Written by: PlayDevil.com Staff

 

 

 

X-Men Destiny premise revolves around the mixed blessing that the main character is not one of the series familiar cast. Written by Mike Carry (the writer of X-Men Legacy) the story is set after Xavier’s death and, with the school disbanded, the team of mutants has moved from the West to East coast. There is a strong resentment towards mutants, which is growing in much of the population and find’s face in the form of the Purifiers.

 

Following an earthquake the X-Men mobilize to help rebuild a local city, no doubt with the partial intention of changing the direction of public opinion but also because they are the good guys and it is just what they do. This is where my demo of X-Men Destiny began, during a parade being held to thank the mutants for their help, but the anti-mutant sentiment remains strong and many Purifiers and their sympathizers are present.

 

I am asked to choose from one of three pubescent teens to guide through the game; all American (Grant Alexander), Purifier (Adrian Luca), or Japanese girl who was evacuated by her parents to avoid persecution for their powers (Aimi Yoshida). After picking a character my next conundrum is which power to endow them with; density (think The Think), energy (Cyclops) or shadow (Nightcrawler). Each brings with it skills and buffs for each character and while it feels like each character SHOULD be attached to a specific power I was at liberty to attribute any ability to any character. This could have resulted in small Japanese girl who acts like a muscle man or a jock whose main attribute is agility. I however went for the predictable Jock with density powers, creating basically a walking wall to march through the game with. 

 

Their pubescent nature is key to the story as the mutant X-gene usually reveals itself during puberty, and as someone attacks the parade my character’s powers are catalyzed into action. As explosions erupt all around the gathered crowd my chosen hero discovers he is a mutant, batting a car away from the crowd with stone fists. Unaffiliated with any group he begins to receive telepathic messages from the X-Man, Emma Frost, guiding him towards the X-Men to learn about his power.

 

At this point I took control of Grant and began moving through the ruins of the city. Along the way I met other mutants, both from the X-Men and the Brotherhood (this is Magneto’s gang of evil mutants). All offer help and advice, teaching new moves and technique to help me progress. These cameos will play a huge part in X-Men Destiny as they also give missions and decisions that will change the story’s narrative.

 

I wanted to be impressed by this original X-Men title, but my first impressions were not favorable. While cartoony, none of the visual effects really popped, leaving the screen feeling a little lifeless, a fact not helped by the grey environment of the wrecked city. But as I began to move and battle my way through the gangs of Purifiers my mood began to change.

 

Basically a third-person combat game, its controls were responsive making the combat satisfying. With Grant’s rock based abilities I smashed everything that came before me. Though I had a number of powers I quickly gravitated to the shield power, which forced columns of rock up through the ground. On the surface this may not sound so entertaining, but in combination with the combo system it became incredibly useful. Combos in the game are fluid and the moves that can be created, even from this supposedly defensive move, are numerous. In this case the shield allowed me to propel opponents in to the air, or even shatter it like a claymore to help me build combos.

 

Using these chained attacks I quickly gained my first level-up, allowing me to improve my abilities, but this wasn't the end of my possible power-ups. Two other mechanisms were present to grace my mutant with more skills, suits and X-genes. Suits act like runes giving passive buffs and abilities, such as regeneration. X-genes are more active, there are genes stolen from mutants by the U-Men (Purifier scientist who removed genes mutants in an attempt to remove their powers), these can then be absorbed by your mutant to enable entirely new abilities.

X-Men Destiny, in many ways, a coming of age story. A tale of a young mutant at a pivotal point in their live as they decide who they will be. Along the way they will meet members of both the X-Men and the Brotherhood and choose who to help, decisions that will branch their path and strengthens allegiances moving towards the end of the game, when eventually one or the other will be joined.

 

X-Men Destiny perhaps doesn't look as polished as it could, but it does play well and has a number of interesting gameplay elements. More importantly the narrative hooks have me thinking I may be down to play through it at least twice when it releases for PS3 and 360 this September 27th with different Wii and DS versions also available.