VIDEO GAMES: X-Men Destiny Goes On Sale To Mostly Awful Reviews!

Metacritic has compiled the first batch of reviews for X-Men Destiny, and as you can see from the ones I've selected below, the verdict is not that great! As you can see, some are slightly better than others, with even the best of reviews still struggling to find much to praise the video game for. I've included links to each review so you can read them in full, but here are the highlights.

Add in some middling environment and character visuals on top of the lackluster gameplay, and X-Men Destiny has some big problems. Five years ago, I would have a lot more positive things to share about the game, but action titles have advanced in that time, and Destiny doesn’t keep pace. Even so, as an X-Men fan, I got a kick out of all the character cameos, not to mention the extensive customization features. Take the game at face value – as an opportunity to be an overpowered superhero for a few hours – and you could enjoy the ride.

Personally, I enjoyed the art, the character design, some of the levels, the story, and the amount of choice offered, even when that choice didn't matter. The gameplay is mindlessly annoying and repetitive in its button-mashing – no more so than say a God of War game, but at least God of War mixes it up and looks cool doing it. I stopped having “true fun” about halfway through X-Men: Destiny and sadly finished out of obligation and a curiosity to see how the story would unfold. Hopefully, if you’re a bigger fan of the X-Men franchise than I am you’ll have a better time. Casual gamers should probably skip – this is one for true X-Men aficionados.

While the game was billed as an “action-RPG”, calling it that would be a gross overstatement. Sure, it satisfies a few terms of similarity, but even with an upgrade system thrown in and some hidden collectibles, this is very much a straightforward action game with extremely light RPG features (not much more than you’d find in, say, God of War). Even for an action brawler, this one is as mindless as they come.

Those expecting a well told, immersive X-Men experience will shudder at its chunky character designs, shabby presentation and stilted dialogue, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy myself with it. Unlike movies, it's rare that games are so bad they're good. The rubbish ones are usually so unplayable that they're not worth plodding through. X-Men: Destiny is the exception that gets just enough right to be fun, while being sloppy enough elsewhere to be good for a laugh. It's the best kind of disaster.

Before the game showed up at the office this week I didn't think we were going to be playing X-Men Destiny this year. All of the trailers shown coupled with lack of preview coverage made seem like it was going to get pushed to early 2012. This delay wouldn't have made it that much better, but it could have given the team more time to fix the technical problems that affect the game's low review score; it shouldn't have shipped in this condition. I really do like the customization options and the fact that it's a licensed superhero game where you're not playing as an iconic character. But at the end of the day Destiny is an absolute mess that isn't worth your time.