Even before the game hit shelves, the critics were saying that AEW Fight Forever was “broken and ugly” or “innovative and fun.” I reviewed the game back on June 29th, trying to find the middle ground between the two views.
Kenny Omega, a major influence in the project and a wrestler, reacted to the criticism toward the game agreeing that it was important that they rebalance and fix the issues with the game. He is confident that those fixes are coming.
I still hold to my review that this game has a competent and entertaining fight engine that makes wrestling fun. That is easily the best part of the game.
The problems before day one
When AEW Fight Forever was released to a bunch of content creators on YouTube there were mixed reactions. The game had some noticeable glitches and the match types were lacking. With less than a month to go THQNordic decided that the game was “ready.” Whether you were playing on the Switch or a next gen console, players noticed that the clipping, poor hit detection, and wonky sprites were not fixed.
Crazy enough, the idea of a game coming out with noticeable errors is not a deal breaker in the modern age. Gamers know that they can complain to high heaven and someone will fix it later on. A high budget game doesn’t have to be “finished” to be worth $60. I believe that was AEW Fight Forever’s game plan all along. They knew that as long as patches and updates existed we would be more forgiving of the bruises.
I find this reckless publishing technique to be…dangerous. Because in reality if this game was not making enough money then THQNordic would shut down all updates and patches and declare this a loss. We would be stuck with a broken game and a broken promise. I can’t help but feel that a lot of AEW Fight Forever is based on the promise that “the check is in the mail.”
It has been a month and I am waiting for the next update like a kid at Christmas. I have already tasted all the content of the base game and need to know if there is anything worth coming back for.