In June I reviewed AEW Fight Forever and said it was a worthy first try for Tony Khan, Kenny Omega, and everyone involved at All Elite Wrestling and THQ Nordiq. The gameplay was excellent and reminded me of the old Smackdown or WWF No Mercy games that I loved. However, one thing I believed would hold the game back was the lack of game modes. For example, outside of the Road to the Elite mode, which is repetitive after the first few playthroughs, there was no way to create your own world outside of a pencil and paper. Even the create-a-wrestler left a lot to be desired.
My interest started to fade, and then right before All In they announced the release of a new online mode, Stadium Stampede, and my interest piqued. This mode is a 30-wrestler free for all with the last man or woman standing. Is this the game mode that will resurrect wrestling fans’ love for Fight Forever, or is the mode nothing more than a novelty?
Here are my impressions of AEW Fight Forever’s new game mode, Stadium Stampede.
What I Like
Get Ready For The Fight Of Your Life
Before you hop online, the first thing you’ll want to do when playing Stadium Stampede is change your wrestler’s finisher and toy around with the move-set. I like Kenny Omega’s “One-Winged Angel,” so that’s the finisher I settled on. As for the character you choose, it doesn’t matter much in Stadium Stampede because everyone is playing with a similar move-set — outside of your finishing move. You can focus more on different traits like strikes, grapples, aerial, etc., but based on my experience wrestlers are limited to the following moves: a punch, kick, power slam, and a running spear. Players can jump and perform moves on their opponent, but for the most part, the wrestling moves you’re able to perform are extremely limited.
Fortunately, there are also four additional item spots that play an important factor in Stadium Stampede. All the weapons you’ve become familiar with throughout Lights Out Matches are at your disposal, including tennis rackets, footballs, steel chairs, barbed-wire bats, the list goes on and on. Hunter Horse Hemsley (Hangman Page’s horse) even appears and can be used to trample your foes if you can obtain the carrot coin and unlock his full potential. Most of these items can be found throughout the arena and come in handy when trying to take on the competition. In fact, the only thing really separating one player from another — besides pure skill — is the items you collect along the way.
Gameplay And Additional Impressions
Connecting to a group of players can take a few minutes, but once you’re locked into a game you can start to decide which area of the arena you want to begin at. There are five starting points, with each area featuring its own unique items and chests. The five areas include an observation deck, office area, seating area, vending area, and field area. I prefer the vending area of the observation deck, but often I prefer the chaos that ensues on the field.
Throughout the match, you will find items and loot boxes that will reward you with special perks and weapons. If your player is out of energy, you can stop at the vending area and get an energy drink out of the vending machine. There’s so much you can do in Stadium Stampede, which is why I believe there’s so much promise for the game mode going forward.
Overall, the matches don’t drag on too long. Players get eliminated pretty quickly, and with the map getting smaller and smaller as the battle rages on they’re usually over in 10 minutes or so. Finishers, as you can probably imagine, are how you eliminate your opponents. This is done when the player’s health is in red. I’ve only won one match, but the feeling of outlasting the competition never felt better.
Stadium Stampede Has The Potential To Be #ELITE!
I know online gaming isn’t for everyone, but if you or a friend has AEW Fight Forever it really is worth giving Stadium Stampede a chance. The gameplay is easy enough for anyone to pick up, and after a few matches you’ll be hooked. Yes, there are plenty of things to nitpick, and I’ll get into that shortly, but much like Fight Forever, it’s the little things that make Stadium Stampede a hit. Trying to locate the coin to get Hangman’s horse. Doing everything you can to claw tooth and nail to get to the final four. It’s not perfect, but there’s a ton of potential for AEW Fight Forever and that includes Stadium Stampede mode.
What I Don’t Like
Bots, Bots, Everywhere There’s Bots
I rarely played a match where every character was user-controlled for a game mode that is advertised as 30 online players. Perhaps this is because there are not a lot of people playing online. Or maybe they don’t want gamers to sit and wait 5-10 minutes to find 30 players. (It usually takes 1-2 minutes to join a game.) I think I’d rather wait to play vs. 30 online players than have bots running around. Bots are usually those that have regular names like Felicia or John. Nevertheless, having half the map running around aimlessly trying to find different loot boxes while running into walls only to get pummeled by the first user player they come across isn’t necessarily fun.
No Love For Those Who Play Offline
It’s nice to have a stadium with different areas to fight in, but I’d like to know why none of these areas are available offline. The game has pinfall-anywhere matches, but none of these areas are unlocked. I think this is something THQ and AEW should consider, especially if the plan was to continue building Fight Forever into the perfect wrestling game over time.
Matches can already spill out into the entrance-way. Why not let them head to the back where there’s a vendor’s area, hallway, or whatever it might be? Even make it so it’s only available at Daily’s Place. Whatever the remedy, I think it would enhance offline play and give everyone a taste of what Stadium Stampede is about. Additionally, I believe gamers who don’t necessarily want to play online should be able to enjoy this game mode, so maybe we can add one player or local co-op in the future.
Hit Or Miss Servers
Early on, a new match would be up and running in one to two minutes. But lately, I’ve found that it takes much longer to find a game, and as stated before, it’s usually littered with 70 percent bots — which is fine, but that’s not why I hop online to play video games. I want the challenge of playing against other gamers who know the stick as well as I do. Additionally, much like my experience playing singles matches online, the servers can be hit or miss, with some games just being too laggy to play through. This can be extremely frustrating and makes you wonder how things would be if it wasn’t a match filled with bots. Can the servers even handle 30 online players competing in this chaotic death match? I’m not so sure.
Bottom Line
The idea behind Stadium Stampede is something I fully support. An online free for all merging the best of Rumbleverse and Fortnite into one game mode. Add that to the gameplay I enjoyed in AEW Fight Forever, and I was instantly hooked. Unfortunately, for all the good it does with re-visiting some of the matches’ best moments and adding a unique spin on Fight Forever, it still falls flat of championship glory.
Even after giving THQ some time to see if they would fix the matchmaking and perhaps improve some of the gripes gamers had early on, there are still several core gameplay issues that need to be fixed, plus the game mode is still filled with many bots. If I play Stadium Stampede, I want to enjoy it versus other players. In short, it’s fun but not something that can make the game worth the purchase with the lack of different game modes and uncertainty surrounding the future.
There’s a lot to love about AEW Fight Forever, but even with the addition of Stadium Stampede, you’re better off waiting for the holidays to roll around when there is a sizeable discount to scope out AEW’s first — but hopefully not last — video game.
