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The Avatar movies are a lot of fun, but I’ve never been blown away by the original storytelling. Instead, the translation of familiar formulas into a vibrant and visually fascinating alien world elevates the films. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora follows suit, with first-person exploration and combat that borrows from franchises like Far Cry. But here, a huge, detailed fantasy world brings the experience to life, making it more engaging and sometimes unnecessarily obtuse, but always with a nod to the source material.
While coinciding with the films, Frontiers of Pandora tells a standalone story about a small group of young Na’vi raised by the evil and reckless RDA, and one individual’s gradual rediscovery of their heritage and connection to the nature. The franchise’s obvious environmental themes are accentuated with a strong indictment of child separation and forced re-education among indigenous populations. Developer Massive Entertainment has done a phenomenal job capturing the unique fictional nuances of the Na’vi, adding several new wrinkles in the form of new clans and individuals. It’s a real treat for fans of the franchise that adds substantially to the story.
The game involves running and jumping through dense jungles, plains, and caves while learning the many secrets of Pandora’s flora and fauna. The richness of the ecosystems is unmatched in any game I’ve encountered. I had fun learning the properties and potential of the many strange living things in my path. As I did so, new skills and equipment enhanced my Na’vi’s potential and I steadily climbed to mastery.
The visual presentation is magnificent and does justice to the many colors and majestic natural backgrounds of the films. Surprisingly, the lush and detailed world was both a joy and a hindrance. Sometimes the images on the screen are so obscured and difficult to analyze that the game becomes visually confusing. I often got lost in the overwhelming stimuli, often missing key objects or clues amidst the clutter.
Moving through these richly presented landscapes is a lot of fun, thanks to a generous path system of climbing, jumping, sliding, and environmental objects (like plants that bounce you into the air) that combine to memorable effect and lead to a smooth, parkour-like style. navigation Enhancing exploration is your dragon-like Ikran mount, allowing you to fly across the vast map with ease and speed.
Along the way, combat with bows and assault rifles adds punch to the action, often accompanied by the ability to take a stealthy alternate route. I found both experiences good but not great. Too few tools and skills allow for stealthy approaches, so taking my chances with a quick and direct approach is usually faster. The battles themselves are intense and lethal, but rarely rise above an attempt to peek from behind cover points to potshot the bad guys. Active close-quarters combat aligns more closely with the expectations set by the movies, but this approach isn’t usually viable.
Hunting, gathering, crafting and cooking are central features. There is so much to experiment with and sometimes creating that great piece of chest or fish plate can be exciting. But I eventually found the breadth of options overwhelming. Dozens of different tree barks, mosses, animal skins, and pine cones, many of which can only be optimally collected at certain times of day or weather conditions, eventually began to swim together in my mind. The game practically requires you to engage with these mechanics to make meaningful progress, and I often found that it got in the way of the narrative pace or became too frustrating to locate the things I wanted.
Between action and exploration, Frontiers of Pandora throws a lot of minor mechanics and systems your way. Again, these often detract from the fun as often as they add to it. Hacking power systems and constant doors, tedious research to find forensic clues in a scene, tracking down multiple coins and favoring clans – there’s so much here that it sometimes distracts from what’s really fun: the action and discovery of a stunning alien landscape.
Still, I found a lot to love about Frontiers of Pandora, including the welcome addition of two-player online co-op play, which allows players to enjoy the game with a friend. Over time, the many intertwined features began to make sense, and I overcame any frustrations to find a remarkably large and rewarding game. Enter the vast wasteland of Pandora with patience and a willingness to make a measured march toward understanding, and I suspect you’ll discover what I did: a flawed but still laudable addition to this growing sci-fi universe.
Source: gameinformer.com