Let’s find out together, in this dedicated review, the strengths and weaknesses of AEW: Fight Forever, the new title by Yuke’s and THQ Nordic that wants to act as the antagonist of the WWE titles
The world of sports-related video games has veered, over the last few years, increasingly towards total realism, or at least an attempt to do so. From football to basketball, passing through golf, any sport is reproduced in an almost obsessive way in an attempt, sometimes successful, sometimes less, to throw the player into something completely realistic, believable and immersive. This also in the world of Wrestling, thanks to the annual (and sometimes of questionable quality) productions such as those of 2K Games.
Whatcha Lookin’ At | Review AEW: Fight Forever
The predominance in this area has been that of WWE for decades, both in the mere sporting and championship field, and more purely in what we deal with here on techgameworld.com in the videogame field. By now, since the first Smackdown Vs. Raw on PlayStation 2, 2K Sports seems to have a monopoly on the ring. This year, though, a spirited contender showed up to fight. In 2019, to end the excessive power of WWE, AEW, All Elite Wrestling was born. So Yuke’s and THQ Nordic (who actually both worked on WWE chapters before 2K) brought to life AEW: Fight Forever, out now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch we are talking about in this review. It will be short, I promise.
With AEW, Yuke’s has therefore attempted a half step back from the world of realism and simulation to the more exquisitely arcade one. In this sense, Fight Forever has opened the door to ease of use and, even more, to making each fighter’s moves spectacular. And although the latter have not returned to their former glory, there is no doubt how much, pad in hand, AEW is easy to understand and master. The game provides you with single-player campaign, simple CPU fights, and competitive online fights.
Narcissist | Review AEW: Fight Forever
All three modes have something in common that yes, we could have expected from the first title of a new series, but no, we didn’t think at these levels: in two words, they are thin. Too, to tell the truth, almost to the bone to be precise. We certainly didn’t expect a quantity and quality of content at the levels of the WWE series, that’s for sure, but perhaps something more, considering that we were going to beat a well-extended ground from years and years of annual iterations, something more, we said, perhaps we demanded it.
If the online sector, for example, is a mere revival of the single-player without particularly relevant additions or flashes, the Exhibition mode (i.e. the fight against the CPU) it lacks a lot of interesting and proprietary modes of AEW, stopping at the basics and without taking a small step forward. The career mode, called Road to Elite, on the other hand, will put you in the shoes of an AEW wrestler for an entire year, replicating his matches, activities and everyday life. Although it is actually the most interesting of the three proposals, this modality is also reduced to the bone in terms of both content and actual presentation.
Electro Animo | AEW Review: Fight Forever
Permeates the whole production that feeling of “it’s just a starting point”, as if the whole thing was in the mind of the developers, but still needs to be deepened, enriched. In addition to the matches, which we will discuss later, each week of Road to Elite will give us three days of free activities, in which we can decide whether to train, go out to eat or simply recover our energy. A good idea to give the impression of actually managing the life of our athlete, except that each activity is represented with exactly the same scenes, the same jokes, the same animations. Monotony everywhere.
The same monotony that permeates matches, decidedly less rich in technical terms than the WWE, but basically that’s what AEW was looking for: immediacy. Each wrestler will have a bar available which, if emptied with punches, kicks and slaps, will lead him to be much more subject to finishers, special moves and knockdowns. And this is where the aforementioned monotony comes in: once you learn to dodge correctly and manage the ring well, every fight will be a succession of slaps, finishers, takedowns and so on, with few and decidedly unfunny variables.
Technically speaking, the title is without infamy and without praise. We tested AEW: Fight Forever on PlayStation 5 without any problems, with rather fast loading and without encountering any bugs or glitches, which in titles of this kind is almost a godsend. In terms of animations and fidelity of the models, there is still a long way to go, as well as in all of Yuke’s production.
Redeemer
We end this review of AEW: Fight Forever considering this new idea of Yuke’s, rather than as a more immediate rival of WWE, of its starting point. In fact, if the simplicity and intuitiveness, pad in hand, of the title are really interesting, on the other hand the game is decidedly too backward from many points of view. We’ll see how it evolves and what direction the developers want it to take. hoping to be able to continue to enjoy a simplicity that, in the genre, has really been missing for a long time.
AEW: Fight Forever is currently available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. Let us know if you have played it below in the comments, we will continue to keep you updated with all the gaming and tech themed news, guides and reviews! And if you are interested in game keys at advantageous prices, we suggest you take a look at the Kinguin catalogue!
Plus points
- Simplicity pad in hand
- Technically surprisingly stable
- Lots of good ideas…
Points against
- … not fully exploited
- Very sparse, both in terms of content and execution
- AEW’s own modes and fighters are missing
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