Evolution Of Universe Mode

[Levistick]

https://youtu.be/I-gTFaE9uYQ

Video I found last night. Interesting watch.

I miss the more spontaneous nature of Universe Mode when the game would track your matches and build the stories organically off of that. It seems to me that since they added the ability to create and customize rivalries, they have gone to pretty generic cut scenes and story development. For me personally, I tend to avoid rivalries as it takes away my freedom of working my own stories. I felt a bit of that spontaneity came back last year tho. What do you all think?

What do you miss from Universe Mode? Changes you're happy about? Want to see in 2K19 and beyond?

[Reed1417]

I'll start with what I like for this year's Universe mode. I like that we can have six titles per show as this makes it more likely I can actually have a Crusierweight Championship now and since my CW's are split between Raw and Smackdown I can maybe have brand specific titles or the one if I choose.
I also like that we can choose who our MiTB winner is and we have the ability to change it at will. Also the customization of the briefcase is really cool too.
The things I would like to see return would be the custom storylines, i really liked those even though I didn't play much of the game that year. I would also like more spontaneity within the mode too and surprise matches, that would add so much to the storytelling aspect that I love. Great video find man! My first WWE game since getting back into wrestling was WWE 13 I believe and I started my first Universe in 2k14. Been a long time which is crazy.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[thescoop]

I've been begging for them to bring back custom storylines but this time allow them to be used in Universe Mode. I want brand ratings and some form of competition between brands. Encourage me as a booker to put on shows that draw in fans. The current state is too much of the same thing. I want the feel of running multiple brands in Universe.

I have also lobbied for multiple shows on the same night. I'd love to relive the "Monday Night Wars" and have ratings battles. The only difference is I control each brand and can have true "invasion" angles.

I want more customization in Universe. I am on the sidelines until I see that. (Well, on the sidelines until I see the game on sale and give in again.)

[Therebelyell626]

Wwe '13 was the first game I came back to after a long absence (here comes the pain), and I have bought every year since. WWE has become one of my favorite yearly games. This was also the year I discovered universe mode which is the only mode I play.

I would honestly like to have a good mix of randomization and control for future iterations. I like to dictate my own stories but I also would like that odd situation where a random tag team forms, or a good guy turns on his friends (I.e. Seth Rollins turn on the shield). I honestly think they should add more stories and more cut scenes every year. I remember 2k15 had a huge list of potential stories and cut scenes (although they could sometimes be unreliable). They also had a huge list of superstar specific rivalry stories. There was one for chris Jericho and fandango and one for Daniel Bryan vs the undertaker among others to go with their own unique cut scenes. I really liked these.

Overall they did a good job last year win cut scenes being more reliable and happening more often like calling for a cage to come down to signal a big blow off cage match for the rivalry, driving your opponent though a table to indicate a table match blow off etc. unfortunately you would see the same 15 cut scenes over the universe mode and made it eventually feel stale.

I really like that they added cut scenes for non rivalry matches last year, and overall I am extremely happy with the new jnovers additions they made for 2k19 like the varied money in the bank cut scenes.

I would still like joe stories and more cut scenes and also a good mix of randomization and control in the future. Being able to pick the winners of matches his year is a huge step forward

[Cowboy008]

I like that we can now have 6 titles per show(even though I don’t know if replacing the MITB slot with a title will make you not be able to use MITB), the ability to pick who wins when simulating matches, the match table so now I have the ability to choose which matches will show up on the card, and finally managers now coming to the ring.

What I would like to see added into the game is more GM aspects for example show ratings every week, a draft after every WM, having to deal with superstar injuries, more matches at least for PPV’s, and more than 1v1 or 2v2 rivalries.

[Levistick]

Lots of good replies. Thanks!

I absolutely loved wrestling games back around 1999 - 2001 or so, when I first started watching wrestling. Wrestlemania 2000 was my first one, and naturally, I thought it was amazing. No Mercy was damned good too. But around 2002 or so, I lost interest in wrestling and stopped watching, and with it, my interest in the games waned as well. I would tune in on occasion, enough that I knew who John Cena, Randy Orton, and Batista were, enough to know that guys like Benoit, Guerrero, and Bradshaw shot up the card, and so on. But the product just didn't stick with me.

