AEW Fight Forever: First Impressions

At long last All Elite Wrestling released its first console video game entitled Fight Forever. Developed by Yukes the previous developers of the WWE games it was the first time a different wrestling company outside of WWE had released a game since Impact Wrestling (TNA at the time) in 2008. I had high hopes for this game and was interested to see how it went. The below should give a breakdown on my thoughts on all different parts of the game.

Roster and Match Types

With this game being in development for a good while as expected a lot of the attires are outdated and the roster is lacking a lot of the top stars who have had an impact since the initial announcement window. Now this isn’t like the WWE 2K series with yearly releases so this is something that with enough support can be fixed with the likes of Jamie Hayter, Toni Storm, Swerve and The Acclaimed not announced for any DLC yet it may be that we get multiple season passes with popular superstars to add to the game. I don’t mind this if your idea is to offer support for the next 3 years or so. It does however leave your initial roster a little bare. However, there’s enough variety in how those in the game play that it is still fun.

Gameplay

Constantly stated as ‘easy to pick up, hard to master’ I believe this is true for the gameplay. I’m not good at this game in terms of mastering it I will say but I still have fun playing it. I think I am stuck in how WWE 2K games play in a simulation like style as opposed to Fight Forever in a more fast paced arcade style. I do enjoy the variety in terms of how wrestlers play, a lot of characters feel unique which creates variety and I do enjoy that. I think that fact people can have different levels of skill can enjoy the game in different ways is good. One issues I have with 2K is how the majority of the roster play the same do it is nice to have different options.

Match Types

Another point of contention I have on release is the lack of match types. It does annoy me the lack of cage matches as one thing but there’s multiple matches AEW have had no in the game like tables matches as well. However, the exploding barbed wire death match is such a fun match to play and is unique for Fight Forever. I have to give the weapon variety a positive as well, this game has been made with developers expect the barbed wire death match and the two hardcore options (falls count anywhere & lights out) to be the most popular and it shows with how fun those are. I do hope we get more matches choices added into the game. A lack of steel cage matches with how many AEW has had does annoy me. I would also have the same issue for Blood and Guts but considering how long it took 2K to add Wargames I understand this takes a little while with how the two rings work.

Arenas

Not a large point of contention but man I hope we get updates and more arenas. I understand that it isn’t a major part of the show but when the majority of stages are the same with different graphics taken from be old two tunnel set up. I know adding the new Dynamite set up isn’t a major priority but with no Collision, Forbidden Door, Dark from Universal Studios or even Dark Elevation arenas they do have content to add even if you don’t have special Dynamites like Grand Slam or the times they used a different stage set up like the Kia Forum. Again it’s not a major thing but just something to help the visual variety of matches.

Road to Elite

One of the biggest modes in this game is Road to Elite. Here you take any wrestler on the roster through four PPV cycles in which your stories vary. While a good mode I do find it lacking. It is at the end of the day a very basic now which after a while does get repetitive. I’m currently on my third run of the mode and find it a bit of a struggle now stories have begun repeating themselves. I feel like this mode is a good start to a story mode but you expect either additions to this or on the next game for this mode to be fleshed out. I would like the option to select my stories after a few run throughs I know I’m missing a few stories with no idea to unlock them if I could choose a pathway that would help my experience massively.

Creation Suite

Probably my least favourite part of the game. As it stands at writing it’s bare, lack depth and just not an enjoyable mode to use as it stands. I find the superstars lack real options to make good superstars, I made one to get the trophies for it and once I got those I deleted them just wasn’t good. The ring creation has a little bit more I like the Sting energy drink stuff I found that fun for an arena but again would’ve gone full force, titantron, ringside barricades for it. Outside of that I felt this would’ve been a good place for ring aprons of arenas not in the game but we didn’t get that. This is a mode that needs so much more added to make it fun as for the moment I do not enjoy using it.

Future

As of the time of writing this the Stadium Stampede mode has just been announced so while I haven’t been able to play it I do think it bodes well for the future of the game. A huge mode like this being released for free sounds interesting and it does look fun, I like the arena modelled after the TIAA Bank Field home to the also Khan owned Jacksonville Jaguars and features rooms inspired from the Stadium Stampede matches that happened during the pandemic. Combine this with the announced DLC and it does feel like the game will be supported for a good while. They need to continue with this to fill the game with content, for me I would release some wrestlers for free (as well as the missing and updated titles belts such as the international and trios titles) and others (the ones people will actually pay for) as part of various season passes keep people coming back to try new wrestlers and ways of playing. 

On top of this I do think they have an option to add huge DLC packs. Take using Ring of Honor (ROH) for example. Several champions (Claudio Castagnoli, Samoa Joe & Athena) who are constant mainstays of AEW TV (at least somewhat) are currently not in the game. Imagine a pack of those three, the ROH titles and an arena or two outside of the season pass. It would beef up how much is in the game. Doing something like this could also be done with New Japan if a deal could be reached offering a large variety of wrestlers from multiple companies. 

Conclusion

So in the end I have the look at is this game worth its full day 1 price. I said privately to someone this game will be worth full price but not until the end of its game cycle. This game is bare and lacking in multiple areas but the potential for this game to improve is huge we will just have to see. With that in mind with what we have I do enjoy it, I have had a lot of fun with the gameplay so I can’t say this is a bad game just lacking in content. 7/10 would be a fair assessment it’s higher than 6.5/10 maybe it would be more accurate to say 6.75 with potential to get higher depending on what they add.