Cinelinx’s resident wrestling fanatic dives deep into AEW: Fight Forever to let you know if it’s worth checking out.
After a long wait, All Elite Wrestling’s first video game, AEW: Fight Forever has finally arrived and I have thoroughly checked out the game to see if it lives up to the hype that’s been building around it ever since it was announced. For this review, I tested the game on a Playstation 5 and played on Normal difficulty throughout.
The first point that needs to be mentioned about AEW: Fight Forever is that this game can not and should not be compared to WWE 2K23 which released earlier this year. While both are wrestling video games and both do in fact have some similar play options, the similarity ends there. The WWE 2K series focuses, among other things, on hyper-realism in how the wrestlers are portrayed. AEW: Fight Forever has opted for a slightly more arcade-type style that some have (favorably) compared to the play style of WWF No Mercy. This is important to note because many are undoubtedly going to try and compare this game to previously released WWE games and I’m saying now that that is like comparing apples to oranges.
AEW: Fight Forever is, without question, the wrestling game that many fans have been waiting years to experience on a current-gen console like the PS5. When the game was announced, the company swore that this game was going to be accessible to even casual gamers and they have definitely held true to that claim. The general gameplay is easy to pick up, there are no complex combos to master. There is even a “casual gaming” setting that can be toggled on to allow players to execute moves without using the left stick in combination with the buttons. This will be a great boon to players who might be unfamiliar with how wrestling games work but still want to experience it anyway.
As with any fighting game, AEW: Fight Forever makes sure to walk you through the rules whenever a new concept is encountered. For example, the first time you wrestle in a tag team match, a graphic pops up to explain how to tag in and out. And if you ever forget, they’ve made sure to include a training section that lets you practice any of the moves whenever you want.
As mentioned earlier, AEW: Fight Forever features a number of items that will look familiar to long-time fans of the WWE 2K series, only they’re presented with AEW’s signature flair. The player can choose from one on one, two on two, three-way or four-way match ups. There’s also special “gimmick” matches like the ladder match. The two that really stick out though are the Casino Battle Royale and the “Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match,” the latter particularly infamous in the company due to its botched finish several years ago.
The Casino Battle Royale is an interesting addition to the game given its format. How it works in real life is that a set number of wrestlers are assigned a card from a standard deck and enter in a pre-determined order. Obviously that’s too chaotic for a video game so the developers tweaked it so that instead the Casino Battle Royale features four wrestlers at any given time and new wrestlers do not enter the fray until someone is eliminated.
The other match type I was very interested to see was the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match. I have a feeling many players are going to find this to be one of their favorites. The concept is exactly what it sounds like: when the match starts, there’s a timer counting down at the bottom of the screen and you’re informed that you have two minutes until the ring explodes, with whoever is closest to the ring ropes suffering the most damage at that time. There’s a tense air about the whole thing, even the ring ropes have little tendrils of electricity curling around them.
One detail that stood out: if you successfully manage to fling your opponent into the ropes during this match, you’ll trip a short cutscene that shows your opponent getting shocked on impact, as if you were seeing a replay on TV in real life. It should be noted that it is possible to win the match before time runs out, thus avoiding the explosion, though I’m sure many will be tempted to let the clock run out on purpose, just to watch the fireworks (pun intended).
The game also features a story mode called “Road to Elite”, AEW: Fight Forever’s equivalent of Career mode in the WWE games. The premise is that you pick a wrestler, either from the pre-existing roster or a custom one you created, and follow them through one year of matches in AEW. In between matches, you can have the wrestler train, make TV appearances, go sightseeing, etc. It all flows very quickly and it didn’t take long for me to cycle through several weeks of matches. What’s really nice about Road to Elite is that the player is not punished for losing. This isn’t a situation where you have to win in order to advance the story. That continues regardless of whether you win or lose, the only difference is that the player receives a bonus if they win. This is nice as I’ve found myself stymied by Career mode in other wrestling games.
Another place where AEW: Fight Forever blew me away was in the little details found during gameplay. For instance, while playing a tag team match, I was delighted to discover that when I went to pin my opponent, the computer-controlled tag team partner automatically went to try and stop the other wrestler from stopping the pin attempt, which is exactly what would happen in real life. It’s a small detail, but one that adds greatly to the flow of a match during gameplay as this can absolutely be used to your advantage if timed just right. Another feature that many will appreciate is that players have the option to turn blood off during gameplay.
Now, despite all these good things, AEW: Fight Forever isn’t quite perfect. The biggest disappointment for me comes with the online ranked play being tied to a subscription to PlayStation Plus (or the equivalent on other consoles). As a gamer, I sort of understand why this has stayed a thing, but I also strongly dislike that online gameplay elements are tied to subscriptions. My feeling is that this will keep many players from even attempting online ranked play and the feature might suffer in the long term as a result.
As far as I could tell, there were no major gameplay issues in any of the match types I tried. The only real issue that I could detect was a slight awkwardness in changing which opponent my character was locked onto. Beyond that, there weren’t any real difficulties in getting into and enjoying any match type I could think of.
The best thing of all about AEW: Fight Forever is that there’s clearly plenty of room for new match types and other content to be added, which means this game has plenty of room to grow. Considering this is All Elite Wrestling’s first video game, I feel the company has more than hit it out of the park.
