Submissions in UFC 4 have changed quite a bit, as the development team installed a new system that some players may love. Others, on the other hand, may hate it. Let’s go over what the new system is, and how you can submit opponents in UFC 4.
But before we get into the new system, let’s briefly examine the old submission system. In UFC 3, players had to use both the left and right sticks to move the walls in the submission mini-game. If you were on the defensive side of the submission, your goal was to move the wall with the right stick to the end, to stop the opponent’s submission. But if you were trying to submit your opponent, your goal was to use the right stick to stop your opponent from moving the wall to the end. If you were successful, you could hit the left stick when the time was right to progress to the next stage of submission.
In UFC 4, the submission system has completely changed, and this new system is quite similar to the one the WWE 2K franchise has used in the past. To submit your opponent with submissions, you will need to use the LT/L2 and RT/R2 triggers to complete a joint submission, and the left analog stick for choke submissions.
When you apply a joint submission in UFC 4, you will notice a clear bar in the middle of the screen, and two smaller bars within that clear bar, a blue bar and a red bar. To finish a submission, you will need to cover the opponent’s bar (blue bar) with your bar (red bar) until the ‘Submit’ meter below the bars goes all the way to the end. The goal of the opponent is to continuously move his or her bar away from your meter to avoid the submission. If the ‘Escape’ meter goes all the way to the end, this means your opponent has successfully evaded the submission.
Choke submissions work the same way, but with these moves, you need to use the left analog stick. At the beginning of the submission, you will see a large clear circle with two bars, a blue bar, and a red bar. Much like with joint submissions, the goal when attempting to execute a submission is to cover the blue bar as much as you can to fill the ‘Submit’ meter. Failure to do so in time means that your opponent has broken the submission.
While this system seems simple enough, there are its quirks. For one, the game will punish players who are trigger-happy and attempt to move the bar too quickly. If you move the bar too fast, the red bar will shrink, making it hard to fully cover the opponent’s blue bar. Second, the UFC 4 team has tuned down the success rate of submissions after the closed beta of the game, as many thought submissions were over-powered. Because of this, submissions are easier to break. As a result, players must be extremely precise with moving the bars, as being just a little off when it comes to covering the blue bar can be the difference between executing a submission or allowing your opponent to break loose.
