I’ve watched UFC before, and it’s pretty cool, with a mix of different fighting styles and the ability to make your opponent tap out in pain.
It was exciting and always interesting to watch. Unfortunately, UFC Tapout 2 is the exact opposite, boring and bland. TDK just didn’t capture the whole feel of the real UFC this time around.

Graphics

Besides the wrestlers themselves being done decently, I found the graphics to be pretty lame. Considering that this game is on the Xbox, I think the graphics could have been done a lot better. The crowd looks pretty flat and two dimensional and as far as the arenas go, you get an octagon, that’s about it. Most fighters won’t be recognizable to anyone unless you are a UFC fan, but if you are, you should recognize some big names like Tito Ortiz, Vitor Belfort and Josh Barnett.

Gameplay

The controls are pretty simple, with each of the 4 buttons controlling each limb and certain button presses can help you counter moves, grapple, and do submission moves. Unfortunately, the problem arises with the submission moves. Once you get a fighter into a submission, that’s it. He taps out right away with little resistance. After about 15 minutes of the game, I was trouncing the computer with constant tap outs and if I didn’t feel like beating them that way I could usually win just by doing a simple 3 punch combo over and over. When you face off versus a human opponent, the game gets more interesting, but the fact that it’s so simple to win versus the computer really irked me.

As far as different modes to play in, UFC has arcade mode, in which you play until you get defeated, a practice mode and a tournament mode where you can set up tournaments and try to win and defend title belts. There’s also a fairly bland create a wrestler, but nothing too interesting, with few choices in terms of bodies, heads and clothing,

Sound

Most of the sound effects in the game are pretty hard to hear. Getting punched and being pounded into the mat are very subdued instead of the traditional loud smacks and hits you’d usually hear in most wrestling games. The music for the game is pretty mediocre, but luckily you can load up your own tracks off your Xbox drive so you can fight to your own music.

Value

Besides unlocking a few fighters by going through arcade mode, there aren’t too many things to unlock and if you have no one to play against, there is almost no challenge due to the game’s easy AI. With a human player things pick up a bit, but I just wasn’t impressed with the game overall. If you’re a UFC fanatic I’d recommend a rental, but if you are just a wrestling fan in general, I’d pass on this one.