took steps to improve on load times this time around.
-Customer service. Grey Dog constantly patches and updates the game, listens to the needs and criticisms of the community, and handles other problems swiftly and professionally.
THE BAD
-While the contract system has been improved, I still have the feeling of “find the amount he/she wants and give it to him/her” when negotitating with a fighter. Those negotiations become slightly more complex when other promotions become involved, but instead of bidding to the needs of the fighter, you instead just attempt to find the mark that the other promotion(s) won’t match. Contract negotiations are a tricky business and could probably encompass their own game if a programmer was so inclined. Still, when playing the game, I feel at the mercy of my target. And while that’s true in real life with cases like Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson, and other big stars, it’s the UFC that holds all the cards when dealing with mid- and lower-level talent.
-The universe interface, while acceptable and intuitive for the most part, has some pretty big flaws. For starters, the main game screen requires a bit of time to get used to. Some of the number-based search fields could be hugely improved by text input instead of a drop down menu (or a simplified drop down criteria). Also, the game is really limited when it comes to sorting through spreadsheet fields which can make matchmaking and roster analyzing a tedious experience.
THE UGLY
-One feature I looooved in the first game was the matchmaking matrix. It displayed every possible matchup in each division or for each fighter and the fan anticipation for it. WMMA 2 has a similar, though diluted feature in the matchup screen. The only reason this isn’t listed under “THE BAD” is because it was removed in favor of increased performance.
-It’s a text-based sim. I love text-based sims, but in our current world of flashy graphics and short-attention spans, they are for a niche breed. I hope those who may be interested, but are weary of the medium put aside their biases and check the game out.
-While the outcome of fights being computed on the fly is a huge boon, I’m not really sold on the play-by-play aspect. Maybe I’m boring and vanilla, but I would prefer a line-by-line output more like “X misses a left hook. Y shoots. Y takes X down.” Or at least an option for that (though I do believe you can save the PBP to read later which will read more like what I’m talking about).
-The fighter models are stunning and brilliant. Unfortunately, the menu screens lack the same sort of inspiration.
-Some may be turned off by the fictional characters and promotions that comprise the universe. However, the WMMA community is extremely proactive with real-life mods and rostersets. Also, players should really give the default universe a chance. Grey Dog does a great job of creating a universe full of strong, intersting characters at every level of the game.
-No multiplayer option. This would have been a very ambitious feature, which is why it’s listed here. However, the ability to run a universe with real-life human beings running the other promotions would be an absolutely killer feature in the future.
OVERALL
WMMA 2 is an excellent game for anyone who’s said “I can run a promotion better than him.” Well, now you can prove it, sort of. While the game still has some flaws that can be improved on, Grey Dog has taken a huge leap with WMMA 2. At $34.95, it comes highly recommended.