What are the best fighter types in UFC 4?
UFC 4, the fourth installment by EA Sports in its UFC series was launched in August 2020. Dubbed as 'the best MMA videogame of all time', UFC 4 was met with highly positive reviews, thanks to EA's consistent efforts in making the game better by fixing some of the major bugs and introducing new patch notes as well.
Successfully overshadowing its predecessors, UFC 4 went on to forge sales records in several countries, including America, when the game peaked at No.2 on the sales chart.
One of the reasons why UFC 4 was welcomed with such a positive reception is the game's distinct differences from UFC 3, which launched in 2018. Apart from making it look more realistic, EA also made sure to make fine adjustments in UFC 4's career mode - including the introduction of new fighter types to create a character.
According to Brian Hayes, the creative director at EA Sports, these fighting styles and its archetypes were introduced to enhance the character creation experience and keep the game balanced. Speaking to gameinformer, Hayes said that they wanted to keep the game fair for everyone.
"Previously, we had a system where most people would just create a fighter and give them 100 everything and level five everything, and they'd all be very O.P. We're taking an approach where we want to make sure people can use their created fighter in as many modes as possible because it's a very popular fighter for people to use. We needed to find a system that makes these fighters fair, competitively balanced against other licensed fighters in the game," said Hayes.
So, what are these fighter types? In simple terms, the four major disciplines of MMA, namely boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu, plus, a balanced version of these four types. But, which is the best of all?
The best fighter types in UFC 4
Every fighter type in UFC 4 (kickboxer, boxer, wrestler, jiu-jitsu and balanced) is further expanded into different archetypes and rated accordingly. However, it is the balanced fighter type that stands out based on ratings.
A character with the balanced style is a jack of all trades but master of none. Still, from an overall fighting aspect, the balanced fighter type is likely to work wonders. Its archetypes are Top Dog, Engine and Razor.
Although the stand-up, grappling, and health of a balanced fighter type are not extraordinary, it is still good enough to hang in there with the game's best fighters.
After balanced, the kickboxer fighter-type should be the most effective. With acrobat, pressure and showboat archetypes, the kickboxing style will come in handy, as far as stand-up is concerned. However, while it has relatively lower grappling ratings, the stand-up and health aspect is relatively robust.
One of the most significant advantages for a kickboxer in UFC 4 will be its taekwondo efficiency and impressive stamina.
Kickboxer and balanced fighter type are two of the most dominant fight types in UFC 4, followed by wrestler, jiu-jitsu and boxer.
A character with the wrestling style will be incredibly advanced in grappling. A wrestler's archetypes are dominator and smasher. Both the archetypes have grappling ratings of 5 and 4.5, respectively, which speaks volumes of a wrestler's grappling skills. Still, a wrestler fighting type falls short as far as the stand-up game is concerned.
A character with a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighting type will offer almost everything that a wrestler would and be less efficient in the stand-up skills. The archetypes in BJJ style include vanguard and shark, which will be insanely useful for submitting an opponent.
The last fighter type is boxer, and its archetypes are sniper and powerhouse. As the name suggests, a boxer fighter type in UFC 4 will be highly skilled in engaging in a brawl and also boast the ability to endure severe damage.
The stand-up and health ratings of boxing style are seemingly quite impressive, but if there is any fighter-type lacking in the grappling department, it will be the boxer.
Check out: Complete Roster of UFC 4