X-Men: Destiny Review

There was a short period of time when video games based on licensed super hero games were actually decent and some even quite good. Whether it was the Spider-Man games on PS2 and Xbox or The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, the action hero genre was filled with action. That trend unfortunately has not been the case this generation, with the exception of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

X-Men: Destiny is a further regression of a tired line of super hero games. You select one of three previously unknown characters to the X-Men universe: a jock football player, a rough and tumble type, and a small Asian woman. Each character is uninteresting and uninspiring. It was kind of a neat idea to let players take on new roles, but they could have at least focused on one person rather than try to please everyone with stereotypical characters.

As far as gameplay goes, do not expect a cutting-edge title. This game is both overly generic and easy. I got an achievement before even starting to play the game. The combat is extremely shallow with a basic attack, a charged attack and a special ability. With little to no mission variety, you have pretty much played everything this game has to offer after just an hour of play time.

There are a few other broken parts of the game that I would like to mention before closing this review. You can focus on enemies, but all it does is highlight them. If you actually want to hit them with an attack, you have to face in their direction, pretty much taking away the point of a lock-on feature. Graphically, I don’t even know why they bothered with the fire effects when it just looks like wallpaper. While not in any way inhibiting gameplay, it sure makes the developers look lazy.

I write this review with some reservations about my criticism simply because Silicon Knights used to be a developer that was exemplary in the industry. Eternal Darkness was one of my favorite games on GameCube and their remake of the original Metal Gear Solid was equally brilliant. X-Men: Destiny is a huge fall from grace for the studio. Hopefully they will manage to bounce back with the release of an original piece of work. At best this is a rental, but even that is stretching it. A true disappointment after the successful reboot of the movie franchise.