X-Men Destiny Previews

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Written by BuckGB on June 14th, 2011

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Though various members of the X-Men have appeared in several games over the past few years, it's rare for an X-game to show real ambition and experimentation they tend to be more mid-budget, mass market fare. But with X-Men Destiny, developer Silicon Knights (Eternal Darkness, Too Human) is looking to up the ante and deliver a unique experience in both narrative and gameplay, with a story penned by X-Men Legacy writer Mike Carey and a design that bridges the gap between straight action and RPG elements. And while the game perhaps isn't as lofty a project as, say, Too Human, the potential for an interesting take on the X-Men mythos is certainly present.

One of three new characters created exclusively for the game is a fifteen year old Japanese mutant named Aimi Yoshida. At the beginning of the demo, Aimi was chasing a courier who was racing through San Francisco's Chinatown carrying an important cargo. Naturally, it ended in a physical confrontation. X-Men Destiny's combat is what you might expect: using a range of fighting combos and light, medium and heavy attacks, it appears as simple as fighting your way through hordes of enemies.

X-Men Destiny's story is being penned by Mike Carey, writer of the X-Men Legacy book, and it revolves around three new mutants--Aimi Yoshida, Grant Alexander, and a third as-yet-unrevealed character. The tale begins at a San Francisco peace rally in memory of Professor X who, in the game's timeline, is dead. The rally goes poorly, which is pretty much the norm for any mutant-related gathering, and the character you've chosen to play as becomes involved in a conflict between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The events at the rally cause a chain of events that send your character on a journey of self-discovery and evolution that will tip the balance in the conflict between the two factions. How that all plays out is entirely up to you and the choices that you make throughout the course of the game.

We got a taste of how this is going to work in our demo, which showcased combat, exploration, power customization, choice, and a boss fight. The demo featured Aimi--the pigtail-sporting 15-year-old girl wielding energy attacks that are one of the three core powers you'll choose when starting the game--fighting her way through Chinatown in search of Gambit. This portion of the demo focused on showcasing the power mechanics as Aimi dealt with waves of thugs on her trip through Chinatown. Each character will have several options in battle. The combat fundamentals are light and heavy attacks that can be chained together into different combos to dole out damage that the game tracks.

As with his other works, Destiny has a darker tone and feeling to its narrative, which focuses on the concept that our destinies are unwritten. It is up to all of us to shape and mold our future based on the decision that we make and the actions that we take in the world. The E3 demo opens up with Aimi, a young 15-year old mutant, arriving in Chinatown, fresh off of her voyage from Japan. Aimi is just one of the three characters that players will be able to choose from before they set off in their adventure and the only one that we were shown in the demo. Aside from selecting your base character, players will also be able to select one of three separate (power sets). These sets will determine the style of play that you character develops over the course of the game. In this scenario, Aimi has been equipped with the (energy projection) set of powers.

The world that surrounds you is apparently a hostile one as members of a militant, anti-mutant group called the Purifiers begin assaulting you immediately upon your arrival. Almost immediately, groups of soldiers begin impeding your progress past your initial landing. The early parts of the level really show off the mission and combat elements of the game. Tasks / missions will be given to your player as your progress, giving you instructions on necessary actions that must be done to proceed through the different areas. One of the first tasks given to Aimi is to dispatch a set number of enemies, in this case 21, before she can move forward. This mission gave us our first good look at the game's combat system. Players are given a combination of both light and heavy attacks, which can be strung together to form different combinations. Depending on the strings that you put together, different finishing combos will emerge.

We got to check out a boss battle in the Pure Fire laboratory, where the U-Men (started by Sublime) are enhancing ordinary humans with mutant genes. In the game, John Sublime been kidnapping mutants and extracting their x-genes. In the battle, he takes some of them himself to challenge you and your mutant abilities. We saw him take the Colossus x-gene and grow in size (and ugliness). Our character Aimi then used the Quicksilver x-gene to speed up. You can also pick up some of the suits along the way if you have each character's offensive, defensive and utility x-genes. The full complement of abilities matched with the suit also give you bonuses. You have the option to change out what you're using at any time and mix and match x-genes from any character. There are three slots available for x-genes at a time, plus one suit slot.

After you take down this multi-stage boss (who in our fight has taken x-genes from Quicksilver and Surge in addition to the one from Colossus), you are presented with a cut scene (destiny moment.) Time freezes and you have to make a moral or philosophical choice that will affect the present and future of the game. We were told that, because of the wide variety of customizable abilities and destiny moments, no two gameplay experiences are the same. You can go back and forth as much as you want until the final act, where you have to align yourself with one of the two factions. In this particular moment, we have to decide whether to side with Gambit who is trying to build up a mutant army or help Colossus and the X-Men to destroy the stolen x-genes. When the group chose Gambit and the Brotherhood, we were told that this choice meant we'd be fighting super-goons throughout the rest of the game. If we'd made a different choice, they couldn't exist.

For instance, Quicksilver popped up at one point in the demo, and his main ability is super speed. By activating this with your X-Gene, you're able to speed up, a most useful tactic when you're surrounded by enemies or trying to get out of the way when objects are thrown at you. As you fight these enemies, you can build your health back up (if it diminishes) and pick up X-Gene power, so your abilities won't run flat when you need them the most. Establish enough attack patterns with X-Gene and you'll be able to unlock X Mode. Here, you reach a certain level of attack, able to obtain the skin and extra abilities of a character, such as Quicksilver or someone else you're teaming up alongside. These abilities vary, and they help keep the game fresh, where older X-Men games would've obviously run dry. While the combat tactics aren't entirely original, the elements being mixed in with X-Men Destiny do keep things interesting enough, and there's no shortage of Purifiers and other classic X-Men villains to face off against. Sadly, you'll be doing so on your own, as the game doesn't contain any sort of co-op factor. We were hoping for that, but Silicon Knight was shooting for a single-player experience to shine through here.

Speaking of that, X-Men Destiny also has an interesting precursor when it comes to guiding your destiny.probably where the game got its surname. Anyway, you'll find yourself making choices between the X-Men and whoever is opposing them. We don't mean enemies exactly, but characters that feel like they would do better damage on their own. Take for instance, the scenario we were shown in the trailer. The energy-dealing Gambit has broken off from the group, though his intentions stay true. At the end of a boss battle, you're forced to choose between helping the X-Men (led by Colossus) or doing Gambit a favor. How you choose can change your character over the game, and eventually you'll come to a crossroads where you're either for the X-Men cause, or somewhat against it. It's an interesting factor. The main level we were shown took place in Chinatown, and Silicon Knights has proven surprisingly able to creating an environment taken straight from a comic book. The level looks really well done here, and some of the visual effects, like real-time text that pops up after each fight and then evaporates, are cool. Some of the animations are a little flat, but there's still time to clean it up. The super abilities look nifty, especially during the boss fight.

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