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This is wrestling! ...with a few small issues - AEW: Fight Forever Quick Review

4K View2023-07-03

AEW: Fight Forever

8.5

SportsFighting

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PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Play it if you’re looking for a more arcade-y, less serious wrestling game alternative to the WWE 2K series (or if you just prefer the AEW product, of course). According to fellow TapTap editor StaggerLee, WWE 2K23 is actually pretty dang solid, but I think it’s about time they’ve had real competition. AEW: Fight Forever is the first console game tied to the popular wrestling brand that has managed to actually give WWE a run for its money. The game follows suit, with some silly wrestling fun, though it also has a handful of pretty goofy problems.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve played AEW: Fight Forever for around five or six hours, with most of that time devoted to the game’s entertaining “Road to Elite” story mode. I also played around with the character creation system quite a bit, explored some of the minigames, and tested out a few of the more unique match types available, such as the Casino Battle Royale and the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match. Let’s start with the obvious part. AEW’s real-life attempt at this mouthful of a match may have ended in a notorious dud, but what better place to make the insane danger and pyrotechnics actually work than in a video game! AEW: Fight Forever’s take on the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match is bombastic, over-the-top, and just good old-fashioned fun, just like all wrestling should be. Oh, and the game’s developers put in the bad ending as an easter egg too! Delightful.

• Road to Elite mode. Road to Elite allows players to take either their created wrestler or a real AEW talent through a branching storyline that leads them through four pay-per-view events. Don’t expect high drama here, though; Road to Elite leans heavily on the goofier elements of wrestling, which I loved, such as an extended plotline about my character constantly getting his luggage stolen. It reminded me of the ridiculous story modes from PlayStation 2-era WWE games.

• Momentum meter. Instead of health bars or stamina meters or other oft-explored options for wrestling games, AEW: Fight Forever implements a mechanic known as “momentum.” Essentially, there’s a momentum meter for each wrestler that goes up or down as the match progresses based on whether that performer is getting in good hits and counters or taking a beating. A high momentum meter provides access to signature moves and finishers, while a low momentum means the wrestler will have a much harder time kicking out of a pin.

The momentum concept honestly worked brilliantly and did a much better job at mimicking the rhythm of real wrestling matches than most other wrestling games I’ve played. And even when things got chaotic with multiple wrestlers in the ring, I felt like momentum always helped me keep a clear handle on how I was doing at any given point.

WHAT SUCKS

• Any time there’s more than two wrestlers in the ring. It’s too bad that Road to Elite mode kicks off with a Casino Battle Royale, a match format that (in its video game iteration, at least) features four wrestlers in the ring at a time. AEW: Fight Forever feels like it was designed almost entirely with one-on-one bouts in mind and then had tag-team and other multi-opponent matches rushed in at the last second.

The biggest issue is simply targeting. During matches with more than one opponent, my character would regularly change who his attacks were focused on without my input. I never quite determined if there was a way to manually switch targets, but the way the game handles its automatic selection was not up to snuff. Trying to successfully break up pins during a tag team match or refocus on a specific challenger whose momentum was low rarely worked.

• Too little content. I enjoyed Road to Elite mode a lot, and I even think its short length is useful in the sense of making it easy to replay and try to go down different story paths. That said, I wish there was an option to keep that mode going into multiple years, or simply many more paths to go down. For a first attempt at an AEW game, Road to Elite mode is a solid start, but I hope they’ll expand it aggressively in any future games or DLC.

• Less character creation options than I wish. This is another part of AEW: Fight Forever that came across as a little rushed or at least undercooked. Wrestling provides so much room for expressing yourself through character creation with wacky outfits, strange move sets, or even ridiculous weapons. It feels like the options in Fight Forever are just barely scratching the surface, and the arcade style of this game would benefit from the game’s developers just letting loose and going crazy with it.

• Some strange roster omissions. It’s impossible for any video game to keep up with the constant ebb and flow of wrestlers switching companies in 2023, so it’s understandable that some names will be missing. And there’s no doubt that AEW: Fight Forever’s playable roster is stacked with amazing wrestlers, from Adam Cole to CM Punk to Jade Cargill. Still, I’m surprised by some omissions, such as current AEW Tag Team Champions FTR (who have been announced as upcoming DLC additions) and two-thirds of AEW’s Outcasts stable, some of the most televised women in the company right now. Here’s hoping more DLC is on the way, or that the inevitable sequel takes less time to develop.

💬 Are you ready to hop in the ring with AEW’s biggest stars, or will you be waiting for a more fully featured game from this WWE competitor? Share your thoughts in the comments.