X-Men: Destiny (2011) is an X-Men video game developed by Silicon Knights and published by Activision.After a series of natural disasters, plagues and economic downturns, mutant-human tensions are at an all time high, with a mutant-hating organization called the Purifiers springing up all over the world. Professor X is killed by the mutant-killing machine Bastion, and the X-Men splinter apart after the mansion comes under attack. San Francisco has begun segregating humans and mutants into separate areas of the city. At a human-mutant peace rally, hell breaks loose when Magneto (allegedly) launches a terrorist attack, bringing the world to the brink of war.The player takes control of one of three characters created for the game, whose mutant powers manifest for the first time at the peace rally: Aimi Yoshida, a Japanese girl who was smuggled to America by her mutant parents to protect her from harm; Adrian Luca, a Purifier soldier-in-training coming to terms with the realization that he is one of the mutants he so hates; or Grant Alexander, a small town boy from Georgia with dreams of being a college football player. The player can choose from one of three powersets (density control, energy manipulation and shadow matter) and use "X-genes" to gain the powers of various characters from the franchise.With these newfound powers, the new mutant must survive in the devastated San Francisco, unravel the conspiracy bringing humans and mutants to war, and choose their destiny by joining either the X-Men or the Brotherhood.
Adults Are Useless: Somewhat averted. While a lot gets dumped on your teenage shoulders, the members of the X-Men and Brotherhood will sometimes join you in battle and offer helpful advice.
Canon Foreigner: Aimi, Adrian, and Grant. On the NPC side of things, the head of the MRD, Commander Reyes.
Interesting, in the comics the head of O*N*E, a mutant control division created by the US Government after M-Day, was a Commander Reyes, the elder brother of Cecilia Reyes.
Die or Fly: The Player Character discovers their powers while defending themselves from the chaos of the rally attack.
Digitized Hacker: Bastion survived Magneto destroying his body by uploading his consciousness onto an orbiting satellite. All of the Purifier's tech has been outfitted to be a viable body for Bastion in the event that he needs to save himself again.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Magneto uses his magnetic powers to do this literally to several Purifier mooks (and the player's character, though he/she survives thanks to Nightcrawler's intervention) early in the game.
Enemy Mine: Due to the threat of the Purifiers, the X-Men and Brotherhood spend most of the game in an uneasy alliance.
Bonus points for Adrian, if you ally him with the Brotherhood - He goes from thinking mutants should be exterminated, to a believer of mutant supremacy.
Fighter, Mage, Thief: The three powersets (density control, energy manipulation and shadow matter, respectively) are essentially this.
Good Colors, Evil Colors: The Purifiers use a lot of red and white, reflecting bloodlust and zealotry.
Gratuitous Japanese: Aimi throws in the occasional "arigato" and "konnichiwa" in her dialogue to remind the player she's Japanese. Strangely, she does not do this when she meets Surge, who is also a mutant from Japan.
Hearing Voices: Adrian is taunted by the voice of his dead father throughout most of the game.
Instant Expert: You kicking ass within *seconds* of discovering your powers.
Possibly justified by the fact that Emma Frost is in telepathic communication with the player character immediately before their first fight, so she could easily be guiding them along.
LEGO Genetics: You can swap X-genes in and out freely.
Mike Carey: A veteran X-Men writer and writer of the game.
Moses in the Bullrushes: Aimi's mutant parents smuggled her out of Japan in order to protect her from the Purifiers. Aimi's actually angry about this, seeing the whole thing as selfish Parental Abandonment.
Not to forget that mutant hatred and killing are worse in the USA than anywhere else in the world. It's like sending a black guy to a KKK meeting.
Aimi pops up in San Francisco at a "let's all be friends" mutant rally, and says early on that she got shipped out so she wouldn't wind up in a prison camp. There are worse plans than going to Cyclops's backyard and hoping he's paying attention.
Similarly, Pixie's Welsh accent is conspicuously absent.
Not Helping Your Case: Despite evidence to the contrary, Magneto and the Brotherhood were not responsible for the terrorist attack on the peace rally. However, they don't really do anything to challenge these accusations. Also, early in the game, Magneto lifts part of a suspension bridge and drops it on San Francisco in order to kill an army of Purifiers, causing massive collateral damage.
Power Copying: By collecting X-genes, the player can use the powers of various other mutants and add them to their arsenal. The villains also figure out how to do this, though through considerably more unethical means.
Pragmatic Adaptation: Events before the game are somewhat paraphrased for the sake of not bogging the player down with hours of explanation. For instance while the game takes place in San Fransisco (like the comic) the Marvel Civil War story arc leading to it was conveniently left out.
Turning Wolverine back to normal gets you the Logans Run achievement.
Shown Their Work: Even with certain issues, the game has many subtle story elements were present for the fans to squee over, such as Pixie actually chanting the spell that lets her teleport and most costumes keeping with the then-current comic designs.
Though the Pixie bit creates a case of Fridge Logic. They clearly show it to be a magic spell, but we are later informed she can't teleport when near a device to surpress her mutant powers. Later in the story, a key plot development hinges on characters somehow genetically copying her mystical teleportation ability, rather than the mutant teleportation abilities of, say, Nightcrawler.
Though it works out, since Nightcrawler's effective range is in the area of two miles, and he needs to have either been to the destination before, or have a really good description to prevent him from telefragging into a wall. Pixie has no limitations (She once teleported to Cytorrak's throne room on another dimensional plane).
Spin Offspring: While never made explicit, it's heavily implied that Aimi's father is the X-Man Sunfire.
Implied, hell. They have the same last name & the credits list the character as Sunfire.
Which only makes her backstory confusing; if her father was Sunfire then getting her to a safe place would be simplicity itself.
Voices Are Mental: Bastion has his own voice when he takes over Reyes.
Waif-Fu: Aimi's fighting style. Give her Density Control and the right X-Genes, and she becomes a Glacier Waif.
Wolverine Claws: It's obvious, Wolverine being in the game and all, but also doubles as Spikes of Villainy for Aimi in her Brotherhood Suit, which has all of her fingers and thumbs covered in a curved claw, as well as a large spike on each foot.
You Are What You Hate: Adrian is a Purifier-in-training and despises mutants. Turns out he is one, though he had no way of knowing until the events of the game.
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