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A beautiful expansive game that does justice to Avatar | Review - Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

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✨Overview

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora takes players on an immersive journey into the world of Pandora, expanding upon the lore established in James Cameron's epic cinematic universe. As a first-person action-adventure game, it combines the lush yet dangerous environments of Avatar with the open-world design reminiscent of Ubisoft's Far Cry series. Ubisoft is really the perfect company to make Avatar video games with their experience on Far Cry.

Released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S, the game introduces a unique blend of survival crafting RPG elements, first person combat, open-world gameplay, and coop multiplayer.

🟩Pros

+Does justice to the Avatar lore and IP
+An immersive cinematic experience
+Emphasis on exploration; with detailed plant and animal life
+Lots of elements that blend well together (survival, crafting, exploration, FPS, RPG)
+Varied progression system with different skills, abilities, and gear upgrades

🟥Cons
-Unessential narrative
-Performance issues across all platforms
-Slow start

⭐️Score: 7/10

📖Story and Premise

Set in the year 2146, Frontiers of Pandora follows the story of a Na'vi orphan raised by the Resources Development Administration (RDA) as part of The Ambassador Program. Players awaken years later, discovering their origins and joining the Resistance against the RDA's exploitation of Pandora. Because your Na’vi were raised by humans instead, this essentially resolves the plot conundrum of players having no idea about being a Na’vi but playing as one. The character instead learns the culture of his people alongside the player.

The narrative includes elements from the films but remains a standalone experience. It’s not a masterpiece of a narrative like the films and it doesn’t make the game hard to put down when you are playing it, but it’s a decent side/parallel story to the main films and for sure those who loved the lore of Avatar would appreciate a story that expands that carefully crafted lore of Avatar even more.

Graphics and Art Style

The game's visuals showcase a stunning adaptation of Avatar's psychedelic vibrant color palette and sci-fi aesthetic. The environments, ranging from dense jungles to open plateaus, are all visually impressive. The audio contribute to the immersive experience, dynamically shifting between ambient sounds and intense combat music. It’s not as impressive as the CGI of even the 2009 film, but it’s pretty darn close for real-time graphics and a video game. There are minor visual issues here and there, such as upscaling artefacts and poor LOD models, but nothing bad really stands out.

🎮Gameplay

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is basically FarCry in an Avatar skin, but it handles the Avatar IP (Intellectual Property) with respect. You play as your custom created Na’vi, roaming around Pandora, hunting fauna, gathering flora, crafting gear, taking on side missions from NPCs, and fighting tyrant organizations.

There is a simple parkour system that allows players to easily climb up cliffs, trees, and jump huge gaps, and it generally works well for the player and I would say even better than Assassin’s Creed’s parkour system that sometimes works against you. Here you have more freedom to move and you’re not lock to specific animations. All of these aspects mesh well together that coalescence into a good immersive Adventure Avatar game.

Despite being FarCry in an Avatar skin, Frontiers of Pandora slightly deviates from Ubisoft's traditional open-world design by emphasizing exploration, even on the guided mode. Meaning no obnoxious quest markers and quest objectives that serve as guides only and not direct coordinates.

They treat the lore with respect as they actually took their time to introduce the different Flora and Fauna of Pandora, and you can even analyze these plants and animals and there will be a dedicated information page to each of them. This is like playing a much focused version of No Man’s Sky. The game really transports you to Pandora.

⚔️Combat

Combat in the game offers a mix of Na'vi and human weapons, providing a range of options to players. Strategic thinking and Stealth play becomes crucial, especially when facing multiple opponents or mech suits. The game successfully incorporates intense combat sequences, such as facing down multiple mech suits, creating memorable moments for players. The gunplay combat is serviceable and fun, but I wouldn’t be lying if I said it’s pretty mid for an FPS game, especially since you can’t even aim down sights.

⏫Progression

The progression system involves resource hunting and gathering for materials like animal hides or rare plants to upgrade your weapons/gear, and leveling up via XP to assign points to a skill tree. You also unlock Na’vi special abilities like the double jump that adds another rewarding element to the progression, allowing players to traverse the diverse landscapes efficiently. However, the game does suffer from a snail paced storytelling during the start of the game, with lots of cutscenes, back and forth running, with no action in between.

📊Technical Performance

While the game presents a visually striking world, technical issues have marred the experience for me. I played the Xbox version, and there’s frequent hitching, FPS drops, and blurry scaling all over the experience. I’ve read that the same goes for other platforms such as the PS5 or the PC version. The hope is that future patches will address these issues, but as of now, players without high-end PCs may find the game challenging to enjoy.

⚖️Conclusion

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a varied and immersive experience, offering a visually stunning open world with diverse landscapes and compelling gameplay. Sure, the narrative is not essential to the movies and adds nothing of notable importance; the performance is currently on the unoptimized side, but beyond these drawbacks lies a wonderful, beautiful expansive game that does justice to the Avatar IP. Its quality is closer to a masterpiece than it is to a movie tie-in experience.

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