X-Men Destiny - Xbox 360

Build Your Own Mutant In X-Men Destiny

Matt Miller — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:45:00 GMT

X-Men Destiny has a rewarding premise. Create a brawling-heavy action game starring a brand new mutant in the X-Men universe. Choose his or her powers, and upgrade them over the course of the game. Throw in a little RPG conversation and storytelling, and the option to choose sides in the bubbling conflict. If only the battles and mission structure kept pace, there would be a lot to enjoy. Sadly, those elements feel repetitive and generic, and the whole experience is hamstrung as a result.

The game dives head-on into the X-Men fiction, setting up an alternate version of the story where Professor X has been killed, and mutant/human tension is at an all-time high. Cyclops and the X-Men struggle to maintain the peace, even as Magneto’s Brotherhood nudges things closer to chaos. A mysterious and deadly attack on a peace rally in San Francisco pushes the conflict over the edge, and the city falls into chaos. One of the unlucky bystanders at the rally happens to be an undiscovered mutant whose powers burst forth during the crisis.

You control this confused youngster – one of three distinct characters, each of whom can choose one of three unique power sets. One turns your mutant into a rampaging bruiser with fists of stone. A second option sets you up with blasts of ranged energy. A third is an agile melee option utilizing shadow matter – think the unholy offspring of Nightcrawler and Wolverine. No matter your choice, your power set develops in thrilling ways over the course of the game with powerful new combat moves and one-off specials. That customization extends to special collectible abilities you find in the world, each of which is tied to a well-known X-Men character. Put on Quicksilver’s iconic lightning bolt costume. Gain Iceman’s freezing capabilities. Adopt Colossus’ armored shell. While this approach to power acquisition might strike comic fans as a little off kilter, it’s a fun dynamic within a game universe. By the end, your character is a formidable powerhouse.

Along the way, you’ll get to meet a cavalcade of familiar faces from the comics, each of whom will exhort your allegiance to either the X-Men or the Brotherhood. There’s not much to the conversation system – mostly exposition and character introductions – but the occasional choice does take the story down different paths. Along with the unique power choices, it makes a good argument for a second playthrough. Beyond the occasional chat, most of these heroes and villains join you in the fight. Some of the most memorable sequences have you fighting side-by-side as Cyclops bursts out his optic blasts, or Juggernaut bowls over his foes.

Your initiation into the X-Men (or Brotherhood) comes via a series of missions across a ruined San Francisco. Almost without exception, these uninspired quests require you to kill a certain number of enemies before moving on to the next arena-style battle. The teeming enemy attackers have all the strategic wherewithal of swarming bees, and they look about as distinct. You can only fight so many identical fellows with electric batons before things start to go south. Button mashing carries you through most of the game, and the occasional death is probably only because you stopped paying attention. As an opportunity to devastate an endless string of baddies with impressive-looking powers, it succeeds. As a full-featured and challenging combat system, it fails.

Add in some middling environment and character visuals on top of the lackluster gameplay, and X-Men Destiny has some big problems. Five years ago, I would have a lot more positive things to share about the game, but action titles have advanced in that time, and Destiny doesn’t keep pace. Even so, as an X-Men fan, I got a kick out of all the character cameos, not to mention the extensive customization features. Take the game at face value – as an opportunity to be an overpowered superhero for a few hours – and you could enjoy the ride.

The Mutant Mayhem Begins

Matthew Kato — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:42:31 GMT

To celebrate the release of X-Men: Destiny, Activision and developer Silicon Knights have delivered this trailer of the title.

Players will have the choice to evolve their character's mutant powers as they follow the branching storyline and choose between the X-Men and The Brotherhood of Mutants.

Stay tuned for our review of the game, coming shortly!

(Please visit the site to view this media)

New X-Men Destiny PAX Screens Look Marvelously Mutant-y

Matt Helgeson — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:21:00 GMT

Activision's big coming out party for X-Men Destiny was, appropriately, Comic-Con. However, the game is also at PAX Prime, and Activision just released some new screens of the game.

For more on X-Men Destiny, check out Ben Reeves' hands-on impressions of the game from Comic-Con.

Grabbing Hold Of Destiny: First Hands On

Ben Reeves — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:00:01 GMT

We’ve heard a lot about X-Men Destiny, Silicon Nights newest title, but San Diego Comic-Con is the first time anyone has had a chance to play the game, so we eagerly jumped into the fray and tested out of new found mutant powers.

The game starts at a mutant peace rally, where players have the opportunity to pick between the game’s three main characters: Aimi Yoshida, a fifteen-year-old Japanese girl, Grant Alexander, a good ‘ol American boy from Georgia who has dreams of playing professional football, and Adrian, a member of an anti-mutant group called the purifiers. We chose Grant because he’s buff and because we love America.

