Review: X-Men Destiny

Words by: Jennifer Allen | Posted on: Wednesday 12th October, 2011 | Filed under: Game Reviews, Retail Games.

Comic book and film tie-in games have had a tumultuous time over the years. For every Batman: Arkham Asylum, there are numerous Iron Mans making players prefer to watch paint dry than actually suffer such monstrosities. You wouldn’t think it’d be so hard to create a good game based on a great and memorable character or storyline. Unfortunately, in the case of X-Men Destiny, it feels like a herculean task with the title proving once again that comic book tie-ins are, more often than not, a bit rubbish indeed.

At first, it doesn’t seem so bad. X-Men Destiny tries its best by offering up a selection of choices thus invoking the ‘destiny’ part of the title. There’s that flicker of potential, creating false hope for the player. The problem lies in the fact that familiarity quickly breeds contempt. The game never really changes tempo, just throwing more and more enemies at the player in order to give them something to do. X-Men Destiny clearly wants to be an action RPG with its plethora of cutscenes (unskippable at that) and questions to be answered, plus a smattering of levelling up and an upgrade system. There’s even a form of control with players able to make choices in which they side either with the X-Men and Cyclops or the Brotherhood and Magneto. It sounds exciting doesn’t it? It’s not.

It’s a five hour hack n slash game that thinks the most thrilling way of spicing up the game is pitting the player against a wave of 100 enemies, swiftly followed by another 50. Yup, X-Men Destiny is ridiculously linear. The drab surroundings mostly consist of cardboard cut out esque buildings and the odd metallic underground base, all equally lifeless and uninspired. Players run around amongst the dull textures and environments with one key aim: hammer a couple of buttons near the enemy and watch as they fall. It’s predictable, repetitive and downright boring.

Within 30 minutes or so, you’ll have seen all the game has to offer when it comes to enemy types. A couple of bosses make things mildly more interesting but it’s still extremely unexciting. Some randomly included Challenge Arenas attempt to add some variety when ultimately it’s the same beat em up sequence.

The possible saving grace here is the upgrade system. It’s possible to unlock and level up new abilities in the form of X-Genes and costumes, theoretically creating the ultimate X-Man by merging together all the best elements of the various X-Men. It sounds thrilling. It’s not. Even on the hardest difficulty level, players will find themselves using the same few attacks over and over again until they’ve died of boredom.

Optimistically, a New Game+ mode has been included allowing players to give the game another shot while carrying over previously upgraded powers. The only reason I can see for playing again is to acquire all the achievements as some are dependent on choices made. The story won’t grip players enough to see what changes however.

X-Men Destiny is a game lacking in ideas. A co-op element might have helped matters but there’s no sign of that here. The illusion of choice is briefly fun but illusion is all it is. Choosing from one of three characters at the start doesn’t really change much other than the drab character model players get to witness as they progress through the game. It’s a sad day when such a fantastically imaginative world of comic book heroes can be implemented in a game so poorly, and that’s precisely what has happened to the X-Men yet again. Give it a wide berth unless you’re after easy achievement points.

About Jennifer Allen

Jen's been playing games for longer than she can remember (20 odd years) and has been writing about them for 4 years. In her spare time she likes to pretend she can train her guinea pigs to do tricks. She should stick to chocobos.

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