It’s all about personality in WWE 2K16’s Universe Mode

The best wrasslers are those who have managed to create a cult of personality around them. Sure, you’re built like a mountain of muscles with pecs as far as the eye can see, but what good is flexin’ when you can’t work a mic or an audience? Look at characters like the Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, CM Punk or Mordecai.

Performers who were large in the ring, and even bigger outside of it. And having a personality, is the key to success in WWE 2K16 it seems. And moving merch. Nothing gets you inducted into Vince McMahons Kiss My Ass Club quicker than an inability to sell T-shirts.

“The time has finally come to talk about the updates to Universe Mode – where fans get to craft and play out their own version of WWE,” according to the WWE2K16 site.

For the uninitiated, it’s like taking the role of Corporate Kane, Director of Operations.

Right out of the gate, keen players will notice that the match generation system has been overhauled. In the past, starting match cards were similar across all game copies. Now players shouldn’t see the same card when comparing Universes with their friends.

From there, players can now assign Superstars to appear on multiple shows, creating more flexibility and customization.

We’ve added more Universe cutscenes and revamped a large portion of the storylines to focus more on quality over quantity. Between pay-per-views one would traditionally see around two possible story instances for a character’s path.

Now those branching-instance possibilities jump up to ten, creating far more variety in storylines. Everything will make more sense logically with the Superstars involved based on their personality traits.

According to the Dubya Dubya Eee, having an attitude more forceful than an anti-vaccinator’s denial will result in various stats being boosted. “This new personality system gauges a variety of stats to influence Superstar traits and actions in Universe mode,” the post said.

Meters display opposing traits like loyal vs. treacherous, respectful vs. disrespectful, and discipline vs. aggression. By default, these sliders are tuned to align with Superstars’ traits shown on WWE programming. Brock Lesnar, for example, will be highly aggressive while The Miz will be cowardly and egotistical.

By playing these characters against their base traits, one can gradually steer them to behave differently, but there’s also the option to go into the menus and adjust their traits manually.

Status effects are another new element shaking up the flow of Universe Mode. Status effects are temporary bonuses and penalties that are triggered through gameplay or storylines.

The most common effects temporarily boost a Superstar’s attributes, which are triggered by winning streaks and winning big pay-per-view matches in rivalries. Some others affect how much a personality trait can be changed through gameplay, giving you the chance to solidify a trait or push it towards the opposite end.

We’ve also brought back injuries as status effects with big changes. Injuries are inflicted when you deal a huge amount of damage to a specific part of the body, and the level of the injury climbs from minor to major to critical.

Superstars can continue to compete with minor and major injuries with penalties to limb health and attributes related to that limb. Once an injury reaches a critical level, the Superstar will be knocked out of commission until their injury heals up.

Which means that you can expect Bad News Bonthuys to be the master of backhanded groin punches when the ref turns his attention away for a moment, as that former world heavyweight champ makes Ric Flair look like a strutting choir boy when it comes to playing dirty.

My god King. My god.

Last Updated: October 23, 2015