Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora must be more than just Far Cry
The gameplay shown from Ubisoft’s upcoming Avatar game shows potential, but I hope there’s more going on under the hood than what we’ve seen so far.
The world of James Cameron’s Avatar is beautiful. I feel like this is important to state right up top, because knowing this helps make Ubisoft’s decision to develop a game based on the IP make a lot more sense. The publisher certainly didn’t undertake the project to be timely, because for all the teasing and unknowns, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was only recently fully unveiled as part of Ubisoft’s big Summer Game Fest blowout presentation.
Most surprisingly was the fact that, you know, the game looked good. But it also looked like a Ubisoft game.
What I mean by this is that Ubisoft, in recent years, has very much stuck to an established rulebook with regards to franchises like Assassin’s Creed, The Division and Far Cry. These are absolutely massive open-world games jam-packed with lots to see and do, but as a result are somewhat guilty of often losing their identity. Heck, Assassin’s Creed had lost so much of its own identity in recent years, Ubisoft is going back to basics by making Assassin’s Creed Mirage a modern tribute to the 2007 original. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora should also have its own identity, but so far the Far Cry inspirations are very clear.
Could a Far Cry game with the skin of Avatar be a fun time? Absolutely it could. But surely the last thing James Cameron would want is for his tech-pioneering magnum opus to look and play like the shadow of something that existed before when translated into a video game. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora certainly looks to be trying something different, not actually placing you in the role of an Avatar but rather a trueborn Na’vi trying to regain trust in their fellow natives after being adopted (and betrayed) by human adopters. In practice, though, I’m worried that gameplay is made up of elements we’ve seen before.
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Electric blue-galoo
The main culprit for making me feel this way is primarily the first-person perspective. I was lucky enough to attend a behind-the-scenes presentation of the game that took place prior to the main Ubisoft Forward presentation. And as soon as gameplay depicting your character climbing branches, jumping trees and taking down human enemies within a base using a gun was shown, looking around the room I could tell I wasn’t the only one who thought “Far Cry?”.
The Ubisoft representative tried their best to highlight how Pandora was different to say, Kyrat, Hope County and Yara (all previous fictional locations in recent Far Cry games) but I can guarantee you the new Western Frontier location will be made up of several markers pining for your attention. I’m happy to be proved wrong as we venture ever close to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s release on December 7, 2023, but so far it’s all so familiar. The game overview trailer revealed that you can even enter a sort of detective mode, used for marking RDA enemies prior to planning out your mode of attack.
Like I said earlier, a Far Cry game with an Avatar skin isn’t necessarily a bad thing, particularly since Far Cry 7 seems pretty far off at this point. I just know it can be a lot more. Admittedly, Ubisoft have paid some attention to the idea that your player-created character is a “child of two worlds”, having been born as a Na’vi but raised by humans. That said, the Far Cry comparisons can still be drawn in this regard, because your ability to use native weaponry like spears, bows and darts puts me back in mind of 2016’s Far Cry Primal – one of the more inventive entries, looking back.
Violence is blue
Fortunately, unless Ubisoft are holding out on us, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s gameplay so far shows no indication of a mini map. This is great because it’s an approach that’ll do better in encouraging players to discover the new Wester Frontier region on their own. Then you have the inclusion of Banshees, whereby the perspective shifts to third-person as you engage in sky combat. This looks to be very different to the type of experience Far Cry usually provides. This, combined with the focus on protecting local wildlife rather than harvesting it, leaves me hopeful that there’s plenty more to be shown of the game than what we’ve seen so far.
So, it can’t be avoided, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora looks a lot like Far Cry, albeit with some extra trimmings. I honestly want more from a game that’s been cooking for as long as this, particularly one based on movie franchise that itself has been so creative and forward-thinking. I couldn’t help but look at Star Wars Outlaws, another recently revealed Ubisoft game also made by Ubisoft Massive, that does appear totally fresh compared to the type of game it’s made before. It’s not just Assassin’s Creed but Star Wars. As such, I’m hopeful the same will be said for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora when it releases.
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