But when the first Smackdown vs. Raw came out, something made me want to play a wrestling game. Probably because by that point it had been a few years, and I still liked the concept of wrestling, even if I didn't like the product at the time. I stuck with it for awhile. It was fun. Then I picked up Smackdown vs. Raw 2006, and that was the first time I played GM Mode. I loved it, being able to have control over the booking of a show! It's exactly what I had always wanted from a wrestling video game, and I finally had it. Previously, the only tool I had for personal booking was the Promotion Wars text game on PC. I rode 2006 for a couple years until I finally got an X-Box 360, and I picked up Smackdown vs. Raw 2008, and enjoyed that GM Mode. When it was removed in 2009, I didn't buy another wrestling game.

Until Smackdown vs. Raw 2011, when Universe Mode was introduced. To me, it was GM Mode, but taken 1 step further. Sure, I lost contract management and stuff like that, but instead I was put straight into the world of putting on a WWE product, and letting whatever happened, happened. I have bought every WWE game since, and for the most part, have had at least a moderately played through Universe Mode each year. I honestly couldn't tell you what memories I have from 2011, but 2012 for sure was when I started making some great Universe Mode memories.

One of my favorite memories from this year was my 6 man Money In The Bank match. In this Universe Mode, I was giving Team Laurinitis a push as the heel authority figure, with David Otunga being the in ring enforcer of the group. Because of this, he was added to the Money In The Bank match. In my mind, he was added for story purposes but was not intended to win. Buuuut... he did. Originally, I wanted to protest and somehow undo it. But I didn't. I stuck with it. What this led to was David Otunga cashing in Money In The Bank against Stone Cold Steve Austin, and winning. What would follow were *clean* title defenses against Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Undertaker in Hell In A Cell. Would it happen in real life? Absolutely not! Which is what made it so much more memorable. It wasn't even what I intended to happen, but it ended up being one of the funnest times I've had, seeing how long I could keep the belt on Otunga.

The next year, WWE 13, along with a lot of Attitude Era additions, saw The Miz of all people becoming the WWE tough man, beating Mike Tyson in a street fight, along with clean wins over WWE tough men like Triple H.

WWE 2K14 and beyond is where it has gotten a little less memorable. As I've stated, and others have followed up on, the ability to create and control feuds, while a great addition, has removed some of the spontaneity from the mode, as now cut scenes have been isolated to the feud matches, and not so much in regular matches. I didn't stick with WWE 2K18 long - burnout. But from what I saw, it seemed like cut scenes were becoming a thing again among regular matches. This made every match on the card meaningful worth playing, because you never knew what was going to happen. And really, that's what I want from Universe Mode - each match is worth playing. I don't mind that rivalry matches *guarantee* a cut scene. But I would like cut scenes spread out through other matches as well.

It was also frustrating that created rivalries had a pretty generic and repetitive string of matches and cut scenes, meaning that a created rivalry was just going to have the same 2 guys face off every week until the PPV. And that's not exactly how WWE feuds work.

I'd love to be able to create a feud, and have it build or lessen in intensity due to how the feud is handled on the card, but STILL have control over the feud. Kind of like how the older GM Modes did it. As long as the stars were involved in a match together, OR cut a promo on each other, the rivalry stayed alive. That, to me, would be a more ideal way of doing it, instead of being locked into the same guys fighting each other every week for a month.

As others have said, I LOVE the additional championship slots. idk what exactly I am going to do with those slots yet. I've thought about perhaps merging my NXT and Cruiserweight belts onto Raw and Smackdown respectively, as I honestly probably won't be playing NXT or 205 Live in my Universe Mode (too much commitment to play 4 shows a week! And there's not enough NXT or 205 Live stars that I'm interested in enough to run a show with, BUT there are enough that I don't want to totally neglect them either.)

I love being able to assign managers, so that managers can at least accompany their superstars during those previously mentioned uneditable rivalry matches, I love the ability to determine sim winners, so I can push someone in particular even if I don't want to play the match (rare, but still a worthy addition). And maybe most of all, I love the divisions for the various card positions on the show. Meaning if the show does auto book, it's not going to give me wonky stuff that I don't want anything to do with, but have to endure if I want that cut scene.

I'm hoping that the additions this year are enough to maintain a bit of longevity for my Universe Mode this year, as it's honestly been a couple years since I've had one that's gone any distance. In concept, Universe Mode is one of my favorite things in video gaming. In execution, it has had it's impressive moments, along with disappointments. But I am excited. I can't wait til Friday. Hopefully the game is in my mailbox when I get home!