At this point in the game, we also got to choose our primary power set. These three power types function a bit like traditional classes in a RPG. Density control allows you to control the density of your body mass and basically hit things harder. Energy projection lets you do a lot of long ranged attacks, and shadow matter lets you do some cool teleportation moves and basically functions a bit like an RPG rogue. We chose shadow matter, because we have a fascination with Nightcrawler, and because we love America.

The peace rally quickly turns into chaos as Magneto seemingly attacks the crowd. As pedestrians flee, a gang of anti-mutant Purifiers attacks. Fortunately, our mutant powers have just manifested and we handily beat them down. Each character can perform light and heavy attacks to unleash a breadth of combos, but the more they attack the more they build op an energy meter that can be used to unleash powerful super moves. With shadow matter we are able to create a tornado of black energy and take out several enemies by sucking them towards us.

After crashing through the city streets we come across our first X-gene. These X-Genes act as power modifiers, basically changing your powers in one of three ways: attack, defense, or utility. We got one of Avalanche’s utility X-Genes, which allows us to create a slide of dark matter enabling us to quickly move across the environment. Other X-Genes will allow you to beef up your attacks, create buffs, or heal yourself. A player who collects all three types of X-Genes belonging to a specific mutant – as well as their costume – will unlock new powers in something called X-Mode. While X-Mode is activated, players will take on new abilities specific to that mutant. If you have Quicksilver’s suite and all his X-Genes equipped, for example, you will be able to perform short burst of speed, in which all of the enemies around you slow down and you dash around the environment.

Our time with X-Men: Destiny left us hopeful. The game still has a few rough edges. The combat is a little simplistic, we still haven’t warmed up to the new characters, and we’d like to see how player’s choices affect events later in the game. However, X-Men: Destiny could be one of those titles that comes together in the end. Check out the games newest trailer and screens below.

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Another Hero Revealed For X-Men Destiny

Matt Miller — Mon, 23 May 2011 23:55:00 GMT

A new hero has been announced for Silicon Knights' upcoming action/RPG.

X-Men Destiny posits an alternate reality of the X-Men mythology in which Professor Xavier is dead and the dream for human/mutant harmony is rapidly falling apart. Players adopt the role of a newly discovered mutant, and develop their mutant powers as they like.

Silicon Knights has revealed another of the hero characters you'll get to choose from. His name? Grant Alexander. The recent press release had this bio info to share about the aspiring footbal superstar. "Grant is in San Francisco hoping to land a starting spot for the University of California, Berkeley, Varsity Squad. Oblivious to the world tensions, Grant doesn’t see that the peace rally and threatening protesters around him have any connection to his life. When he discovers his own mutant powers, Grant is faced with the realization that mutant/human relations are absolutely his problem."

Previously, Silicon Knights revealed Aimi Yoshida as another hero in the story.

Are you excited about a new X-Man game on the way? Which of the revealed characters do you like the best?

New Character Revealed For X-Men: Destiny

Jeff Marchiafava — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:36:00 GMT

We still don't know much about Silicon Knights' upcoming action game X-Men: Destiny, but we've gotten our first glimpse of a new character, a young mutant named Aimi Yoshida.

The intriguing new X-Men game puts players in the shoes of a mutant who has just joined the X-Men as a fresh recruit. The "Destiny" half of the title comes in the form of the choices players will make, which will reportedly affect what happens to the character, as well as what mutants become your enemies and allies.

One such mutant is Aimi Yoshida, recently revealed on UGO's website. Yoshida is a 15 year-old, 5' 1" girl from Japan, who was smuggled out of her home country by her parents before they could be incarcerated in the newly-created mutant camps. As a member of X-Men, her small size gives her an advantage over slower enemies, as does her acrobatic fighting style and powerful mutant abilities.

So far gameplay is still a mystery, but we'll be sure to bring you more on X-Men: Destiny as we approach its tentative holiday release date. In the meantime, take a look at these screens that leaked earlier this year.

First Screens Leaked For X-Men: Destiny

Ben Reeves — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:03:00 GMT

Last year, Silicon Knights (Too Human and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem) announced that it was working on X-Men Destiny for Activision. Last night some of the game's first screens leaked onto the Internet. They don't leave us with the best first impression of the game.

French site Gamekyo posted these screens for X-Men Destiny. They show off Gambit, Quicksilver, and what looks like one of Silicon Knight’s player-created characters. Sadly, the game looks like its still too early in development, and probably wasn’t ready to be shown. We’re still eager to hear about how the game plays, and will keep you posted as more information becomes available.

Seriously, that guy looks like a dork. Surely Marvel has never done anything so silly.

[via Bleeding Cool News]