To start movement and striking feels so cumbersome and unresponsive. When using the quick steps it occasionally will not register or have such a delay that you press it again and then 2 steps come out. Moving forward and actually landing punches with a short fighter against a rangy fighter is very frustrating. I am all about realism and want to have to work to get in by cutting off the ring, using the jab and feints but in this game you can work to get in, sacrifice some damage to get in position only to have a short armed fighter still flail at nothing because I guess T-Rexs were not meant to box, even when named Tyson. However you can move on the outside and use proper timing with a taller/rangier fighter with success but it becomes monotonous being solely about keeping range and using straight punches which leads me to my biggest gripe.
The sway/head movement is just horrid. A) it can be very difficult to use a sway and follow it with throwing the proper punch as there are to many commands mapped to the L2/LT button. B) The fighter needs to constantly reset to normal position after a sway in order to throw a punch, with already overly long striking animations it becomes impossible to become a real threat by counter punching after slipping which is the best defensive and offensive tactic for many real and great fighters such as Connor and Tyson. Also not being able to block while using headmovement is equally as absurd as you are left completely vulnerable to a body attack or a well placed shot. So in combination you are left with a system that is VERY high risk with practically no reward (the sway is great for take downs but this is in regards to striking). This nerfs smaller fighters that like to get in with with upper body movement and allows the game to become very robotic I.E. two players standing straight up taking turns exchanging strikes.
Lastly the damage system is infuriating. You can pick an opponent apart using single punches including power straights and clean head kicks for several rounds with the opponent never being in any imminent danger, but land one series of three body uppercuts and a head punch and the opponent is most likely toast. And for the cherry on top is the completely random rock system. You may land 20 clean kicks to the face doing little damage and then your opponent gets a rock from a random strike, or because of the forced delay to block.
I just can't fathom how a studio that prior to UFC worked solely on Fight Night, a pure striking game and have that aspect of the the UFC series be so shoddy. Maybe they should move some of the grappling devs over to the striking side. I hate to be so negative but I really want this game to be great, especially in the absence of fight night but in this state I can not continue to invest time into a frustrating experience.

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