For the second major release this end of year 2023 following Assassin’s Creed Mirage—which unfortunately divided both press and players—Avatar Frontiers of Pandora faces double pressure: allowing Ubisoft to conclude the year on a strong note, while also honoring James Cameron’s masterful films. The filmmaker is not only an exceptional technician but also a highly demanding director. He entrusted Ubisoft with adapting the Na’vi people’s adventures into a video game, and after several years of anticipation, we were able to test the game for nearly 3 hours. Here are our impressions from hands-on play.
With “Avatar Frontiers of Pandora,” Ubisoft aimed to explore other regions of Pandora. However, development encountered significant delays, leading to the game’s release a year after James Cameron’s “Avatar 2.” One can speculate about what impact simultaneous releases would have had on the game’s performance alongside the box office success in December 2022. Nonetheless, we cannot change the current situation and must focus on what Ubisoft now offers: an immersive virtual tour of Pandora.
Certainly, let’s clarify: Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is indeed an open-world game, offering a vast environment where players can freely explore various unique biomes on the back of Ikran. During our gameplay session, we focused primarily on following the main storyline and largely remained within the Kinglor Forest, situated beneath towering floating mountains. This forest is home to the Aranahe tribe, skilled weavers who instruct players in hunting and flying techniques. Among our most memorable experiences was attempting to tame an Ikran within these majestic mountains. Visually and musically, the game delivers a genuine sense of grandeur, vertigo, and freedom. The atmosphere created by Ubisoft Massive effectively mirrors the disorientation experienced while watching James Cameron’s films, which is one of the game’s greatest strengths.
Controlling one’s Ikran is quite enjoyable, and there are numerous activities to engage in while flying. One can accelerate, perform barrel rolls (similar to those in Starfox) to avoid enemy fire, freely look around, use weapons to shoot, feed the Ikran for healing, and utilize enhanced Na’vi senses to locate points of interest. There are no limitations when riding an Ikran; players can truly explore wherever they wish.
As for combat and gunfights, the game also promises a significant amount of variety. Players can master multiple combat styles with firearms from the RDA (Human faction) or utilize weapons from the Na’vi arsenal, which may be more basic but are actually more effective and powerful than bullets. It is important to note that a Na’vi individual is larger, stronger, and more resilient compared to an average human, making melee combat a viable option, especially against large mech units that can be defeated using bare hands. This approach also helps in conserving ammunition since the game does not allow players to pick up arrows from fallen enemies, which can be considered impractical. Nonetheless, encounters are enjoyable, and we tested infiltrating an RDA base to retrieve data or sabotage pipelines. It is advisable to survey the area for better situational awareness before initiating any attack, as utilizing Na’vi senses allows scanning zones to identify enemy numbers, patterns, and weaknesses.
The game provides several approaches, allowing players to opt for stealth if they prefer avoiding direct confrontation. However, the enemy AI remains a weak point, similar to what was observed in recent titles such as Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Through simple experimentation, it becomes clear that human soldiers exhibit very limited and almost defective behavior; they often fail to notice much and quickly abandon pursuit of an intruder. Unlike in Assassin’s Creed Mirage where this significantly impacted gameplay, Avatar Frontiers of Pandora allows players to largely overlook this flaw. Nonetheless, Ubisoft’s approach to stealth gameplay still leaves room for improvement…
Our expectations were quite positive following a 3-hour hands-on session with “Avatar Frontiers of Pandora.” The game impresses with its interpretation of Pandora, offering complete immersion. Developers at Massive Entertainment recognized the importance of accurately recreating James Cameron’s universe for players. In terms of gameplay, it promises variety through an interesting mix of earth and air exploration, knowing that exploring Pandora’s diverse biomes will be done both on Ikran and Equidius backs. These creatures won’t just serve as modes of transportation but also extend combat against humans. The game allows our character to switch between RDA weapons and the Na’vi’s more rudimentary yet powerful and precise arsenal, addressing previous AI issues observed in “Assassin’s Creed Mirage.” Although enemy AI still appears flawed, the richness of Pandora is expected to overflow into ideas, staging, and gameplay elements. We will have to wait until next December to confirm these hopes.
