Ubisoft has nailed the vibe of the movies in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Ubisoft’s long-awaited take on James Cameron’s epic movie franchise is much more than just a Sci-Fi Far Cry, even if there are a few exploratory niggles.
Cards on the table. I’m not someone you would typically call an Avatar guy. I like the original 2009 movie just fine, but failed to see what was so stirring about its rather rote story of good versus evil outside of the great VFX and its pioneering use of 3D – humans are bad and shouldn’t colonise native lands (even interplanetary ones)... Who knew? That said, ever since Ubisoft announced it was making a game set within James Cameron’s universe back in 2017, I’ve been curious to learn how the planet of Pandora would work as a video game world. Well, to very little surprise, after spending two-and-a-half hours with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora at a recent preview event, extremely well actually.
Set somewhere between the events of the first movie and Avatar: The Way of Water, this interquel sets you in the role of your own custom-created Na’vi orphan, initially raised by the menacing RDA before the time comes for you to escape and reconnect with the local tribes. For my demo I was warped roughly 20% of the way into Avatar: Frontier of Pandora’s campaign, giving me good cause to explore some of the wider areas found outside of the initial tutorial section and totally new locations not depicted in any of the films.
The first thing that hit me while playing was just how stunningly beautiful this version of Pandora is. In terms of pure fidelity and otherworldliness, the team at Ubisoft Massive have absolutely nailed it. Whether it’s the way the light of Pandora’s alien sun shines through the paper-thin green leaves as I explored or how certain plant life will react and change depending on my own movements, this is unabashedly the world born from James Cameron’s mind made into a video game. Granted I was playing on a top-end PC at the highest settings, but I could see why it’s also PS5 and Xbox Series X only.
The sights only got more breathtaking in one of the handful of main missions I was able to play, where I was required to ascend sky-high up to the banshee rookery in search of my own Ikran. An essential sequence in the first movie, much like Jake Sully’s own journey I had to chase one of these winged beasts all the way up to the top of the highest treetop, hoping it would accept me and choose me as its own. While the mission was mostly very scripted – I didn’t have a choice of which Ikran to select, only pick its name from a pre-existing list of options – it was wildly evocative.
Why Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's six week delay is a good thing
Holding the right trigger to raise my hand and approach the creature gingerly, the choral music building in the background… the mission capped off with me leaping off the edge and gaining the ability to fly. Ground traversal via mount will exist in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, but it wasn’t available in my demo. Luckily, I never needed it because wandering around on foot always saw me bump into a new form of nature or wildlife to see, and from that point onwards I could call my Ikran from nearly anywhere and instantly take to the skies.
I see you
When not flying through the air, or flying through the air, jumping off my Ikran and then having it catch me while falling (to put it more accurately), the bulk of the four missions I saw involved taking the fight to the RDA at bases, foraging for resources and playing delivery boy for my local Na’vi brethren. I know that from the trailers so far Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora gives off a lot of Sci-Fi Far Cry vibes, but this is far from the truth in terms of both presentation and its gameplay loop.
For one thing, there’s absolutely no waypoint ever displayed on your screen. Instead, you have to rely on your compass and what’s called Avatar senses, which functions not too dissimilarly to the detective vision from Batman: Arkham Asylum. Holding the R1 button helps give a general sense of where my next objective always was, and it was done this way (I imagine) to make the act of exploring Pandora more natural. However, there were a couple of times in my demo where looking for the necessary blue light indication proved impossible, to the extent that I had multiple journalists in my session ask me how I progressed past finding a particular resource.
It may have just been that the part of the game in which we were dropped wasn’t ideal, as I’m sure had I played a tutorial there would have been a better sense of where to go. That said, this did happen a few times in my demo, where I’d get lost amongst the leaves and foliage looking for a point I swear my Avatar senses just led me to, only to find that it was a few metres back from where I came. I just hope that in the ambition to emphasise exploration, there aren’t too many instances of getting lost.
Finally, at least from what I played, combat in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora seems like a far more straightforward affair. Ranged weapons appear to be far more useful than, say, the need to stealth, but I was only able to try out a couple of bows (one of which I crafted using gathered resources), a sling spear that could throw out projectiles and a traditional machine gun. Encounters didn’t pop up all that often, though, unless I was specifically required to take down an RDA base; the stress is very much more on hunting wildlife the most efficient way possible so as to not spoil the meat or hide – in keeping with the films, it’s all out of respect for Eywa, the sentient all-mother of Pandora.
So far, then, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora seems like an extremely faithful interpretation of the world it’s set in, both in terms of visuals and presentation, yes, but also in the general atmosphere. Stepping into the role of a Na’vi felt totally natural for the two or so hours I was able, especially during the Ikran portion, even if there were a few niggles with regard to how exploration works that I wish would’ve been made clearer. That said, what I got to play looked stunning and was extremely polished, sure to please a lot of Avatar and non-Avatar fans alike.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora launches on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC on December 7, 2023 .
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
