X-Men: Destiny

Overview

X-Men: Destiny is a third person action RPG developed by Silicon Knights. The game lets players take control of a new mutant as they guide him/her down the pro-Human or pro-mutant path. The game offers the player the ability to customize their power-set as well as their appearance based on other established X-Men and Brotherhood characters.

Story

X-men: Destiny takes place in San Francisco after the death of Professor X. The city has been divided into two areas, the Human area and the mutant area, and tensions between the two factions are running high. The player will choose from three protagonists and follow the story through their eyes. Based on the player's decisions, the story will change, and players can end up allied with or fighting against Professor X's heroic X-men.

The game's story will feature familiar faces such as Magneto and Wolverine as well as new mutants like Aimi Yoshida, a mutant Japanese ninja hell bent on revenge, and Grant Alexander, an up and coming American football player. The game's story is being written by Mike Carey.

Characters

Three new mutants are being introduced to the X-men universe to serve as avatars for the players. They are:

• Aimi Yoshida: Originally from Japan, Aimi was smuggled into San Francisco by her parents. Much like Magneto, she was the only member of her family to escape the cruel fate of a concentration camp, in this case a camp designed specifically to hold and murder mutants. With her family presumed dead, Aimi sets out for revenge.
• Grant Alexander: Grant is a college freshman and aspiring football player. He doesn't pay attention to mutant/anti-mutant politics and prefers to stay on the sidelines. Thus, he has little knowledge with which to arms himself when chaos breaks out.
• Adrian Luca: Adrian is the son of a deceased anti-mutant extremist. He was trained by his father to be a soldier in a purifying army which would wipe all mutants from the face of the Earth, and was taught at a young age to hate all mutants. He is out for revenge after his father's murder

Gameplay

Players are given the option of playing as one of three potential new recruits at the outset of the game. This initial decision immediately casts into light the game's emphasis on player choice over the more linear approach of prior X-men games. They will eventually be able to choose between joining up as a new member of the X-men. or as part of Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants. Like Mass Effect or inFamous, the story and gameplay are expected to change dramatically around the choices that players make throughout the game.

Players will be able to customize their mutant by using different upgrades, here called X-Genes. These upgrades are inspired by characters from the movies and comics, and will allow the player character to take on characteristics from other, established mutants. The X-Genes will come in three different types: offensive, defensive, and utility. Although specific powers have not been mentioned, it has been stated that players will be able to swap out different X-Genes at any time.

The game is played from a 3rd person perspective which is very similar to the look of Grand Theft Auto IV complete with a minimap on screen. The player used the X, Y, and B buttons to perform combos and moves while using the A button to jump.

Objectives appear in the upper right hand corner and are updated as the player completes them. An interesting characteristic of the gameplay is the large combat and objective text that appears and stays for a short time on the battlefield which can be likened to billboard signs.

Reveal

X-Men: Destiny was announced by Activision on the 7th of October, 2010 in a press release that reads as follows:

The all-new original video game casts players as new mutant recruits in a rich, branching storyline that features a deep element of choice and gives players ultimate control of their destiny.