X-Men Destiny Reviews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on September 30th, 2011

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On top of it all, Destiny is an ugly game. The simple character models and muddy textures make it look like it was made several years ago, and the unattractive effects that accompany your powers make them feel underwhelming. You can breeze through this adventure in under six hours, but the gameplay is so shallow that you won't be left wanting more, and because your choices have so little impact, there's no compelling reason to revisit the game once you're done. In fact, it's not even absorbing the first time through. If mindless combat is all super mutants have to look forward to, you're better off letting your mutant powers remain dormant.

X-Men Destiny would've been an ideal opportunity to let three players go at it in co-op, or perhaps even a versus mode featuring various X-Men characters.

Alas, we get neither, stuck on our own as we play with X-Genes, abilities and choices. Silicon Knights would've been wise to add that on. Yeah, X-Men Destiny doesn't quite live up to what it could've been, especially with the lack of truly diverse gameplay and co-op/multiplayer options. But some of you Internet folks are still a bit harsh for your own good. What remains is a mostly solid comic book adventure with an interesting story, mostly polished presentation and replay value galore, provided you can put up with beating the living daylights out of hundreds of Purifiers. Silicon Knights may not be treading into its Eternal Darkness territory here, but at least it's steering clear of its Too Human regime. This Destiny's got some weight behind it.

I completely applaud Silicon Knights for trying something new. A new and fresh face for the player, a unique way to engage the mutant powers, and a story that follows the current timeline of the X-Men universe were solid goals. Unfortunately it feels like Silicon Knights wrote the story on the back of a cocktail napkin and employed absolutely zero imagination in building the enemies we'd be facing. Repetition of literally everything in the game ad nauseum, a blocky-textured engine that couldn't hold a stable framerate under any circumstances, and unfinished and unpolished features round out a title that clearly needed another year of development. When I look over at my shelf and see games like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and its sequel, I can't help but feel like the X-Men deserve so much better.

Some have called X-Men: Destiny the spiritual successor to X-Men: Legends, but that couldn't be farther than the truth. They may share a few role-playing qualities, but Legends had tight gameplay mechanics and a nice multiplayer feature. It may be fun to mix up your mutant powers and test out new combinations, but that's about all X-Men: Destiny truly offers.

Before the game showed up at the office this week I didn't think we were going to be playing X-Men Destiny this year. All of the trailers shown coupled with lack of preview coverage made seem like it was going to get pushed to early 2012. This delay wouldn't have made it that much better, but it could have given the team more time to fix the technical problems that affect the game's low review score; it shouldn't have shipped in this condition. I really do like the customization options and the fact that it's a licensed superhero game where you're not playing as an iconic character. But at the end of the day Destiny is an absolute mess that isn't worth your time.

X-Men: Destiny isn't a bad game -- it just plays like an unfinished one. With a longer campaign, some choices that truly affected its story, more diverse gameplay, and much deeper customization options, it could've been great. As is, it's decent, but that's hardly a reason to spend $60 on it. If you're a true Marvel superfan, Destiny is certainly worth a rental, but I'd still recommend tracking down a cheap copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 over it any day of the week.

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