AEW: Fight Forever Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · Published June 28, 2023 · Updated June 28, 2023

For our AEW: Fight Forever Review, we play a game that combines nostalgic arcade-wrestling with All Elite Wrestling finishers and moves. Featuring a big roster of AEW talent, multiple match types, robust career mode, tons of customization options, more than 40 weapons, and so much more!

AEW: Fight Forever Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
18.45GB Download size.
Platinum trophy.
You get both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game.
Blood can be turned on and off.
Wresting gameplay.
A tutorial pop-up happens at times but is prominent in the Road to Elite mode.
Four difficulties – Easy, normal, hard, and elite.
Officially licensed.
The exhibition has 9 modes – 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 way, 4 way, Casino battle royale, exploding barbed wire death match, ladder match, mini-games, and training.
Online has 3 modes – ranked match, casual match, and private match.
Custom has 3 modes – Wrestler, team, and arena.
Road to Elite is the story mode.
Challenges are daily, weekly, and ongoing. Basically, work like achievements with rewards.
The shop has – apparel, an arena, moves, an entrance, and more items.
Full stats for ranked and exhibition modes.
Online leaderboards complete with filters.
The wrestler info menu shows a description of the wrestlers and their achievements.
Match records act like stats for the mini-games.
Two referee choices – Aubrey Edwards and Rick Knox.
When wrestlers make their entrance you can control all the pyrotechnics and lighting, fog machines, etc.
The casual mode makes pulling off moves easier by removing the need for directional inputs.
Full soundtrack control by creating and using playlists.
Can rebind controls.
Units used can be ft/lbs or m/kg.
The championship management menu lets you see and change the champion of each belt.
In the Road to Elite mode, you pick a wrestler to play as. You get a video of the beginning of AEW.
Custom wrestlers let you make a male, or female or edit a pre-existing real wrestler.
You can favorite/lock custom wrestler choices.
Custom wrestler options – profile, ring attire, entrance attire, street clothes, move set, and entrance scene.
Fast loading times.
Create a wrestler allows you to create your own unique move set.
You can use a created wrestler in Road to Elite mode.
Handy menu in Road to Elite that keeps track of who has and hasn’t beaten the mode.
Road to Elite settings – difficulty, diet (vegan/nonvegan) which is what food types show up, personality (hero/monster/confident/jerk/quiet/enigma), live video subtitles, and play hints pop up.
Moves at a fast pace.
You can skip the video sections.
Wrestlers voice the menus.
Entrances can be skipped, and the camera controlled by flipping through angles.
A momentum-based system where taking damage makes you weaker but you can get it back to green which makes you stronger.
You can target and damage particular body parts with a pop-up saying so.
When on the apron in a rumble you can grab and pull the top rope down.
Injuries can happen and this can eventually lead to you being unable to do particular moves.
After a match in Road to Elite, you get a 1 to 5-star rating, cash, and exp.
The gameplay is fluid and very reactive to you.
You can do double-team moves in a variety of ways.
In Road to Elite, you have to choose how you spend your downtime between matches which affects stats and your well-being, and most probably your wallet.
EXP earned for your created wrestler allows you to learn and unlock new moves and improve stats, the progress of this carries over to the other game modes.
Huge emphasis on you creating and maintaining your own character, Road to Elite serves as a tutorial and beginner area then you can face the big boys and girls.
Created characters are weak and crap if you just create one and wrestle in the other modes outside of Road to Elite.
Road to Elite downtime activities can be healing at the hospital, on holiday, dining out, going to an AEW show, or working out.
Each activity will show what it does and costs to do before you do it.
Snapshots is where you take pics of you and other wrestlers as and when you (might) meet them in a show or usually in out-of-ring activities.
The main aspects you are managing in Road to Elite are energy, motivation, and skill points. This is outside of the usual money and fame.
Motivation can have a bearing on how likely you are to get injured or how much exp you get from out-of-ring activities.
What I like is how simple and easy to pull off blocks and reversals are.
It plays and feels like the games I used to play back in the day.
You can change who you fight with a button click but the moment someone hits you, they become your target.
Weapons can be found under the ring and from the crowd and are always available.
Getting out of submissions is either button-mashing the face buttons or getting close to the ropes for a rope break.
A really cool world map where you fly around America taking on fights and watching shows.
Unlock new attire by playing the story mode.
Your in-ring performance affects how much money and exp you make in Road to Elite.
The Young Bucks host a selection of Mini games you can play from other sports to general knowledge in the Road to Elite mode.
You can do in-air reversals!
All the moves look fantastic.
Eat in each city with each one giving you a card showing their signature dish.
I like how you can’t just do everything and you have to buy and euop moves for your created wrestler.
Random events can happen in the story mode like taking on outside of PPV matches.
AEW history video clips play as you progress through the story mode.

AEW: Fight Forever Review Cons:

Only one United Kingdom location which is in east London.
No voice work in the Road to Elite mode which makes it look weak when in cutscenes, set pieces, and press conferences.
Some of the voice work has no life in the performance.
Not always clear when someone is injured.
As a beard guy, I find the lack of any decent beard types annoying.
Knowing when to pin is its own unknown art.
Few dubious-looking faces capture.
The occasional glitch especially with weapons.
All the side activities are good but feel so flat with no proper music or voice work.

AEW: Fight Forever:

Official website.

Developer: Yukes

Publisher: THQ Nordic

Store Links –

PlayStation

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
8/10

Sound - 8/10
8/10

Accessibility - 8/10
8/10

Length - 8/10
9/10

Fun Factro - 9/10

8.2/10

Summary

I had a strong passion for wrestling games and over the years I’ve gone from the 2D wrestle mania game in the NES to the latest WWE 2k game so I have seen, experienced, and hated a lot of wrestling games. I have my stable of favorite games and they are mostly from the PlayStation 1 and 2 eras with a slight dusting of PS3 and 360 but the WWE games really took my momentum and enthusiasm away. I think what happened to the games was they made it more technical, realism and the moves looking right took precedents over the gameplay and it showed, I grew more and more frustrated with the matches playing more like a massive quick-time event than an arcade fighting game. Prompts and timings are part and parcel of the genre but here they made it like threading a needle and honestly, I just hated the genre. Enter the new kid in the block and we have a refreshing entry into the genre, sure the timing and all that is here but it’s been implemented in such a way that matches and fighting feels good, like really good. Aside from a few dubious face mock-ups, all the wrestlers look good, and the moves and finishers look incredible and again at no cost to the playability. Anyone can pick up a pad and get on with the match, the AEW franchise is still kinda new to me but I really like how they have put spins on classic match types like casino battle royale and exploding barb wire matches. I really like this AEW game and with a full stable of Customisable options like creating a wrestler, a Ln intro, a stadium, and more it really does keep on giving. Even the little bits like being able to control all the pros and lighting in entrances and on the fly are such a cool addition. The way the character models react to getting hit, landing on weapons and is realistic. The move set is huge and includes moves like top rope shenanigans, jumping off it, through it, and pulling it down to have opponents fly out. But no they also have a whole moveset for using the guard railings and signage. Gameplay wise AEW is a cut above the rest but it does scrimp a little too much on the story-based stuff, I mean characters in the Road to Elite mode are not voiced, the character models are not as polished and you just feel like this was the sacrifice for the gameplay to stay how it is which is fine but it’s still a bit crap. To say this is the first game for a franchise it’s a really strong first step and to have this to build on is fantastic news for the wrestling fans. I won’t Smackdown the other games in the genre and keep it raw by saying AEW is the real deal and that’s the bottom line.