Fight Night Round 4 Review

2022-12-29

Fight Night Round 4 Review

Fight Night Round 4 is the fourth installment in EA's highly successful Fight Night boxing franchise, offering even more captivating gameplay, better graphics, as well as even more licensed real-life boxers than before. Considering all of its qualities and the general rarity of boxing titles across all platforms, FNR4 is easily one of the best games right now for those of you who want to slip on a pair of gloves and duke it out on a boxing ring.

Gameplay

In Fight Night Round 4, you'll get a similar gameplay experience as in the previous games in the series, though with lots of new additions. Dirty moves are back and dirtier than ever – you can use your elbows, knees and even headbutt your opponent if you feel this will give you the edge you need. Take care though, as one or two incidents of this are tolerated by the judges, but start “slipping” too often and you'll be kicked out of the ring.

Another interesting feature about FNR4 is its realistic representation of getting knocked down, as you'll be put in a special condition where all the sounds are muted and you can only hear your fighter's faint breathing as you try to complete the tasks to get them back on their feet and keep fighting. For the fans of real-life boxing among you, EA have licensed the names of over forty actual boxers, including starts like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson (which are also featured on the game's box cover). You'll see many familiar names in the rosters, making you feel even closer to an actual boxing experience as you're making your way to the top of the charts.

Graphics and System Requirements

The game has full support for 1080p displays, and the quality of its graphics is absolutely superb. Boxers are depicted realistically, with smooth animations powering their movements, and a robust physics engine handling the more complicated calculations when it comes to free movements of fighters' limbs. Spectacular lighting effects will surround you as you're trying to finally break through your opponent's defense, and after getting knocked down once you may actually start doing it on purpose just so you can enjoy the great effects associated with it.

Controlling your fighter in FNR4 is an almost flawless experience, with some minor remarks about the camera (it tends to rotate too inappropriately at times, leaving you exposed to your enemy's attacks as you're unable to see them as well as you should). Other than that, there isn't anything to note about the quality of graphics and controls in FNR4, and it lives up to the hype that EA (as usual) built for it.

Other

The game features one of the best-executed online experiences in the FNR series so far, so if you've got buddies who're eager to exchange punches with you, you're definitely going to have an unforgettable experience bashing each other's heads in FNR4′s multiplayer.

Conclusion

A true boxing game which deserves a lot more attention than it actually got, Fight Night Round 4 is an example of how a good sports game should be made.