AVATAR: FRONTIERS OF PANDORA
Ubisoft’s Avatar game looks like a Far Cry clone so far
LOOKS FREAKING GORGEOUS WHEN THE CAMERA PULLS OUT TO THIRD-PERSON
This might sound weird as one of PC PowerPlay’s resident FPS enjoyers, but is anyone else disappointed to learn that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is an FPS? I always imagined running around Pandora while looking at the impressively snatched waist of a Navi, but the game we’re actually getting looks much closer to Far Cry.
But I don’t know, something felt off about the snippets of combat I saw in a behind-closed-doors look at Avatar at Ubisoft Forward. Guns looked generic and sounded kinda weak. At several points the player fires an RPG at an RDA walker and it just sorta topples over. The bow looks kinda fun, though I’d love to see the Navi’s super alien strength expressed by, perhaps, arrowing guys so hard through the chest that they’re pinned to the tree behind them. Maybe that’s possible, but I didn’t see it.
One part of Avatar that I’m almost guaranteed to enjoy: flying my banshee and riding my not-horse across the lush Pandoran forests. The first-person portions of the demo were pretty enough, but Frontiers of Pandora looks freaking gorgeous when the camera pulls out to third-person for traversal.
HUNTER GATHERER
I guess it’s hard to get excited about an open-world Avatar game when I don’t know what that actually entails when you’re not killing things. What does an average hour of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora look like? Hunting and gathering, for sure, but I hope there’s more. I tried to prod Ubi about side activities and exploration mechanics, but they were only willing to talk about the fruit picking and cooking, which to be fair, do sound kinda interesting. Ubi says gathering is deeper than just vacuuming up resources as you walk by; you’re rewarded for finding the highest quality plants or fruits in the wild, and for gathering them ‘properly’ without damaging the plant.
You can cook the stuff you find into meals that grant buffs, but interestingly, you’ll have to experiment with ingredient combinations to discover the best recipes. Sounds a bit like recent Zelda games, though I doubt my Navi will hum catchy tunes while grilling up veggies. I really want to know what it’s actually like to get around Pandora. Am I following a yellow waypoint or line on a map, or can I navigate the Pandoran plains with visual landmarks? That was one of my favourite parts of Ubi’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, so fingers crossed there.
Frontiers of Pandora largely takes place at the same time as the second Avatar movie on a different continent of Pandora, but it’s the events of the first movie that kick off the game’s events. You play as a Navi that was raised by humans, ordered to be killed once Jake Sully started a war, and narrowly saved and put into cryosleep for 15 years. A little convoluted, sure, but how else are you going to explain a Navi who loves to use human guns?
Don’t expect the Way of Water to enter the equation, either: Frontiers of Pandora seems to primarily follow in the footsteps of the first movie with a predominantly forested environment. I’m not terribly impressed with what I’ve seen so far, but Ubi will have more opportunities to show it off in the coming months. The whole game apparently supports two-player co-op, for instance. I’d love to see that in action, because even the most milquetoast of games become instantly better with a buddy. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is out sooner than you’d think: December 7.