The concept of joining the X-Men universe as a mutant character you define is a promising one, and one that Marvel fans everywhere would be interested on. This is the core concept behind Silicon Knights' X-Men: Destiny and whether or not the game will deliver on that front remains to be seen.

First announced last fall with a teaser trailer, X-Men: Destiny had its first details and screenshots revealed earlier, depicting the game's setting, its three playable characters and its large roster of X-Men legends in supporting roles. It wasn't until E3 2011 when we got up close and personal with the game and now at Gamescom 2011, publisher Activision has released another new video, showcasing some of the many mutant powers players can toy with.

The theme behind X-Men: Destiny is in its title, as players choose one of three pre-established new characters and send him or her on a journey defined by the players actions. Not only do players select and grow the special abilities of their character, but they help define what moral path they follow and ultimate, whose side they end up on.

Some of those powers, from Energy Projection and Density Control to Shadow Matter, can be seen below in the latest X-Men: Destiny gameplay trailer:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62X69DVIkEk

The feedback to the game up until now from our posts on screenshots and X-Men: Destiny trailers hasn't been the most positive. Some of the criticism attacks its dated graphics and animation (the screenshots below look better than the trailer) and the other issue some have is that if the game lets players choose their "destiny," they should be able to totally define their character from the ground-up, from costumes to body type, like players can in The Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect titles.

By pre-defining three character archetypes however, Silicon Knights is able to establish backstory and personalities for the three, giving them the opportunity to bring in voice talent from the likes of Milo Ventimiglia, Jamie Chung and Scott Porter to play the three young mutants.

[gallery columns="2" exclude="100507"]

Other story-based third-person, single-player action games including Batman: Arkham City, Assassin's Creed: Revelations look years ahead in visual style and gameplay so we hope X-Men: Destiny delivers on the story front since what we saw at E3 seemed to indicate a lot of run-of-the-mill repetitive enemy types and combat, which is worrisome in conjuction with the fact players cannot play co-operatively with friends like they could in the X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance games.

After Thor: God of Thunder and Captain America: Super Soldier failed to please Marvel gamers, we hope X-Men: Destiny can break the trend and prove our low expectations wrong.

X-Men: Destiny is set to release for September 24th 2011, for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and Nintendo DS.

-

Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes.