Better Than Last Year
I actually sort of like the WWE titles. They have issues, to be sure, and clipping seems endemic, the series has never been actively bad. Not great, to be sure --- but never bad. Last year's had a bunch of issues, such as the absolutely pointless backstage portions. This game eliminates those, but has the problem of making a lot of matches utterly pointless. This is not an improvement.
You have extremely long storylines (they seem almost never-ending) and while most of them are fairly dull, they are, in many ways, better than current WWE television. The only problem is that, in their attempt to make it more "realistic", a lot of matches are pointless. You cannot win them. The point is lost on me why you have to actually DO the match you cannot conceivably win? Why not make it a cutscene? And then you have the frequent backstage brawls. It seemed like half of the matches were backstage brawls.
Outside of the storylines (which, admittedly, is a healthy chunk of the game), the rest of the game is solid. WWE Universe is not a bad mode. It's storyline, except with far less pointless crap. You have more leeway, except you can't unlock Achievements/Trophies unless the AI grants you shots at the title (if you name yourself champ, most of the title achievement/trophies are unobtainable).
The game is decent and overall better than last year's game...but, man, it has a lot of absolutely baffling flaws.
