Making a Universe in WWE13

On Monday night I sat through my first WWE PPV for almost 5 years (excluding the yearly Wrestlemania event) and found myself wondering how the wrestling genre had progressed from the Smackdown and No Mercy games that ruled my life in on the N64 and PSOne.

It was this intrigue that got me to pick up WWE 13 and this week I have been busily running through the ‘Attitude Era’ mode as well as the WWE Universe. As a teenager my evenings often consisted of playing the Smackdown 2 career mode, and the Universe Mode of WWE 13 shows a lot of dramatic improvements to the formula I loved – not that I’m surprised.

Universe mode adds a lot of new customisation but a few odd designing decisions made by THQ means that some of these disable the very things that separate it from randomly generated Exhibition options.

Looking at any WWE 13 fan message board shows numerous posts expressing confusion over ‘Universe’ Mode and the lack of cut scenes and storyline developments. Players can edit the schedule of matches in any way they want and even add in new shows. Players can also edit a whole match card; adding stipulations, title bouts and changing participants. The problem is that using these features in any way can cancel feuds, storylines and partnerships. Apparently this wasn’t a problem last year and the customisation still allowed these stories and relationships to continue.

This appears to be a massive step backwards and if you want all the bells and whistles then you really need to let Universe Mode run itself.

I have however had a lot of success in editing the mode to my liking and regularly see the cut-scenes and storyline developments that have made this a great mode.  Firstly you should know that your Universe is going to be dramatically different from the WWE programming and to every other player. If you want to play a WWE matchup - do it in Exhibition.

The key to my Universe Mode being so successful is the initial setup I have gone through. You need to develop a basic idea of what shows you are going to run so that you can organise the roster properly and, although it seems tedious, micromanage the ranking systems, stables and enemies for each superstar. This will help Universe detect exactly what you are after and run with it as it would the standard setup.

What I did was delete every single rivalry and ally for every single superstar, created or original, in the game. From there, I set up both rivalries and allies for each superstar the way I wanted universe to work in my mind and for my feuds to develop. For example I got The Rock and HHH back to being rivals and set them next to each other in the rankings to ensure the bouts came thick and fast.  

I also really enjoy technical wrestling so I set up a feud between Chris Jericho and C.M. Punk; making these two guys the most intense rivals of each other. I also wanted Daniel Bryan (who I remember from Indie wrestling a few years ago) to be involved as well as a created version of Kurt Angle that I downloaded off the community creations server in the game. I made all those guys standard rivals.

Personally I didn’t change the schedule but I can imagine that this guide will allow you to tack on extra events here and there. The second most important step, behind rivalries and allies, is the rankings order. To ensure I got Universe Mode to bring my four-way into fruition I made sure that all of these superstars were the top 4 contenders for Punk’s title. You will want to try and flesh out a good mix of faces and heels into your rankings; try booking people you want to feud together as well as adding rivalries to ensure that Universe Mode has a good idea of how to push forward your expectations.

The other things you must remember are:

·         Matches must be played to ensure rivalries are created and continued. If a match does not give you the opportunity to interfere then the Universe Mode is scheduling a storyline/cut scene to happen.

·         Remember do not change anything on the card or all of your hard work is likely to be cancelled! That means don’t change attires, add managers, change participants or change match stipulations.

If you ‘MUST’ tweak things then I would encourage you to book feuds through the minor show. Again if you have the interfere option available then the Universe system is unlikely to have set a feud for the superstars already. These are the only matches I would change – although don’t blame me if your whole experience collapses – you have been warned. Using this customisation, amend the match on offer and then interfere with the character you want to be included in the feud (usually the heel) and get him/her to attack the other party.

On a side note if you want a tag team to stay together in Universe Mode, don’t trust turning off the option to split teams up. Users have reported Universe Mode splitting up their teams even without this option enabled. I have found success with the old method of including a third person in the stable from the “Inactive” brand. I put all the Divas in that brand and then include one of them in the stable of the team I want to keep together.

The last thing you should know is that you need to keep checking your rivalries and allies. I check them for every superstar after each PPV. Delete any you don’t like and add ones that you want to see Universe Mode do something with. The rivalry and ally screen should be your best friend. It is something you should check often and change whenever you don’t like the direction something is going. This is your best way to alter Universe Mode.

If you have done all this, chances are Universe Mode will do a pretty good job of making it interesting enough to keep you engaged. In my universe the epic four-way resulted in an extended run of Kurt Angle holding the title for nearly a year, feuding with everyone from the Rock to Sin Cara. Feuding superstars often interfere in each other’s matches, attacking one another at every opportunity to get the upper hand.

Please let me know how this works for you on twitter @somemanwithplan in the comments below. Also feel free to add in any other tricks of the trade – let’s improve through sharing……