X-Men: Destiny

In X-Men: Destiny, players are put in the roles of new mutants (Aimi Yoshida, daughter of X-Men contact Sunfire and sent to be under the X-Men's protection to escape Japan's increasingly violent anti-mutant campaign; Adrian Luca, the son of a deceased Purifiers leader who has been conditioned to believe mutants are evil; Grant Alexander, a UC Berkeley football player from Georgia who is unwillingly recruited by his friends to look for a 'mutant growth hormone') who choose to join either the X-Men or the Brotherhood of Mutants; from there, they make decisions for the ultimate destiny of their character. X-Men: Destiny places an emphasis on the players' freedom of choice, as opposed to a more traditional linear type of gameplay. This was supported by quotes in the official press release: "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".

Throughout the game, players collect power enhancements called X-Genes. Every X-Gene can unlock three types of abilities: offensive, defensive and utility. X-Genes can be mixed and matched as the player sees fit for a unique experience.

In X-Men Destiny San Francisco has been divided into human and mutant areas due to conflict. The player chooses from one of three mutant characters who have been created for the game: Aimi Yoshida, Adrian Luca or Grant Alexander (voiced by Jamie Chung, Scott Porter and Milo Ventimiglia respectively). Player choices affect which mutants become their allies and enemies through decisions made in the course of the story.

The game begins at a peace rally in memory of the deceased Professor X, seen through the Mutant Response Division's Chief Luis Reyes. Things quickly turn when the rally is attacked by an anti-mutant extremist group called the Purifiers, who are kidnapping mutants, not killing them as they usually do. The latent mutant powers of the player character are awakened, and they are forced to defend civilians from the Purifiers. The player character then meets with mutants from both the X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants and chooses to join a group as they go after Cameron Hodge, leader of the Purifiers.

Silicon Knights developed the game in collaboration with Activision after being green-lighted in 2009. Anonymous sources claiming to be former employees have said that the development team was split between X-Men: Destiny and Eternal Darkness 2, with management indifferent towards the former.

Denis Dyack, the founder of Silicon Knights, replied that the project budget was drastically reduced due to Marvel's ongoing acquisition by Disney. He has asserted that the perception of indifference had to do with resources at the developer being re-allocated in response to the shift in budget; the developers were not informed of the reduced budget so as to maintain morale. To remedy this, Silicon Knights spent $2 million of their own money to finish the project, which stunned Activision; on the record, Dyack admitted that this was a mistake. He also admitted in 2019 that he was not heavily involved with the development of X-Men: Destiny as he was distracted by the lawsuit against Epic Games.

X-Men: Destiny received generally negative reviews, with most pointing out the button mashing combat, lack of consequences to choices, and overall lack of polish. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 32.50% and 33 out of 100 for the DS version; 50.90% and 50 out of 100 for the PlayStation 3 version; 48.47% and 47 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version; and 40.44% and 36 out of 100 for the Wii version.

Joystiq (now a part of Engadget) criticized the sluggish gameplay and short story, stating the game feels unfinished and gave the Xbox 360 version 1.5 stars out of 5, ending the review with, "...at least you can quickly move onto something more pleasurable, like...burying a beloved family pet". GamesRadar, although praising the fan service of the game, echoed the sentiment of the game feeling unfinished, calling it mediocre and citing the graphics being similar to "an HD remake of a last-gen game" and although the boss battles received some praise, the majority of the fighting was considered dull and repetitive, awarding the game 2.5 stars out of 5. However, Game Informer gave the game a 7 out of 10. They praised the fulfillment of fantasy for mutant lovers that this game provides, as well as replay value, despite the questionable graphics.