AEW Elite General Manager - Review

The first major release from AEW Games should have been an easy 1,2,3 but instead gets counted out.

When it comes to most areas of the business, AEW has had a huge rise to success in wrestling. PPVs sell well. Shows regularly sell out. Dynamite receives huge praise and decent viewing figures. Not to mention the brand itself is a merchandise machine with apparel and toys doing incredibly well. This is not much of a surprise as part of the company’s manifesto was they wanted a hand in everything, especially videogames. Out of all the company’s ventures so far this has been the one to receive a lot of attention and hype. Back in November, AEW Games announced it’s existence by revealing it had three titles in the works. The first and biggest announcement was a console game which is still a long way off being done. As well as two mobile games, the first of which was a generic casino game app that I swear AEW just purchased elsewhere and slapped a logo on. The second is this game which is aiming to fill that GM mode shaped hole is wrestling gamers lives.

Although existing in other formats, General Manager mode is fondly associated with the Smackdown vs Raw games featuring in the ­2007-2009 editions of the series. As the name suggests, you were placed in the role of the GM of Raw or Smackdown, running the brand as if it were your own. You were responsible for signing talent, keeping them happy, booking weekly TV and PPV’s, creating feuds and everything in between. It was a mode adult wresting fans could really sink their teeth into and if played with another person head-to-head you could waste a way hours on end. Which is why it was disappointing to fans that the mode was removed by the time Smackdown vs Raw 2010 rolled around to eventually be replaced by Universe mode. Nothing wrong with Universe mode, but it really could have been the perfect evolution for a GM mode if there was an actual sense of progression and achievement.

If it’s one thing AEW does well it is listening to what the fans want and that’s why many were excited when they announced they were working on Elite General Manager for mobile. Talk about an idea which should have been a slam dunk. A GM mode would lend itself incredibly well to a mobile game and the trailers leading up to its release seemed like the game was going in the right direction. Referee Aubrey Edwards was revealed to be leading the project as she has a previous background in mobile game and app development. With a strong pedigree behind it and plenty of other games to help inspire the form this should have been a title people were clambering to play, whilst marking a first true success for AEW Games. Especially as recent reports indicate AEW is currently in the red financially after investing a heft some of money into it's game division. Unfortunately, I feel this is going to be a title that no one will want to continue with after a first play through.

Getting the positives out of the way first, the foundation of the game is solid. Everything runs well and the presentation is decent. I did encounter one or two bugs and I did have the game crash on me forcing a reset but this is par the course for most release versions of a game. The animated style they went for looks great, it kind of gives the talent of AEW an anime look. And they have different animations for when action plays out in front of you which is step up from other manager sim games like 80s Mania Wrestling Returns. Each wrestler has their own stats and stamina that need to be monitored to make sure you are not running a them ragged resulting in injury. The game also has the features of management you would expect. Success is monitored on the money you make, the fans it attracts and the moral of your locker room. All of this can be invested, as you sign up talent and buy better match types and segments for a show. There are also gimmicks which can be gained and awarded to wrestlers during matches to help boost their chances of winning. Unfortunately, all of these features are incredibly bare bones with no real progression to the game.

The first mode you will be placed into is Campaign, which is massively mistitled as it is actually a tutorial. Across these ten levels you will be taught everything associated with the game and it can be quickly rattled through in your first 30 minutes of play time. Once you are done with that you are left with the Challenge mode which seems novel but quickly looses interest fast. Examples of challenges involve the likes of making Kenny Omega an ultimate star or making Brandon Cutler become world champion. Fun in principle but these goals are their own scenario. When you start one you effectively start a new game, needing to sign up a few roster members again and building up to these set goals with the majority being achieved fairly quickly. If these challenges were optional objectives that could be played during an actual campaign or season mode then they would make sense.

Speaking of which, there is no season mode to speak of. There is an Endless mode but as the game does not feature any real achievement it kind of feels wasted. All the wrestlers are available right from the start meaning none are behind a pay wall or need unlocking. You'll need to buy them with the in-game currency but it does not take long. If I had to grind a little to unlock a Jon Moxley or Hangman Adam Page that would have kept me wanting to put the time in. On top of that, Endless mode gets super repetitive as all you are really required to do is sign talent and book matches. None of the usual micromanaging duties are present such as contract negotiations, training up talent, organising merch sales or scouting. All features that have been staples of sports management games for years. It is all just incredibly basic. What’s more is you really don’t have control over how the booking will play out. You can set a rivalry but you can’t pick match outcomes and title belts are barely featured.

Fans hoping to go head-to-head with a friend will be happy to know that is a feature present in the game. But given what is already mentioned, I don’t see many friends wanting to invest the time in seeing who can run a better show beyond a brief play through. This is going to be a weird complaint but for a free game they really seemed to have missed the idea behind wanting people to make in-app purchases. The game is free which is the usual a sign of you will either need to grind for hours to get far or drop a couple of quid to get there faster. Not once in the game did I ever experience a moment of feeling like I needed to spend money to get out of the grind. Again, with nothing to unlock or really work towards it is going to be hard to know how AEW Games plans to make money off this title.

There is always the chance that Elite GM could build on the foundations it has set up but right now it feels like a huge missed shot by AEW. With a massive demand for GM modes to return to wrestling games this presented a real opportunity for AEW to cash in but the results are just hollow. If you are someone who has been wanting a solid mode like this, I would highly recommend purchasing Fire Pro Wrestling World to play Fire Promoter mode. It is a truly in-depth management mode and with Fire Pro’s creator community you can essentially run whatever promotion you like whilst actually having a sense of progression. With rumours that GM mode may return with WWE 2K22 it seems the future may be bright yet for this type of mode but unfortunately the Elite have failed to live up to their name sake.