![AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 1 of 6](https://images.purexbox.com/screenshots/137094/900x.jpg)
I'll start off our Pure Xbox review of AEW Fight Forever by admitting I'm an absolutely massive All Elite Wrestling fan. I watch all the shows, I buy all the pay-per-views, and I'll be in attendance at the historic Wembley event this August. Therefore, there was a lot of expectation going into this specific review, along with multiple years' worth of anticipation. The good news is that it's mostly lived up to the hype, especially when taking into account that this is the first ever major video game release from the newly-formed wrestling company.
Let's start with what matters most - the gameplay in the ring. Fortunately, this is where AEW Fight Forever excels, delivering an enjoyable brand of wrestling that definitely wears its WWF No Mercy, WWE SmackDown! and even WWE 2K Battlegrounds inspirations on its sleeve. It features a more arcade-style of gameplay than you'd see in WWE 2K23, with quicker bell-to-bell times and a faster pace all around, along with a fairly strong focus on accessibility. The idea here is that new players can jump into the action without being forced to learn too many controls, and that generally rings true, while dedicated fans can dip into advanced techniques that allow them to get the edge against tougher opponents.
![AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 2 of 6](https://images.purexbox.com/screenshots/137100/900x.jpg)
There are a couple of things we really like about AEW Fight Forever's gameplay in particular. The first is that all the animations are hand-crafted rather than mo-capped, and that not only means they look fantastic for the most part, but it also means they often stitch together fluidly and allow you to create some awesome "holy s**t!" moments. Finishing moves feel particularly powerful, and they can sometimes be pulled off "out of nowhere", such as a Super Kick from the Young Bucks or Adam Cole's "The Boom". In other words, you don't always have to just press a button and wait for a long canned animation to complete, and it makes these moves so much more satisfying to pull off.
Another thing that's impressive is how developer Yuke's has put a lot of time into making each wrestler feel unique. The likes of Jeff Hardy and Sammy Guevara can fly around the ring with ease, while a heavyweight such as Wardlow benefits from his immense strength and even the ability to withstand certain kicks and punches for a short period of time. From what we can tell, there are around 15-20 unique gameplay styles represented in AEW Fight Forever (such as "Technical Wrestler" and "Brawler"), and the purpose of these is to ensure the AI behaves authentically in the ring. It's a system that works well, adding plenty of gameplay variety to the relatively strong roster.
![AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 3 of 6](https://images.purexbox.com/screenshots/137096/900x.jpg)
It's not all perfect by any means — we could grumble about the tables that collapse nearly every time you touch them, or the countering system that works fine but doesn't provide any feedback about how to master the timing of a reversal — but on balance, there's a lot to like about AEW's gameplay. In the future, it'd be great to see Yuke's implement some sliders that allow us to customise the experience even further, such as extending the average length of a match and altering the difficulty of reversals, and we think this is something that'll prove a popular request post-launch.
In terms of the match types, AEW Fight Forever doesn't boast an extensive set of options by any means, but it's not a bad selection either. Aside from the standard matches — 1v1, 2v2, etc — you've got the Lights Out Match, which allows you to wield a ridiculous array of weapons including skateboards, thumbtacks and more (a particular highlight with friends), the Casino Battle Royale, Ladder matches, Falls Count Anywhere matches, and the most absurd and hilarious of them all - the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match. There aren't any stinkers in the bunch, so we're pretty happy overall, although we'd love a cage match in the future.
![AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 4 of 6](https://images.purexbox.com/screenshots/137093/900x.jpg)
So, what can you do with this fun gameplay and the wild match types beyond just standard exhibition matches? Well, that's where Road to Elite comes in, which is AEW Fight Forever's version of a career mode. We've been getting plenty of enjoyment out of it, but it's admittedly a bit of a mixed bag - it has some neat ideas and reminds us of the classic WWF SmackDown! career modes on the PS1, but it also feels slightly rough around the edges. Each run of Road to Elite will last you a few hours at most, allowing you take either a real AEW wrestler or a created wrestler and play through a calendar year's worth of AEW shows and pay-per-views.
We'll start with the positives - it's a mode where you'll get involved in storylines, challenge for titles, complete on Dynamite and other shows on a weekly basis, and even partake in training, sightseeing and visiting restaurants to replenish your health. In some of those latter activities, you'll bump into wrestlers who'll challenge you to matches or even ask you to take pictures with them, and these little interactions are always a bit of fun. Something else we really like is that even when you lose in Road to Elite, you get cutscenes that acknowledge your defeat (it sometimes even changes the direction of the story), rather than the game just forcing you to replay the match all over again. There's also live-action footage that provides context to certain situations - for example, you can watch CM Punk's memorable AEW debut if you manage to beat him in an optional match on Rampage, and we'll never get tired of seeing that!
![AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 5 of 6](https://images.purexbox.com/screenshots/137098/900x.jpg)
As for the downsides? Well, the storylines are okay, but they're generally very basic - with cutscenes that only last for a few seconds at most. Those aforementioned activities such as training and dining (which you tend to use every in-game week) start to get old after a while as well, as they're simply just cutscenes that you can't interact with. There's not much voiceover work in Road to Elite either, and when there is, it's usually poor old Jim Ross not sounding all that thrilled to be sitting in a sound booth recording lines for yet another video game.
There was a bit of concern that Road to Elite might be too short of a mode prior to release, and we can understand why — one playthrough will only take you a few hours — but it's worth noting that you'll only experience four different stories each time you play it. There's no word on exactly how many you might run into over time, but apparently it depends on a few factors including whether you win or lose certain matches. We've gone through Road to Elite twice now, and on the second playthrough we experienced two out of four stories that were different to the first time around. The women's division also appears to include separate stories to the men's division.
![AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 6 of 6](https://images.purexbox.com/screenshots/137099/900x.jpg)
As mentioned, you can create a wrestler for use in Road to Elite, and that's where the creation suite comes into play. It's not a bad suite at all in terms of functionality — it works very similarly to the WWE 2K games — but the problem is that it's just lacking in content at launch. There's no face or body morphing, for example, and only a small number of face presets to use as your base, so you've got little chance of authentically recreating famous WWE wrestlers such as Roman Reigns or Becky Lynch. On the plus side, the ability to customise movesets and entrances is great, and there's at least plenty of choice with both of these. You can even create your own arena, but again it's pretty limited in terms of what you can do. It's a nice feature to have though.
Online play is also possible in AEW: Fight Forever in the form of Ranked, Casual and Private matches. We can't speak too much about this just yet (obviously we were playing pre-release so the servers were unpopulated), but our experience with the Private option went really smoothly with no obvious lag to speak of. If you just want to team up with a friend against the CPU, you can do that as well.
Finally, we should give a mention to the minigames in AEW Fight Forever. Yes, for whatever reason, the team decided to implement a pretty wide variety of short-but-sweet Mario Party style minigames, challenging you to compete in everything from AEW trivia to baseball. Some of them are really fun, some of them are complete duds, and the rest sit somewhere in the middle. The nice thing is that you can play these online with your friends, but the downside is that you only start with three available minigames - with the rest only accessible via Road to Elite until you unlock them.
Conclusion
AEW Fight Forever is an enjoyable and competent wrestling game that we've been having a good time with so far. The Road to Elite career mode is fun, and the wild match types with their huge varieties of weapons are a blast to play with friends. There are definitely some downsides such as the barebones creation suite along with a general lack of game modes, but if you're an AEW fan or you're simply looking for a decent alternative to WWE 2K23, Fight Forever is well worth adding to your wishlist this summer.
Comments 21
Wonder what game you guys and PS will ever agree on?!
Your positives are their negatives
Fraser,
Firstly game related who would you like to see added and who was your first pick of wrestler
Second did you watch forbidden door? And did you get meet and greet with your AEW Wembley tickets?
@RustyStag Wrestler wise? I'd like to see The Acclaimed in particular. My first choice in the game was Adam Cole I believe.
I've watched half of Forbidden Door but I've been too busy to finish it - it's in the plans for tonight! Didn't get a meet and greet for Wembley when the tickets went on sale, but maybe I will nearer the time
AEW is my favorite wrestling company and I've been anticipating this for a long time. I'll be playing this Day 1 and I hope it goes well because this looks like a great foundation for future games. But it looks like it does exactly what it set out to do.
@FraserG Forbidden Door is show of the year so far. One MOTY contender & one dream match that mostly delivered.
@GalacticBreakdown Good to know! I've only just got up to the Omega / Ospreay match, so I'm hoping for great things...
Please no spoilers! 😅
Xbox or switch. Can't decide yet. But I will be buying no matter what.
@FraserG Great review!! It's basically everything that I came to expect hearing from news bits and all over the past few years. Looks like they set out exactly what they planned to do, which was nice because it wasn't overhyped.
Enjoy All In. I went to a Dynamite this past March when it was in my hometown and had a blast.
@NintendoByNature I've picked up both well excited
@NintendoByNature I'm buying for both, just to support the Game! 10/10 from me.
@Jimbodeadite @RustyStag I'd love to. But I don't think I got the cashe for that. With this being the only good switch wrestling game, I sort of want it on there.
Love me some AEW so I'll pick this up down the line I think
Noice a 7. That's all I needed to hear.
I just want a new Wrestling game that feels like the old N64 classics like No Mercy and Warzone 2000.
That selling point alone would be enough to get me to buy this.
WWE ALLSTARS (arcade gameplay, roster, dlc, caw, modes) > Every wrestling video game
Don't watch much wrestling these days but when I do it's AEW so I figured I'd give this a chance, first wrestling game I've bought since the 360 days. I've played a few matches and the gameplay seems very enjoyable.
Hi everyone I'm new
New to Xbox pure
I'm not even that big of an AEW fan (I watched 1 PPV once) and have been loving this game! I tired of the WWE 2K games long ago, and I don't even buy them all. I let a bit of time lapse between purchases but still end up feeling like I've just bought the same game again and it isn't just myself, I can't even convince my friends to play those games with me anymore.
But this, now this is fun! I wasn't sure how good it would turn out, I mean yes No Mercy was the blueprint and you had wrestlers involved that loved that game, but that was also the same scenario for TNA iMPACT. Here though, you can feel the extra mile they went to, to bring that type of game roaring into the present day. I also love how each wrestler feels unique, something normally missing.
I never found Road to Elite as quick as people claim it is... but even then, when there are challengers to complete it multiple times with multiple characters... do we really want it much longer? Still, if they add more content and more paths to it down the road, I wouldn't complain.
Also have to say, this is the 1st time a hardcore (or Lights Out if you will) match actually feels like a hardcore match. Normally there is such a small number of weapons available I wonder why they even bother adding the mode.
So not only have I been having a blast, but I really can't wait to see what the future holds for this game.
@FraserG Stadium Stampede goes live in 24 hours for Xbox Series X
https://youtu.be/IJ3Nq4HmpVk
@Tasuki Yep I've seen, thank you! We'll get to it when it goes live
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...