X-Men: Destiny Preview

X-Men: Destiny

If it seems like comic book heroes are making a comeback in video games lately, that is just because lately there have been more than usual, with the second Batman game coming out, and Green Lantern and the upcoming Captain America: Super Soldier game, and then there is The Darkness II, which actually is based off of a comic but not really a comic book hero type game... Spider Man: Edge of Time rounds out the list, and then there is X-Men: Destiny. But back to what I was saying, it seems like games based upon comic book heroes are recently popular, but the reality is that they always have been, and if you look at the annual release schedules it is a rare year that does not see at least a few such games.

Now as to the new X-Men game, that is a rather unique case, because believe it or not the protagonists for this one are three unknowns! A trio of new mutants who are not super heroes (yet) -- Aimi Yoshida, Grant Alexander, and Adrian Luca (who turns out to be the son of a Purified but more on that in a bit) -- who sadly enter the world of the X-Men at a later period in time in which Professor Xavier (who is arguably the greatest of the X-Men though technically he only rarely ventured out as part of the team, being the behind-the-lines support type character/leader for the most part) is dead, and the entire mutant population of the planet is viewed with suspicion and hate.

It is into that world that you are thrust and, though your heart is in the right place -- you are after all at a rally to honor the Professor -- things go a little sideways and you find yourself smack in the middle of the rock and the hard place, or in this case the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Say, do you think if there really were a population of mutants and that whole hate thing was going on, that they would actually call themselves "The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants?" I mean, even bad guys tend not to see themselves as really, you know, bad-bad, so why would they pick a name that reinforces the notion that they are inherently bad people? I am just saying...

So, back to the game, as the story begins you find yourself stuck between the two mutant groups -- one good, the other bad -- and this is where you start to make decisions that basically control how the game plays out. And make no mistake, it is your decisions that largely guide the story.

The E3 demo for this one was a hand's off presentation by Activision, with its primary focus being gameplay elements like combat, exploration, customization of your powers, and a somewhat epic boss fight that really helped to make the battle system in the game clear.

The demo was played with the character Aimi Yoshida (voiced by Jamie Chung) -- a 15-year-old Asian girl-mutant who is cute as a button but in a sexy way that only Asian women can pull off but that when combined with her super hero outfit seems calculated to evoke you know, those sort of thoughts, which considering her age is hardly appropriate... Bad comic artist! Bad!

Anyway we find ourselves in the city of San Francisco -- which in light of the rampant anti-mutant feelings in the rest of the country offers itself as a safe haven and sanctuary for mutants -- where X-Men Cyclops and Emma Frost have gethered with the Mayor of San Francisco to unveil a giant peace memorial dedicated to Professor Xavier, who was recently slain by bad guy Bastion. As the ceremony begins an attack is launched from an unseen and unknown enemy -- and this is the perfect point at which to segue into the Game Play section...