Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora shows Ubisoft at the top of its game, a development powerhouse that has used its expertise to the fullest in this new game. A harrowing tale of heroism and awe, it will guide you through wondrous regions and epic combat scenes that not only mimic the movies to some extent, but also give you some of that exciting emotions of being a pivotal part of it. No matter how long and hard you look at it for imperfections, this remains a remarkable creation that deserves to be thoroughly explored, enjoyed, and appreciated for its beauty and excitement.
A Brave New Pandora
Taking place in the same timeline of the movies, the two that have been released so far and the many more that are in the works, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora doesn’t break new ground in terms of gameplay loop and process. Such thing is extremely rare these days, new and exciting ideas hard to come by, but there’s no denying that it offers an enticing mix of systems that work in the marvelous world of Pandora. There’s crafting, hacking, gathering, affinity systems, and quite a lot more, all synchronized to this strange new land that is prone for exploration and a countless number of stops to stare at the vistas and admire the impressive fauna and flora. This is Pandora alright, a world filled with exciting biomes mixing ingenious creativity and jaw-dropping beauty.
Under the hood, you may notice some similarities with games such as the Far Cry series. A vast open world that slowly unravels as you tackle main and side missions, many places to go and get lost within, a general lack of boundaries to your ambition apart from the natural hazards and enemies that will put a stop to your reckless wandering. The freedom is there, but abusing it is a death sentence and also a way to destroy the flow of the story, so by all means indulge in it, but swiftly return to the regular quest progression for the best immersion.
Your journey in Pandora starts with a fairly simple character creation system, with male and female choices, and a handful of selections for each element, surprisingly low on variety and impact. The best part is the skin pattern and bioluminescence, but the differences between most options are barely noticeable. Overall impressions on this area are much more positive as you progress, unlocking interesting cosmetics for your avatar – pun not intended – and weapons that finally make you look more distinct, always within the realm of credibility according to the standards defined by the original work and lore. In other words, the characters look terrific and a far cry from Ubisoft’s previous attempt with 2009’s James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game.
Navigating Pandora is something that quickly grows on you, but you start on training wheels as you learn about the abilities of the towering Na’vi you embody. This agile being is fast and resourceful, and knowing how to react and use the environment is something you will be taught in the first hour or so, but the adventure has more in store later on. There’s an innate feeling of parkour, as you run fast and jump far, but as you develop your abilities via skill points, the apparent initial limitations give way to a leaner and meaner justice machine. Higher jumps, mid-air boosts, longer falls without damage, the speed and accuracy at which you climb mountain faces… At a certain point, it all clicks and becomes seamless, as you run and jump like Pandora has always been your “regular” world.
As immersive and appealing as the environment may be, there is a mixture of perks and hazards to be found. Not all plant life is harmless, some of them with defensive mechanisms that burst as you walk nearby, hurting you in the process. Others will act as natural trampolines to catapult you to unreachable areas, and vines always come in handy to climb or descend, often very useful for narrow escapes.
The sense of magnitude and feeling minuscule is emphasized by the ascent to the skies to finally connect with your Ikran, an impressive journey upwards that seems to go on for a lifetime, the impressive scale sticking to mind in every jump and vine climb, the taming process a lovely and endearing one as we approach it gently, only to be picked when the game allows us too, scripted as expected but no less exciting for it.
Not everything is perfect, however. Some areas are very hard to navigate, with dense vegetation cluttering our vision, no visible ways to climb some cliffs – although this is an understandable middle-ground for the sake of game progress –, lacking a vine right when we needed it the most. This results in occasional big drops and a certain frustration as the marker is showing us the objective straight ahead, but the obvious path rarely is the right one.
Marked Confusion
The map of Pandora is rich and divided into various biomes and several activities to engage on, from searching for plants that boost your health and reward skill points, to discovering totems, friendly Na’vi who may give you an assortment of items, eliminating RDA floating platforms, and more. Activating your senses is a good way of finding points of interest nearby, or your current goal in the distance, and setting up markers on the map is a recommended action. However, the way this feature works isn’t intuitive, asking you for double the effort that should be needed. Track a quest and using the senses should highlight it far ahead, but for some reason it doesn’t show up on the compass, forcing you to manually place a marker on the map for it to trigger. It’s unnecessarily cumbersome and a mere quest tracking should show the location on the compass immediately, as to avoid a frequent use of the sensing ability.
For the rest, the user interface is mostly tidy, giving the game’s graphics room to breathe and shine. It’s not entirely practical though and seems to be tailored to consoles and gamepad use, using a scheme that makes it somewhat convoluted to switch between weapons and food, and selecting an item to eat. It feels like it’s asking for more fingers than the human hand sports, a tradeoff for the clean display that you will eventually get used to.
Some prominent places double as fast travel points, which is a great thing considering the ground that you must sometimes cover from one mission to another. But the game becomes a very different thing when you form a bond with your Ikran, which you can name from a short selection – I went with Storm, but it’s odd to see something like Carol there – and also pick its pattern. Now that you can fly, with some natural limitations for the sake of progress, you get a new look at Pandora and its wonderful landscape, with amazing vistas as far as the eye can reach, only slightly hampered by some occasional events of asset pop-in that don’t tarnish the magnificent work put forth by Ubisoft.
