When I jammed WWE 2K22 last year, it was the first wrestling game I had played in a long time. What I remembered was the games were clunky and generally annoying to play. Well, the WWE games have come a long way with a totally different play style to the OG days. Going into AEW: Fight Forever I wasn’t sure what to expect and to be honest, I should have expected what I got.
AEW to the core
As with most old people, I dream of the WWE Attitude Era. It was peak WWE and over the last 10 years, I have drifted further away from it to the point where it gets a few hours a year at most from me. AEW brought it back a lot by giving wrestlers much more creative freedom. Sure, it isn’t as violent as the Attitude Era, but the creativity is there and it’s fantastic.
Well, with the way AEW took wrestling back towards its peak, AEW: Fight Forever has taken games back to how they used to be. Though I did hate those games back in the day, all it needed was slightly smoother controls and that’s all I needed to fall back in love with the game style. Examples of this are the two defense buttons and the stamina bar, which are old school, but with controls that are more responsive and fluid, so it works.
Road to Elite
The game has one story mode and that is Road to Elite. I couldn’t think of a great header for this section, and the name kinda works, so there you go.
Road to Elite lets you grab a wrestler from the roster or create your own. Then, you will compete in the weekly matches and PPVs for four months to make it to the top. It’s simple, fast and fun. As far as a campaign mode goes, it absolutely smashes it with brevity, which does encourage multiple playthroughs.
Then there are a selection of other ways to play, like single matches, but the bulk of my time was spent in Road to Elite. I regret nothing.
Not quite ready to topple the competitor
There is a lot to like about AEW: Fight Forever, but there are some areas it lacks. The roster isn’t anywhere near the size of what you are seeing on its programming for one. As a game, it has a decent roster, but you want to play a game like this with all the current superstars and they aren’t all there.
Things like the superstar creator are pretty limited in options, which isn’t ideal. To be honest, I want to play as the superstars I know, but if customisation is your jam, it’s not the strongest. On top of this, modes outside of the Road to Elite are limited.
A damn first game and enough to satiate fans
For the first game for AEW, AEW: Fight Forever is great. It lacks in some areas but for the most part, it should satisfy AEW fans. It’s not necessarily the must recommend yet, but I enjoyed my time with it.
It is far from perfect, but it is a hell of a lot of fun. For a first hit out AEW: Fight Forever has done amazingly. Expect chaotic weapons, don't expect too many game modes.
