WWE '12 Road to Wrestlemania First Look
WWE '12 features a completely revamped Road to Wrestlemania mode. The short little series of matches of Road to Wrestlemanias of the past have been replaced by a ten hour plus story mode told in three chapters. That's longer than the single player mode in a lot of games these days, and it's just one mode in WWE '12.
The Road to Wrestlemania's three chapters give you the chance to play three different wrestling roles: the hero, the villain, and the outsider. The hero and villain roles are pretty self-explanatory, and the outsider is the guy who's focused only on success. His alliances come and go as they suit him at the moment - good or bad, it doesn't matter, all that matters is whether you can help the outsider on his road to the top or you're standing in his way.
The first chapter opens with the villain chapter, and Sheamus is featured in that role. Next up is the outsider, embodied by Triple H. And lastly, you get to be the hero, and the good guy is … you. Or rather your custom-created wrestler.
What makes Road to Wrestlemania really special in WWE '12 is that it's not just a long series of matches. It's out to capture the entire WWE experience – from the marquee matches in the ring, to unscheduled match interrupts, to brawls in the halls, scuffles and fights in the tunnels beneath the stadiums outside the view of the fans. It's not something that's just new in WWE '12; it's a first for a wrestling game.
Wanting to find out more about this mode and what went into the new Road to Wrestlemania, I sat down for a chat with the game's designer Jonathan Durr...
GT: What inspired you to add an extended story mode to a wrestling game in the first place?
JD: Well in working with WWE there are three things that they hold in
priority. Number one is their characters, nobody's going to watch it if they
don't care. Number two is the storylines and number three is the wrestling.
That's the hierarchy on it and you can't do a wrestling game without a story
because that's how important it is to the experience.
GT: Since this isn't something that's really been done before in a wrestling game, you're basically starting from scratch; how did you decide what form an extended story mode should take in the game?
JD: Well we did the Road to Wrestlemania before as short stories, what WWE
calls the Road to Wrestlemania from Royal Rumble to Wrestlemania. It's a three
month experience, so we wanted to do something new with that formula. So that's
what we went to this year with one lone eighteen month epic journey playing as
different guys. We wanted to mess with the formula, play with the pacing so that
you're doing a bunch of different things, matches, brawls, chasing guys around
and then getting into these really cool cutscenes as well.
GT: How much did the story mode change during development? Did the final form it took resemble the original concept?
JD: I probably wrote fifteen pitches and we worked with the WWE to get them
through. I'd write a bunch of pitches, look at them, look at what we could do
with them, what would work, what would be cool about it. And then these were the
three that we settled on kind of collectively. And we worked with the WWE
heavily to try and get them all done. And what works with them. Like at one
point we had CM Punk slotted in there for a character and then there was that
contract problem where it looked like he was going to leave WWE, so if he's not
going to be there we don't want to use him and we switched over to somebody
else. That's what that relationship is like. They give us a little bit of
insight of how their things are going, how their product is going, and we get to
play with that to make our stories.
GT: That leads nicely into my next couple of questions – how involved was the WWE in the story and how did you go about selecting the featured wrestlers?
JD: Yeah, yeah. They give us an indicator of who's going to be really hot.
Like they told us that The Miz is going to be a huge superstar and sure enough
he's fantastic and we love The Miz. He's one of the main villains in one of the
storylines and he's great. So we give the pitches to them, they look them over
and give us feedback, what works, what doesn't. Then we go into an outline
process where we go into a little more detail and then finally we do the actual
script. And they give us feedback on everything. All the dialog, they help
really shape that. We'll put in something and they'll come back and tweak it
just a little bit but it's so much better. So it's a really fun relationship
working with them.
GT: What about fan feedback from prior games, was there anything that they've been asking for that you weren't able to give them before, but that you can do now with the new mode?
JD: With the story mode, yeah, the Road to Wrestlemania formula has been
pretty similar for the last two or three years and they've said that they want a
new experience. And so that's one of the reasons why we looked at it, went
through it and made this approach of one real long story as opposed to five
really short ones. That was the big feedback from them, they wanted a new
experience. And when we did Universe mode that was really different and a lot of
their feedback went into the little details they want to see, things that they
want to do, and we try to get them into there.
GT: What percentage of the time in story mode are you actually in matches versus other action?
JD: We did 170 cutscenes in there. There's about 100 minutes long just of
video. So we made a complete movie, essentially. But it's a ten to twelve hour
experience, so you're in there for about ten hours doing combat and smashing
peoples' faces
GT: What did the wrestlers think of being featured in the new mode? What was it like working with them?
JD: Oh it was really cool. Like I got to direct VO for John Cena and Randy
Orton, Alberto Del Rio, and they're all amped to be in the game and to help tell
these stories. Sheamus is one of the main characters in the mode. We looked at,
we wanted to get a new face into the game for the stories, who had never done
the storylines before. And looking at the people the WWE had available, Sheamus
just stood out as somebody I want to be. This big brawling guy that's able to
kick anybody's butt around. So we picked him and he went in there and I think he
really dug the experience. Especially a new WWE superstar, they feel honored to
be immortalized, to have a whole thing dedicated to them.
GT: What percentage of the game's achievements/trophies did you set aside for story mode versus in-match achievements?
JD: I want to say that there's about four or five trophies specifically for
that, and then a bunch that you can unlock in the matches you'll play while
playing through the mode. So not a ton, but you'll be able to unlock a bunch of
them all while you're playing.
GT: Is it possible to fail in the story mode?
JD: Yes. Well, it's kind of like God of War or something, it's a linear
experience going around just kicking everyone's butt. And if you lose a match
you have to redo the match. If it's a brawl you have to redo the brawl.
GT: Do you already have ideas for the story mode in the next iteration of the game?
JD: Absolutely. As soon as you're done with the first one you start thinking about what you can do the next time around. We've already got a bunch of story ideas floating around are we're working to get them done now.
And in closing, I present you with The Road to Wresltemania trailer. Pumped up yet?