Plot: What’s it about?
As a fan of mixed martial arts, I have watched countless events from Bellator. So when Bellator: MMA Onslaught was released, I couldn’t wait to check it out. As you’d expect, the game is all about combat inside the cage, but this isn’t a simulation style approach to the sport. Instead we have a more arcade driven experience, with an emphasis on stand up strikes. This is good because it lends itself to exciting, balls to wall battles, but it lacks the depth and nuance the sports is capable of. You’re still able to pull off takedowns and submissions, but the system is rather simplistic. The satisfaction of a hard fought submission win just isn’t there, since it is such a basic approach to grappling and submission. I love to stand up and trade as much as anyone, but I’d like to be able to break out the full arsenal of a mixed martial arts combatant.
In each fight, you have to manage your health and stamina, represented by familiar bars. You want to unleash damage on your opponent, but keep your stamina in check as well. The system is more forgiving than most games of this kind, but you still need to keep your bars in mind. If you allow your health or stamina to drain out, you’ll endure a world of pain and more likely than not, be face down on the canvas. So learning the timing windows is important, as you want to chain strikes, keep your opponent on the defensive, and burn down his health. I really like the chain strikes of Bellator: MMA Onslaught, as it provides a strategic element to the otherwise arcade approach. This is in contrast to the grappling, which tends to limit both fighters and you’ll usually just want to stand up regardless of your position. A little more depth to the ground battles could have really enhanced the game, as well as put the chain strikes to better use.
The roster of fighters has a number of real life Bellator warriors, such as Joe Warren, Pat Curran, Michael Chandler, and several others. The fighters look a lot like their real life counterparts, but aside from stat variations, they tend to fight about the same. The game does allow you to create your own personal combatant however, which is a nice inclusion. After you create your fighter, you’re able to learn new move sets and use experience points to improve your skills. You earn experience from almost everything you do inside the cage, but of course the better you fight, the more points you pick up. I love this aspect of the game, as it gets you into the mindset to learn how to rack up the most experience, which not only earns you improved stats, but helps you learn how to be a better fighter overall. Bellator: MMA Onslaught is not going to thrill all MMA gamers, but for those who want a fast paced, arcade style experience, it more than delivers.
Video: How does it look?
This game looks good, especially in terms of Bellator presentation. If you’ve ever watched an event on television, you’ll feel like you’re at the live event yourself here. The attention to detail is impressive and goes a long way to provide the live show feel to the battles. The fighters look terrific and mirror the real life versions when applicable, though I found some of the animation to be stiff at times. So what should be fluid strike chains can sometimes be not so fluid. Even so, the game’s visuals are quite good and fans should be pleased.
Audio: How does it sound?
The sounds of the cage are here too, from the roar of the crowd to the thud of an overhand right. One glaring issue is that there is no commentary from cage side, which is kind of odd. The fights aren’t impacted in a major way, but the lack of it does hurt the presentation. But the game still sounds good, with impact driven strikes and a solid live audio feel.
