AEW: Fight Forever – PC

I bought this game directly from Steam, but wanted to leave my review of the game as there have been a lot of mixed feelings following release. Firstly for anyone interested, it runs great on Steam Deck.

As a long time wrestling fan, I’ve been playing these games for somewhere around 30 years In recent years, nothing has really clicked with me. Sure I’ve enjoyed some Fire Pro, Wrestling Empire and WWE All-stars was good. But the WWE2k games have never really felt that fun to me, although 2k23 has improved in that it does feel a little more fluid. Which brings me to my first point, the gameplay here is really fun. It has a magic feeling that the 2K games don’t have. It leans more into the arcade vibe, and as as a result some of the random ‘spots’ that happen in game are great and surprising. the devs have nailed the core gameplay and for a first generation product its a great base to build on.

You can tell that the devs love and understand wrestling. There are some lovely touches like being able to take off your glove as Penta, putting your hands in your pocket as OC and even offering to shake hands at the end of the match. Not to mention the inclusion of a fully working skateboard weapon courtesy of Darby Allin.

Where the game lacks is in its modes and Create a Wrestler (CAW). I wont talk about CAW as I’ve never really used that feature much anyway, but from what I can see its much more limited than WWE2K. Hopefully they can build it out. Where people may be disappointed is that it doesn’t as yet have a GM or universe equivalent. Instead it has ‘Road to Elite’, a branching story line that can be played through multiple times with different outcomes using with a real or created wrestler. Its really fun, but I get that its no GM mode.

In terms of roster, I think its a good start over 50 wrestlers. Just sad to be missing some of my favourites such as Samoa Joe, and the women’s roster needs building out too.

With match types, you get all the normal fair, 1v1 tag, 4-way etc. as well as Lights Out and Exploding Barbed wire matches. Both of which can get crazy with a great variety of weapons too including tacks! The big omission for me is the cage match. Hopefully that can be added.

What really bugs me is how close they were to creating the perfect entrance segments. When the wrestlers come out, you can set off fire, smoke and pyro. You can switch and move the camera around. Its awesome! But they are not full entrances, they end far too soon. If they could make them longer it would be great.

I was disappointed that for now you can only have four wrestlers in the ring, it should be six but I’m guessing launching on Switch too may have held back some of the other platforms? However as an aside, the Stadium Stampede mode that is due for release shortly has 30 players, so maybe they will update that number in the other modes too.

So do I think you should buy it? For me its a yes. I’m having great fun with the gameplay and I’m happy to wait for updates. And that is where this game will live or die for me. They have said in the past that this will be a platform that is continually updated and will not be a yearly release. If that is the case I’m more than happy with the approach. If the Stadium Stampede mode being added is anything to go by, then it looks like this will be the case. Fingers crossed.

Overall I’m happy with my purchase Bay-Bay!