Hello ladies, gentlemen and those of a non-binary nature, my name is Daibhi, and this is the Gamerhub community. The title of this game might be bit weird, but this is part fixing a video game and part criticism. It’s also because I’ve now nearly completed AEW Fight Forever on the Xbox One X. So, whilst Galadrius The Mighty doesn’t think all that much of the game, I sat down and sank over 80 hours over the last few weeks to see if I could 100% the game or get as close as I could. Did I succeed? Did I enjoy it? Did I get “Shagger Dave” (Dave Meltzer of Pro Wrestling Illustrated) to talk to me and give me some advice? Well, read on gamers as I will answer two of those questions.
Introduction
AEW Fight Forever isn’t just like the WWE 2k games. In fact, it reminds me of a WWE game but not any one from recent times. It’s a £50 nostalgia trip for me as it’s very reminiscent of WWF: No Mercy. To be honest, I’ve opined on other places that Pro-Wrestling games needed a more arcade-style game when people can simply just “pick up and play”. To the non-console minded, this means a simple, accessible to anyone and everyone. Easy to play, difficult to master and gamers, this game fairly meets that mark. The game isn’t perfect (I’ll get to that) and the release of this game was something of a clusterbourach (a Scots word mean “huge mess” in this context), but on the whole, this game is just fun. There’s plenty of fun to have for both those who’ve never watched an episode of AEW Dynamite and those who watch it every single week. If you want to wrestle as your favourite wrestler, you’re in for some luck. Well… some luck at least. One of the reasons I’m glad CM Punk is back in the promotion is because he’s front and centre of this game, for better and worse, but I’ll dive into that in a wee bit.
Graphics
For what we get in this game, the graphics are some of the weaker aspects of the game. The arenas look cool (even if the entrance way is wayyyy too small by comparison to the real thing), the game goes all in on the pyrotechnics (and yes, that was a pun), but this game looks… rough. Let’s start with the wrestlers on the game. Some of them, like Orange Cassidy, look superb. I love being able to play as him and wrestle with my hands in my pockets. Seeing a relatively realistic looking Orange Cassidy having an absolute banger of a match with Kenny Omega was worth it. Then, there are some which bear a passing resemblance but look so goofy that it throws immersion out of the window. Chiefly, CM Punk, FTR, and Darby Allin. They don’t resemble the real people, and look like your mum ordered them from Wish.
Gameplay
Just like your mum on a Saturday night, this game is absolutely the most fun when multiple people play with it at the same time. However, to talk about the gameplay properly, we need to go through what you can and can’t do first. There’s a whole raft of differing match types that you can dominate your friends and opponents in, from “lights out unsanctioned” matches where literally everything is possible, to the “Casino Battle Royal” which is a bit like a Royal Rumble. [Side note here, behind the scenes, I’ve watched nearly every single All Elite Wrestling match since the inception of the promotion, and I still don’t completely understand the rules for this one.] There are weapons under the ring galore, from traditional steel chairs, to going full-on Captain America with a trash can lid. If you choose to wrestle as Darby Allin, you can even get physical and hit your opponents with a skateboard, which honesty got old faster than I thought it would. You can wrestle as a girl, fighting the boys and vice versa, which was a nice touch. With the rise of intergender wrestling on the independent wrestling scene as well as the rise of LGBTQIA wrestlers in the major promotions, this was a refreshing touch which helped keep the game interesting.
Whilst I’m on the subject of interesting touches, the minigames are both hilarious, humiliating and frustrating. Playing human baseball with The Elite never seems to get old, and taking on opponents at AEW trivia was a learning curve (pun intended). However, with very little in the way of learning about how the games work (a loading screen on its’ own is not enough), you’ll find yourself swearing profusely as you get better at the games.
Now for the one part of the gameplay I’m going to slam, and that’s the Road To Elite mode. It allows you to create a rudimentary wrestler (and there’s nowhere near the right amount of customisation required for this to be good), take on the Casino Battle Royal (which you will lose) and then take on a whole year of AEW scheduling, interacting with AEW stars and trying to win the AEW World championship. There’s one surprise here. Because Cody Rhodes is in this game, if you choose to play as him through this mode, there is some brilliantly funny dialogue as he now wrestles in WWE.
Solution
To fix this game, and give everyone what they want, I propose that this game gives us a Season package, which they can charge for (unless you forked out for the enhanced version). This should include more professional wrestlers that have featured in All Elite Wrestling over the last 5 years, more arenas like Daily’s Place and All In at Wembley Stadium, a better creative package allowing for more customisable options. I’d love to be able to try and create wrestlers currently signed to WWE and have them look remotely similar, as my “create a wrestler” version of Roman Reigns looked more like me on a bad hair day and a goatee. For those that know me as a person, that last joke will hit better.
I’d also like a lot more music as opposed to a playlist consisting of wrester’s entrance music and theme music. This has got to the point where I have actually gone and created myself a Spotify playlist on my phone and muted the music from the game.
Conclusion
AEW: Fight Forever isn’t a game that has been fully killed, but the game is in a serious need of some renovation and reinvention. It’s a cracking arcade game that has become a favourite at my house in party situations, but there’s so much more that is required to make the game worth the amount of money I had to drop to get this game. Giving us gamers more value for our money as time goes on, through the use of a Season Pass digital system seems as if it’s the best option in my opinion.
For The Gamerhub community, I’ve been Daibhi and you are all legends.
