World of Mixed Martial Arts 2 (PC) Review
Posted by Armando Rodriguez on 04.21.2009
Adam Ryland is back with the mother of all MMA booking sims!
Adam Ryland is responsible for some of the best text-based simulator games of all-time. The brain behind the Extreme Warfare series is back with World of Mixed Martial Arts 2, the sequel to the great but flawed MMA booking simulator. Is WMMA 2 the king of text-based sims? Read on to find out.
Gameplay:
Text-based sims are all about the gameplay. Graphics and sound are simplistic at best, so you better have that combination of solid and addictive gameplay. WMMA 2 has that is spades. For the uninitiated, WMMA 2 takes place in The Cornellverse, a unique universe that came from the brains of Adam Ryland and his development team. That means that the game is composed of fake fighters, not licensed by the UFC or any other MMA organization. The game does feature a complete, easy to use editor that allows you to create your own scenarios and the WMMA community is already active working on a couple of real life scenarios for those that can only play with real fighters. However, I encourage everyone who tries the game to play in The Cornellverse, because the characters simply come to life. Soon you will be discussing the legendary status of fighters like James Foster, Hazzan Fezzick, Sean Morrison and Phillip Zieske with the same intensity you discuss real life fighters. It is a testament to Adam’s creative genius to create something so complex and full of life that it captures your imagination.
James Foster, one of the best Heavyweights in the world.
In the game you begin by creating an avatar or choosing a pre-existing one. This avatar will represent yourself, as booker and promoter of your chosen company. There are several companies to choose from at different levels of popularity, from small regional promotions to large international conglomerates. Promotions like Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts and ALPHA-1 are back from the first game and are joined by several new companies like Signature Mixed Martial Arts and Xtreme Cage Combat. Promotions are different not only because of their size and money, but also they have their own set of rules and their own style. For example, a company like WEF specializes in women MMA, while XCC seems to specialize in the smaller fighters, those fit for Featherweight and Lightweight divisions. Another difference is the amount of rounds per fight, if they go to the scorecards after all rounds are over or instead declare a draw (essentially meaning that only knockouts and submissions get wins) if fights take place in a ring or a cage and more.
Your job is to book this promotion to success. As a booker you need to take into consideration not only what fights your fanbase wants to see, but also how much money are your fighters making and if you can expect to turn a profit at the end of the month. This basically is a summary of your tasks. If you are at a certain level you can also negotiate with TV networks for a television show or with PPV carriers for a PPV deal. That’s about it. Financial controls have been streamlined so that you do not have to worry about sponsorship deals and fighters merchandise, something that many felt was a weak and distracting point in the original game.
One of the big changes to the game is the way you negotiate contracts with fighters. The process is both, more streamlined and more in depth than before. Not only you have to worry about how much money a fighter is making, but you also have to take into consideration the type of contract (Standard, Associate or Exclusive) and things like Win Bonuses, Performance Scale, PPV Bonus, Main Event Bonus, Title Win Bonus, Title Defense Bonus and Signing Bonus. Depending on the fighter’s level of popularity, he will have certain expectations you must meet if you want to add him to your stable of fighters.
Another big change is in the Scouting Menu. Instead of a series of ambiguous bullet points like you got in the first game, now fighter skills are visible using a series of karate belts to indicate how good a fighter is in that aspect. No belts is the worse, followed by white belt, yellow belt, green belt, blue belt, purple belt and black belt. Skills include Jiu-Jitsu Master, Fight of the Night (the likelihood that the fighter will have the best fight), Cardio Machine (Stamina), Charismatic (better charisma increases his chances of getting over with fans), Granite Chin, Combat Veteran (experience), Tap-Out Artist, Power Puncher and much more. What I love about this scout system is that now you can finally have a way to tell when a fight can be entertaining, boring, a clash of styles and even predict the likelihood that X fighter will beat Y fighter.
But just because predicting can’t be easy, WMMA 2 throws at you the hidden “Destiny” stat. In order to make every game feel different, the game generates a hidden destiny stat for every fighter. Fighters with high destiny are more likely to become superstars and to win fights that they should have lost. Call it the “getting lucky” stat. So it is important to monitor your fighter’s performance in order to look for the guys with a real shot at superstardom.
Another new feature is that if you are a big enough company, you can purchase smaller companies and use them as feeding grounds where you send prospects to fight. They gain experience and skill and you can call them up to your main promotion when you feel they are ready.
Finally, the game now features a play by play system for fights. Now you can read exactly what’s going on in the fight, which is a nice addition.
Graphics:
The menus are really well designed and look a lot better than the original. Fighter renders are also much better and don’t look as weird as the original renders. Some faces do repeat themselves, but that’s a minor gripe.
Sound:
What sound? The game has no music to speak of. Not even sound effects when you press the different buttons in the menus, although that’s a blessing in disguise because they tend to get annoying. If you want sound, fire up something in iTunes.
Lasting Appeal:
WMMA 2 will last you for a very long time. If you take into consideration that you can play as multiple promotions, each with their own unique level of challenge, that results are going to be different because of the destiny stat, that you can create your own promotions when you run out of promotions to play as, that you can create and play your own scenarios and download scenarios made by other people….wow, it’s just a lot of stuff to do! One thing about Ryland’s games is that they have almost infinite replay value.
The 411:
If you like MMA, if you like text-based simulators or if you liked any of Ryland’s previous games, World of Mixed Martial Arts 2 is for you. It has all the good qualities of a fantastic text-based game: Addictive and lasts a long time.
Graphics
7.5
Menus and Renders are well done. Everything in the interface looks good.
Gameplay
8.5
Addictive booking sim. Negotiating and scouting fighters, getting PPV deals, booking fights, everything is done great.
Sound
0.0
There is no sound in the game. Zero. Zip. Nothing. Nada.
Lasting Appeal
9.5
Not only does the game last a long time, but you can also create and play your own scenarios and download scenarios done by the community.
Fun Factor
9.0
WMMA 2 is addictive, long lasting experience that will have you coming back for more. The type of game that eats away at your life.
Sounds good, only just bought Wrestling Spirit 2 though so shall be sticking to that for a while. But as it's an Adam Ryland game, I think it's only a matter of time before I get this.
Posted By: The Gunman (Guest) on May 06, 2009 at 11:09 AM
