Approaching the game's story using the death of Charles Xavier at the hands of a mutant killer named Bastion, X-Men Destiny offers players the opportunity to approach the offered storyline as one of three potential new hero characters, who then interact with familiar Marvel mutants (both good and bad) over the course of the game.
As much as the game holds some interest to some more experienced or seasoned readers of the X-Men comics of the last decade (like myself), it's safe to say that new players with little to no knowledge of the franchise's mythology should learn a thing or two about these heroes and villains, by the time they finish the game.
An Overview of X-Men Destiny
Since the death of the X-Men's founder and mentor Charles Xavier at the hands of a future-time humanoid Sentinel named Bastion, some progress has been made between politicians and the hero group to forge new relations between man and mutant kind.
As a rally to support this new initiative gets underway, the crowd gets attacked by a vicious display of destruction and carnage, seemingly at the hands of Magneto, Xavier's old friend and later nemesis.
Scott Summers (AKA Cyclops, the team's leader) quickly dispatches his team members to seek out who is responsible, so they can stop this latest menace. As one of three players (up to the game user, naturally), this newcomer just discovering his/her latent mutant ability (apparently triggered by the stress of being under attack) gets approached by both sides (the X-Men and the Brotherhood) in joining the battle, either to stop Magneto or whoever is behind this mystery, or working with those responsible to ensure mutantkind's dominance over homo sapiens.
X-Men Destiny Gameplay
At first I was expecting something on the level of one of the X-Men's gaming cousins, something akin to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, with emphasis on one-on-one fighting.
While there is plenty of fist action to be had here, one of the main factors which hinder the full potential of this game lies in its dense storyline, replete with questions and answers which must be covered for the player to progress to any new scene or level.
As one of the three playable rookies meet each new X-Man or Brotherhood member, you can be sure to stop fighting altogether and spend a good five minutes discussing the pros and cons or your next moves.
The game makers have spent a lot of time providing its players with a background rich environment, but seem to have cut a few corners when it came to the supporting characters themselves. Most of the major players you encounter seem wooden and impassive, as if designed by a recent graduate of game design school rather than a seasoned graphic designer. The artists here could have learned a thing or two from the boys who worked really hard on the excellent facial structures of, say, L.A. Noire.
Which is a damn pity, as the game producers sought out decent voice talents for this game. I couldn't put my finger on who voiced my character of choice, a teenage football jock who happens to possess the mutant ability to protrude solid rock from his own body. Imagine my surprise in discovering the irony that Milo Ventimiglia, the former Peter Petrelli from NBC's superhero show Heroes, worked on this game. How meta.
The Final Word on X-Men Destiny
Hardcore fighting game enthusiasts may be turned off by the dialogue heavy interludes the characters will invariably go through. Game-wise, newbies may learn more than a thing or two about the intricately detailed universe created by Stan Lee several decades ago, and how its population has exploded since.
X-Men Destiny works very hard at enticing its potential players into a world filled with wonders and untold powers yet to be discovered. Once that's all over, you're left realizing the game's illusion is all whimper, and no bang.
2.5 out of 5
Dominic Messier - Dominic Messier is a Toronto-based Film & TV writer, Sci-Fi TV and Film Dramas Topic Editor, and creator of PopCultureLandscape.com
