UFL Gameplay Reveal Impressions and Recent Updates

When it was announced last summer, UFL seemed more like wishful thinking than an actual soccer game that could compete with the big boys. As time has advanced, the partnerships and ambassadors Stikerz Inc. have inked forced us to take this project more seriously. Beyond that, the gameplay trailer that was hyped for months finally hit last week. So, now after having had some time to gather my thoughts, let’s talk about what I noticed in the UFL gameplay trailer and the news that came from IGN.

UFL Gameplay Trailer

After being announced last August, UFL began to build hype by scooping club partnerships with teams such as West Ham United and grabbing player ambassadors like Roberto Firmino. However, the true test of a game is how it plays on the pitch. After seeing UFL’s gameplay reveal, the jury remains out on that one. Still, don’t fret, there’s a lot we can gather from the trailer reveal.

After some introductory cutscenes, we’re privy to the first 11-on-11 gameplay action. At first glance, it looks like eFootball and FIFA‘s love child. It’s no surprise that the UFL looks similar to eFootball 2022 considering they’re both utilizing the Unreal Engine, but there’s a little FIFA in there with how the player name bar looks. In motion, the opening clip looks very FIFA-like in the fluidity of movement, a testament to how the game is being marketed as more of an online competitive game (more on this to come).

With two partner clubs, AS Monaco and West Ham on display, we get a sneak peak into how the partnerships will play out with West Ham’s London Stadium as the venue. Although their uniforms look true-to-life, later we’ll see more Ultimate Team sort of kits.

Up next we’re treated to the player ambassadors UFL has secured. The likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo. The former PES and FIFA cover star, Cristiano Ronaldo is a major get for the UFL as he’s one of the most popular people on the planet.

The next segment of the trailer reveal looks like it was taken straight out of FIFA Ultimate Team. Complete with nearly every feature Ultimate Team utilizes besides Chemistry, we see the FIFAPRO license in full effect with players from various partner clubs making the squad — although it’s surprising that the Ukrainian-based Strikerz Inc. has Zinchenko on the bench. This Ultimate Team-like feeling runs throughout the gameplay trailer and is even further exacerbated by the “Fair to Play” mantra that UFL has seemed to adopt.

Customization is the next screen we see and there are three main items to customize:

1. Kits
2. Items
3. Stadiums

I’m unsure what “items” are, but they could be things such as boots or balls that you can hopefully either unlock with more progress or are free to start. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s here where some microtransactions creep into UFL, but I’m just purely speculating here. The kits don’t appear to have any templates from sponsors such as Nike or Adidas, but they don’t look bad at all.

After seeing some more cutscenes and quick cuts of 11-on-11 gameplay, we go back to scoping out close-up shots of the ambassadors. Skin textures aren’t the most detailed, but the animations seem authentic apart from shooting. Without question, the shooting could use some improvements in terms of cleaning up the ball contact animations and subsequent ball physics that don’t look up to par with what we saw in PES prior to the eFootball 2022 debacle.

A quick pan to the crowd happens a few seconds later, and this time it’s a club that isn’t “technically” a partner yet, AC Milan and the famous San Siro. Visually it’s a little washed out and there seems to some model repetition going on here, but it’s more than passable with the crowd audio drowned out by the VO.

The next major part worth highlighting is a “Leaderboard” that is going to resemble an actual table, something that’s oddly missing from FUT. A “Season Mode” that actually reflects a real season is nice, although there are definitely some questions that come to mind. The top question I have is how exactly the schedule plays out with users. Even though the clubs in the table are of the human-created kind, if Strikerz Inc. can incorporate an online season mode it could perhaps put the pressure on FIFA to finally implement an online career mode in FIFA.

The rest of the trailer is a collection of zoomed in action that showcases some good such as the ball actually making contact with a player’s foot, mixed in with the ball physics that I previously stated could use some improvement.

To end it, we get the answer to the question that’s been on our mind, and we now know UFL will be coming out in 2022.

UFL News You Might Have Missed

Newest Partner Club

Joining the likes of rival Celtic, Rangers FC becomes the latest European club to partner with the UFL.

