I’ve gone and blue myself

Listen, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again Avatar the film was done best by FernGully: The Last Rainforest back in 1992. Some of you have no clue what I’m talking about but it was an animated film starring Samantha Mathis, Robin Williams and freaking Tim Curry as the villain. In the film the fairies of the forest shrink a human logger down to help them combat the lord of pollution. At its essence it was a tale that was meant to educate about the dangers of pollution, and it largely works. Fast forward and James Cameron has given us Avatar, where the giant blue race of Na’vi is being infiltrated by humans who are mimicking them all the while other humans are stripping the land for ‘unobtanium’ a rare and terribly named mineral that is only found on the planet of Pandora. One human decides enough is enough and forever joins the Na’vi and pushes the human forces off the planet.

In the game Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora the action takes place on the planet Pandora, but on a continent removed from the story events depicted in the original film. Players are introduced to themselves as kids, it appears the humans have captured the children in hopes of making them ambassadors for the GDR. In the process they indoctrinate the children with the “greatness” of humanity while making them forget their heritage and where they came from. Of course, not everything goes according to plan and the insurrection started by Jake Sully has forced the GDR to pull off planet for the time being and the faciality the children are at is under attack. Due to the kindness of one of the humans posing as a Na’vi, the children are stored in cryo storage for what she hopes will be moments but in fact ends up being years.

MSRP: $69.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $69.99

When players awaken, they will create their Na’vi using the deep character creator tool they will choose their looks, pronouns, voice and more. Like most Ubisoft games, Avatar takes players through a playable tutorial where they learn about crafting arrows, using bows, the impressive speed and agility of the Na’vi and more. The comparisons to Ubisoft’s Far Cry are apparent at almost every turn. The crafting elements, foraging and cooking are all things that Far Cry has done for years. Not to mention the need to be stealthy and use arrows for stealth skills, as I said the comparisons are neigh endless. Using the bows and other Na’vi weapons all feel great in action, even when you are using them on the back of your Ikran (more on that later). Oddly enough the human guns all feel weird to use, which I think makes sense. Players can’t ADS on any of the human guns and that is due to the size difference between the Na’vi and humans I think, it isn’t explained but its awkward to wield these weapons so I just stuck with the bows and arrows.

One of the facets of this game that I haven’t discussed is the graphics, and I am here to tell you that this may be the most beautiful game that Ubisoft has ever released. Pandora is just wonderfully designed from the bioluminescent jungles, to the nooks and crannies of the flying mountains, the developers who have designed this world has certainly done James Cameron justice. For any true fans of these films who want to really live in this world, this is the game for you. Flora and Fauna are everywhere and can be sought out using the ‘hunter vision’ which will allow players to get information about them. Most of them just fill out the hunting log, but a lot of the items can be used for food, crafting and ammo.

As good as Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is, and to be clear I think it’s a great video game; there are a number of issues I have with it. For starters the way it chooses to mark objectives, well it sucks. There are two modes that players can choose from when playing Avatar and that is Guided or Exploration with the idea that one would give you markers and such while the other lets players just find things at will. That’s not really the case, quests are given and can be viewed in the journal at any time and they will offer some clues as to where to find the location. But players will need to press the button to use their hunter vison, which is a cheap imitation of Batman’s ‘detective vision’ (and I only call it cheap because instead of it filling the screen it instead is only useable in a circle in the center of the screen. It functions like a spyglass that players will have to move all around the world in search of this glowing orb that signifies the location where players need to head. Yes, this is the experience on guided or exploration and honestly its just too much, but if you want to really feel like a Na’vi; I guess now is your chance.

The other issue is the food system, while I get being immersive in this world and for that matter, I guess having the cooking and gathering mechanic makes sense. But nothing is worse than being in the middle of a battle and getting the pop up about being hungry and then getting killed while trying to navigate to the food items. Yes, it was my fault for not eating before the fight but to be honest I don’t be looking for a food meter in my FPS games. I will say there are TONS of dishes and meals that can be found if you are into that sort of thing though. The gathering is not much of an issue, and I really like the mechanic used. Instead of just punching a tree, or pressing X to collect; when players pick up fruit, or some other material they will play a minigame of sorts. The left stick needs to be held at just the right angle while players ‘pluck’ the item with the right trigger. The vibration will be more intense if the wrong area is chosen and players can damage the item. In Avatar extra points are awarded when harvesting items based on time of day or weather and how pristine it is, meaning you completed the minigame successfully.

The last thing is all the talking this game does, again if that’s your thing then if you like it, I love it for you. But for me, I just wanted to play the game. Instead, there are many cutscenes where players are treated to the history of Pandora, while yes was interesting but I don’t need every single Na’vis life story that I come across. And it doesn’t help that everyone is named something exotic like T’elk or Eutwa, it’s just a lot to take in. Especially when the game doesn’t really open up until players get their Ikran, which is the flying bird that the Na’vi use and this quest doesn’t come along until about 5-7 hours in the game. But I will say that it is worth it, being able to summon the bird and fly anywhere at anytime is amazing and the views are breathtaking from the air. But this is probably a good place to mention that this game is level-based meaning while you can fly anywhere, you won’t be able to survive anywhere until players are leveled appropriately.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a fantastic game even if it leans heavily on its Far Cry roots. Graphically, Pandora is simply stunning to behold, whether running on the land and jumping from vines or soaring through the flying mountains; the visuals are just breathtaking at almost every angle. And while it has solid combat gameplay when it comes to the native weapons, I still can’t tell if the awkwardness of the human weapons is on purpose or not. Not to mention the awful objective markers, hunter vision and hunger system. Oh, I didn’t even tell you that you have to keep your Ikran feed as well. It’s all rather frustrating because I enjoy my time with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and it would be a fantastic game but for those issues above. It all adds up and just amounts to being frustrated with the game which is devastating because there is a fantastic game buried under all these mechanics.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.