PAX Prime 2011 Hands-On: X-Men: Destiny - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 28 August 2011 / 5,162 Views
The X-Men are one of the staples of team-based superheroes in comic books. They started in 1964 and have been on a roll ever since. In video games, they've also found the most success when working as a team, whether it's the X-Men: Legends franchise or the Marvel vs. Capcom fighting franchise, these mutant fight (and sell games) best as a team.
With X-Men: Destiny, Activision and Silicon Knights are looking to bring the single-player adventure back to those merry mutants. I had a chance to get hands-on with the upcoming Marvel Comics romp at PAX Prime 2011. While the game is being billed as a "build your own mutant" game, that's not quite accurate. You choose between three characters that aren't canon to Marvel: a high school football star with no interest in politics, a young girl who's mutant parents smuggled her out of Japan, and a young man who grew up as a Purifier (anti-mutant radicalist). You then choose a power set: energy projections (pretty self-explanatory), density alteration (turning parts of your body into rock), and shadows (still not sure exactly what that does, sorry).
The demo begins at a peace rally in which the mayor of - I think - San Francisco is unveiling a statue dedicated to the late Professor Xavier and his constant strive for peace between mutants and humans. Then the Brotherhood of Mutants attacks, harming innocent bystanders and your chosen unwitting hero suddenly awakens their X-gene and mutant powers. The demo is dotted with Marvel Comics heroes and villians, from Toad showing you how to navigate a small platforming section, to fighting alongside Emma Frost.
The fighting mechanics in X-Men: Destiny begin very simply. One button is the light attack and one is heavy. Different combinations of these work as combos. The game is being described as an action RPG, so you earn XP as you take out enemies and complete quests, then increasing and tweaking your powers as you progress. Included in these skills are iconic powers from existing Marvel characters like Cyclops or Wolverine. You can equip one iconic power at a time and each comes with offensive, defensive, and utility powers. The left shoulder button was also labeled X-Mode, though I didn't get the opportunity to try that one out. So the combat begins simply enough but will deepen significantly over the course of the game.
As with many superhero games, collectible are scattered liberally throughout the game and there are challenges you complete in addition to the main storyline. The demo took us through one such challenge in which I had to take out several groups of Purifiers in less than 90 seconds. This demo also traversed only a couple different locales, though I'm told there will be many in the game.
In the end, this probably wasn't the best demo for a game. It seems like it was just the opening ten minutes, which doesn't give a clear picture of how deep the game can go or how varied the combat can be, but what I did get to play was fun. Here's hoping the rest of the game backs up the promises Silicon Knights are making.
This demo was for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but X-Men: Destiny is also coming to Wii and Nintendo DS at the end of September.