We are happy to have you with us on this journey!⚽️
Welcome, the Gers💙 @RangersFC https://t.co/joUHD1L0IE

— UFL (@UFLgame) January 26, 2022

This brings the number of partner clubs up to eight to include the likes of:

• Rangers FC
• Celtic FC
• West Ham
• Sporting CP
• FC Shakhtar Donetsk
• Borussia Monchengladbach
• AS Monaco
• Beşiktaş

It’s still unknown to what level these partnerships will go, but it shows that Strikerz Inc. is serious about making its mark on the soccer gaming landscape. With the two biggest clubs in Scotland and some recognizable club names around Europe, the UFL is certainly opening a few eyes as they tease their official release date.

Newest UFL Ambassador

The curtain rises and there are no empty seats: everyone is ready to enjoy another masterpiece📽️

The premiere is here and now — meet our next Ambassador @DeBruyneKev 🔥 pic.twitter.com/WWUQkA7w0v

— UFL (@UFLgame) January 21, 2022

Whenever a new football title is announced, I usually reserve judgement and tamper my expectations. A lot of games come and go as the cost to create a new game from the ground up tends to be high (especially when it comes to licensed sports games). Throw in the mammoth-sized elephant in the room that is FIFA and any aspiring soccer developer has a mountain to climb.

Well, the folks over at Strikerz Inc. are not messing about. After snapping up several partnerships with clubs like West Ham and Celtic, the UFL has secured Manchester City midfielder and Belgian international Kevin de Bruyne. If you’re counting at home, that brings the total of UFL ambassadors to four:

• Kevin de Bruyne
• Romelu Lukaku
• Roberto Firmino
• Oleksandr Zinchenko

As a side note, while we’re on the subject of logical ambassadors. If the AC Milan tease is anything to go by, why not give us an old AC Milan player like Mario Balotelli. If you’re not going to give us a wacky career mode in UFL that calls back to something like Power Pros, then try to snag a lightning rod like Balotelli to get even more eyes on this project.

@theafkmedia Balotelli is a wildcard! #supermario #balotelli #futbol #soccer #manchestercity #mariobalotelli #fypシ #drake #aaliyah #italy @mehtabbrar8 ♬ original sound – AFK

Behind the Scenes Motion Capture

The words “motion capture” are like sweet music to my ears. I would have hoped by now the technology to mo-cap ourselves and import our movements, even if they were limited, would be a thing. Sadly, it’s not really a thing. With both FIFA and eFootball utilizing Xsens suits, the technology costs probably prevent this from happening, but the folks over at Strikerz, Inc. have brought us Episode 1 of their animation-based system with a inside look at how they are motion-capturing their athletes for the upcoming UFL game.

Although it’s unclear what version of the Unreal Engine UFL will utilize, it’s clear that this developer wants realistic animations that you can only achieve through motion capture. Movement is key to any soccer game, and the first one that implements foot-planting while also respecting inertia and momentum will surely reap the benefits and hopefully encourage both FIFA and eFootball to step their games up.

EA’s “Hypermotion” came with a lot of promise but failed to deliver on the realism they touted, although rarely do sports games get the first iteration of a major game component right — bugs and oddities are to be expected. In the UFL video, you can see some smooth animations, especially when it comes to trapping the ball from the chest. It’s still early days for the UFL as there isn’t an official release date just yet (beyond it coming in 2022), but this video combined with the gameplay reveal together look very promising.

Bottom Line

From a gameplay standpoint, there’s still a lot left unanswered. Regardless, the brief clips I watched fall somewhere in between what we have in FIFA 22 and eFootball 2022. For a first release, the gameplay and the fact that it’s free should make it worth checking out. Being marketed towards the competitive crowd is probably the smart business move, but for those of us like myself who long for a game with a good offline career campaign, we’re probably going to be left out in the cold once again.

In short, we’ll still need to see extended periods of 11-on-11 gameplay to examine the full spectrum from ball physics to CPU AI. Even things like tactics, which you get a glimpse of with the “Gameplan” sub-menu will need to be strong if they want to create a game that’s truly “Fair to Play” and free of all meta exploits that plague competitive FIFA matches.

Ultimately, even if the game is catered towards online play with offline being “casual” at best, the fact that there’s another footy game on the market — one that at least at first glance looks like it has had serious time and money pumped into it — is a good thing. If this is what it takes to help EA innovate and pushes Konami to get their act together, then so be it. In the end, it’s going to be free to play and that’s always worth checking out.