
	Platform Playstation 3 Genre Role-Playing Publisher Activision Developer Silicon Knights ESRB T (Teen) Released September 27, 2011

- X-Genes are pretty cool - You'll meet lots of characters from the comics

- The differences between both paths aren't very drastic - Combat is slow and repetitive - Missions are boring and repetitive - Feels behind the times

Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Uncaged Edition (360) Review: Marvel Ultimate Alliance (360) Review: Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (360)
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X-Men: Destiny

Score: 5.0 / 10

I loved Silicon Knights and honestly, Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes were two of the only reasons why I eventually bought a Gamecube back in the day. To top it off, they're a Canada-based developer and being Canadian myself. Their last game I was really looked forward to was Too Human which not only took countless years to develop, but ended up being a disappointment, considering how long it took to make. I was willing to look past this bump, but unfortunately Silicon Knights seems to be in a decided rut with this one.

X-Men: Destiny starts you off at a peace rally that follows the events after the death of Charles Xavier. The player picks one of three characters: a college freshman as

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well as a football fanatic named Grant; Adrian who is the son of an anti-mutant extremist (Adrian obviously being a mutant himself); and Aimi, a mutant girl that was smuggled out of Japan. The rally is then (presumably) attacked by Magneto and all hell breaks loose. Purifiers (an anti-mutant organization) show up and start capturing mutants.

You run into different

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members of the X-Men and Brotherhood throughout the game, but I didn't really get the feel of being a part of either team, but rather being the lackey. I know that they're supposed to be the vets that know what you're doing while you play as the new guy (or girl), but even still I just didn't feel like my character was anything but a pawn sometimes. I think this is due to the decisions you make throughout the game that will make you more liked by either the X-Men or the Brotherhood. I guess it was easier for Silicon Knights to make you more neutral to both teams. The weird thing is, besides a few side missions, choices don't mean a whole lot and you practically get the same game no matter who you side with. Just don't go in expecting that your decisions will affect your game as much as the inFamous games.

At the start you get to pick your power. You have three different choices which are Density Control, Energy Projection and Shadow Powers. Throughout the game you'll learn new moves and gain experience points by collecting yellow orbs while blue recharges your powers and green replenishes your health.

Siding towards the X-Men or Brotherhood can also affect your powers, but in the end you're doing the same thing over and over again which is just button mashing.

Out of all the powers, I would say Shadow Powers are the most fun to use with its combos and unfortunately Energy Projection is the most lacking of the three.

Controls aren't horrible or anything, but combat just doesn't feel very smooth. I think it's just the pacing of having a swarm of enemies coming at you all at once all the time making it feel very repetitive. I wouldn't be fair if I kept acting so negative about everything with the gameplay because there are some cool aspects to it.

You can acquire X-genes throughout the game which will give you a powers and abilities similar to popular characters like Iceman, Colossus, Wolverine, etc. Although a little bit silly being able to do this considering that you're not being Rogue, it works for the game (especially when being a character you don't really care about breaking out of continuity since they do not exist in the comics) and is one of the game's better features even though I would still rather be controlling actual characters from the X-Men or Brotherhood.

The graphics are okay. It's not as bad as some have made it out to be although it's still nothing exciting. Some of the designs look pretty cool and some look pretty bad, but sometimes like in the case of Emma Frost, her hair will go through her body which is a huge distraction. The music and sound effects are pretty good and even though some of the voice acting is questionable, I was overall happy with most of the voice actors.

It's really hard to encourage people to go out and buy this game, even the for the hardcore X-Men fans. Although some fanboys will just be happy with seeing some of their favourites in the game, I feel most will be disappointed in not being able to play as their favourites and by the very repetitive action.

- J'Tonello

(November 14, 2011)