Your Ikran is a remarkable means of transportation and allows you to travel fast and often safe, but you’ll have to be careful around RDA aircraft and aggressive flying creatures, not to mention RDA facilities with anti-air turrets. A specific skill tree expands on the Ikran’s abilities, from collecting fish if you fly low near a lake, to executing some impressive barrel rolls to dodge enemy fire. These moments are truly remarkable, very cinematic, movie-like, and the way the explosion blasts miss you by the skin of your teeth is both exciting and visually stunning, not to mention making you reconsider your approach into these heavily guarded RDA areas.
This brings us to the part where you must free Pandora from the RDA advances by all means possible. Their military and mining facilities are polluting the land nearby, destroying the flora and killing every animal around, with the darker areas and gigantic clouds of black smoke visible from afar. The approach you take is up to consideration, ranging from stealth to an all-out attack, but seeing that you are outnumbered, outgunned, and in search of specific goals to deactivate or destroy, a reckless take is a surefire way of getting killed. Your senses allow you to spot the enemies even behind walls, and your bow can take out a soldier without alerting the remaining ones, especially the AMP Assault units, relentless mechs that take a lot of firepower. Dealing with their weak point is the best choice, using a stun grenade and immediately rushing to break the glass and eliminate the pilot.
After destroying a facility, the land around it heals and you can occasionally return to it and grab some resources, so this is something that is not only required, it also rewards you in various ways, including skill points for completing a mission.
The Na’vi can use their bows with natural grace and efficiency, along with a staff that throws explosive projectiles, but they aren’t shy with human weapons as well. The rifle and the shotgun are two examples, also providing alternative bullets that you can pillage from the RDA; arrows, however, can be crafted with the natural resources you find in Pandora. Gunplay is fun and competent, not too surprising considering the pedigree of the developers, and some of the organic events add spice to it, such as Pandora’s wildlife entering an RDA camp and spreading chaos, temporarily distracting them from our stealthy attacks.
While on the Ikran, the combination of flying and shooting at aircraft or even foot soldiers is quite a thrill, one that is executed with such excellence that at times it feels like we are starring in our own movie – even the seamless landing is incredibly beautiful to look at. There is also a land mount, the Direhorse, which isn’t bound to you as your Ikran bond, instead being used as you find them and manage to smoothly tame one.
Na’vi On a Mission
The vast map at your hands has several activities to distract you from your main quests. Collecting fruits and raw materials to eat and craft is imperative, as satiating your hunger is important if you want to keep your health points replenishing. There is a cooking system in various places, including Na’vi camps and other bases scattered across the land, providing different temporary buffs. A few minigames are included, such as finding the right direction to pluck a fruit, hacking a terminal by following the path in a small circuit board of sorts, or gently following the circles with the controls as you concentrate to a tune.
Respectfully taking an animal’s life is what the Na’vi do, using the resulting resources for their subsistence. Learning about their vital points and hitting a clean arrow shot yields the best results, while using a gun destroys the meat, but sometimes it’s out of necessity due to the threat. This activity ties with the scent idea, as you use your senses to discover animal scent trails to follow, acting as a true hunter in search of prey.
Contributing to a clan with offerings increases your affinity level and opens a world of rewards to you, including cosmetics and items of superior quality from the members. Crafting better gear is another option, with mods to add into weapons for additional effects of various types, and you will need it for the bigger battles ahead.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora should take you around 40-50 hours to finish, similar to recent Far Cry games, based on the expectation of players trying to complete most, if not all, optional quests. While a more straightforward playthrough should more than halve those numbers, the plain truth is that the adventure has some tougher challenges where your character level and gear quality really needs to be par for the course. Exploration and Clan missions bring rewards that are valuable to your progression, from skill points to better equipment, making some of these worthy of achieving, not to mention to experience the lore and the new quest chains that you would otherwise miss.
A cooperative mode is available online only, featuring cross-platform support, with the host’s progress being the one that is shown when the session begins. Unlike other games where the guest’s progress is partially wiped, here it is saved and you won’t need to replay any missions completed in coop, besides keeping everything you collected. This is naturally a great way to enjoy Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, expanding on the idea of a clan of warriors instead of the single fighter that we are if going solo.
In purely technical terms, there isn’t much to criticize here, apart from the occasional pop-ins and very rare instances of a few rocks flying above the ground.
A Journey to Remember
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a mesmerizing journey into a place that is very much unlike anything out there. It’s fantasy and technology boldly clashing and offering a sprawling, remarkable world that deserves all sorts of acclaim. The more you explore, the more you realize just how amazing this planet is, the windy peaks making for some jaw-dropping vistas, the parkour navigation and Ikran flying a contrast that ironically couldn’t work any better.
You may search for flaws and futile comparisons to other games; you will find that exploration can be frustrating when you seem irremediably lost while trying to climb a mountain, or when you are tired of placing markers because the compass doesn’t work as it should. But all of that is forgotten when you realize you are playing a game that is a worthy addition to the movie saga, a tour de force that doesn’t transform the genre but tickles your senses in a way that few games do. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a fantastic way to close a year that more than delivered in terms of quality videogames, an escapade into a virtual place where magic and positivity must persist – so much more could be said about it, but dive into it and let the magnificent sights and sounds speak for themselves.
Score: 9.5/10
Pros:
- A visually stunning expansion to the world of Pandora
- A melting pot of ideas and inspirations that work together nicely
- Great exploration possibilities and vast areas encouraging parkour
- Ikran flying and shooting is both fun and exciting
- Cross-platform cooperative mode
- Good campaign length
Cons:
- Some asset pop-in issues
- Compass use could be more intuitive
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
Venture into the heart of the lush forest… and demolish some bamboo! Why? Because you can.
