X-Men: Destiny Game Poster Image

X-Men: Destiny

age 12+
(i)

 

Moral choice aspect is overshadowed by lots of brawling.
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  • X-Men: Destiny Game: Screenshot #1
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What parents need to know

Positive messages

You need to make moral choices in the game, either by joining the X-Men (who have purer motives to their actions) or Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants (who work through a law-ignoring fight-fire-with-fire point of view). You can win either way, though, so the message presented by the game is mixed.

Positive role models

The X-Men team members you run into will talk about following laws, maintaining honor, and taking the more noble route (though they still engage in violence whenever the opportunity pops up). The members of the Brotherhood, who can also be your teammates (depending on the choices you make), espouse a more violent, far less forgiving ideology.

Ease of play

Gameplay is relatively easy. Multiple difficulty levels allow you to customize your experience quite a bit, but newcomers should be able to get through the full game on the easiest setting.

Violence

Through melee combat and energy blasting superpowers, you will fight your way through hundreds of enemies. While the enemies you defeat don't necessarily appear to die, there are tons of explosions and other destructive attacks from which survival seems a rather slim chance.

Sex

Some female characters wear skimpy outfits, bearing midriffs and cleavage. There's some sexual innuendo in a moment of dialogue where a character talks about wanting a "chick with super flexibility."

Language

Words such as "hell," "damn," and "ass" appear in the dialogue.

Consumerism

The game is a tie-in to Marvel's popular X-Men franchise, which includes comics, movies, cartoons, toys, and many other video games.

Drinking, drugs, & smoking
Not applicable

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that X-Men: Destiny is basically a fighting game in which you play a young superpowered mutant who can choose to either join up with the heroic X-Men or the villainous Brotherhood of Mutants in a fight against anti-mutant forces. Choosing to be a good guy or bad guy can alter your experience a bit, but there aren't really any hard lessons learned by choosing the less noble path. The game contains a whole lot of superhero fantasy combat and some sexual innuendo.

What's it about?

In X-MEN: DESTINY, you play as one of three young people who has just developed a superhuman mutant power. At the funeral of X-Men founder, Professor X, there is an attack by a militant anti-mutant group, the Purifiers. Two different factions, the noble X-Men and the belligerent Brotherhood of Mutants, battle against the purists -- but each with very different tactics. You have to choose which path to follow and which team to join.

Is it any good?

QUALITY

The storyline of X-Men: Destiny is interesting in that it lets you play as an original never-before-seen character, but allows you to interact with a slew of both popular and lesser-known characters from the X-Men universe. The course you choose doesn't alter the missions much at all, but will affect which other superheroes and villains you get to see and which new powers you can develop. There's a nice RPG aspect to the game that allows you to add new powers, suits, and equipment to customize your hero. But the story is basically linear with no real room for exploring. A little variety would have gone a long way here, since the majority of the game consists of brawling your way through large masses of enemies (which can grow tiresome after a while). At the same time, the simplicity of it all makes this a very nice entry point for newcomers to action gaming.

Families can talk about...

  • Families can talk about the moral ramifications of the choices you can make in the game. If you choose to follow the route of the Brotherhood of Mutants, do you think two wrongs make a right? Do you believe there are times when the end truly justifies the means?

  • In what ways does choosing the X-Men's route feel like a better moral choice?

  • What is it about superheroes games that make them so much fun to play?

Game details

Platforms:Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Price:$39.99–$49.99
Available online?Not available online
Developer:Activision
Release date:September 26, 2011
Genre:Action/Adventure
Topics:Superheroes
ESRB rating:T for Mild language, Mild suggestive themes, Violence

This review of X-Men: Destiny was written by

Christopher Healy
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are conducted by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
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Teen, 13 years old Written byIronRunningAnvil August 13, 2012
age 10+

Great game, which is based around morals

Ok so, to start. You can either be in the brotherhood of mutants (with magneto etc...) or with the xmen (cyclops etc...). Also this game is totally based around morals in which choices you make, and the choices you make affect the gameplay. There are countless decisions you have to make and each one you make will make you more towards the faction of the brotherhood or the xmen. You make choices on what power's your character has and at the beggining of the game you choose out of 3 characters, one being a girl. This game (if you decide to be a member of the xmen) does not really moralise brawling although there sure is a lot of it. Of course the brotherhood are against humans so that's pretty obvious that being part of the brotherhood is more de-moralistic. Language wise, there is no problem as it is not bad at all. The women in the game (only one or two) do not cover themsleves completely up, but nothing is visible and they are still fairly covered up. So thats not a problem. One of the only problems is that gameplay is not that long. That said though you might as well play it through boh sides as even though they are similar missions, they are still different and there is more variety in what you do. Overall i would rate this game a 4/5. I do not agree with the bad reviews this game has been getting and i think that this game should be given more thought to. Hope this review helped.
What other families should know
Great messages
Too much violence
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Teen, 17 years old Written bypokemonlover17 May 12, 2012
age 10+

Best game ever

Great game! I love the game and i think anyone 10 and up should immediately buy it.
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Parent Written byparent78949359 May 12, 2012
age 11+

11 and up

I am a parent of kids ages 9 and 11. My sons love the game and told me that kids 11 and up should play it. I watched them play and I agree.
What other families should know
Great role models
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