X-Men: Destiny is an action game with RPG elements putting players in control of one of three "newly awakening" mutants as they discover their powers, grow stronger, choose sides, and become embroiled in a tricky new conflict.

In a world where Magneto's whereabouts are unknown and Professor Xavier has been killed, a war looms between mutants and regular humans, made all the worse by a group of extremist humans known as Purifiers. In place of Professor X, Cyclops and Emma Frost have taken charge of what remains of the X-Men, and Mystique heads the remaining members of the Brotherhood of Mutants while she waits for Magneto to return. Into this mix, the player ventures through the game earning allegiances with either the X-Men or the Brotherhood, and attempting to discover who set the spark of the new looming war.

Since players play as one of three new characters, all traditional X-Men or Brotherhood characters are NPC's who offer missions, further the story, or take part in the player's beat-em-up missions and action. Players will meet and fight along side a large number of characters, as well as being able to obtain powers and costumes from them, including but not limited to Quicksilver, Emma Frost, Cyclops, Iceman, Pyro, Nightcrawler, Mystique, Toad, and others.

The new characters are:

• Aimi Yoshida – Now essentially an orphaned Japanese immigrant, sent from Japan to protect her from anti-mutant movements in the country.
• Grant Alexander – A college athlete who is largely ignorant of the mutant problem, politics, or any other social issue.
• Adrian Luca – Raised and trained as a soldier for the Purifiers, Adrian has essentially become that which he has been taught to hate.

The powers in the game are:

• Shadow Matter – Basically creates knives and ethereal bladed weapons around the character during attacks.
• Density Control – Creates stone-like features on and around the body of the character.
• Energy Projection – Blasts of balls of energy are fired out from the character. It’s the only natural projectile power in the game.

The gameplay largely revolves around a fairly standard modern beat-em-up formula with weak and strong attacks, and simple combos. Besides one of the mutant powers selected by the player, the character may also be upgraded with various extra powers from a variety of other popular characters, such as leaving a trail of flames when running, courtesy of Pyro, or increasing attack power with an upgrade based on Juggernaught. Powers cover defense, movement, and attacks as well as providing new costumes.

New bonus mutant powers are earned through completing objectives and side-quests, and upgrades may be purchased for the player's chosen mutant power with experience earned through battles. There are collectible profiles hidden around the game's environment with details on the mutants that appear in the game.