The Avatar movies have always made me want to live in this world, and I know that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is not the first Avatar game to be released as a video game title, and the truth of the matter is that I was not encouraged to try this game at first because of the urgent desire to try it on current gaming standards. Finally, the dream came true in my experience, which has continued for many weeks since the game was released.
Before starting my review of the game, I would like to point out that I was very late in publishing the review of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and I would like to offer a sincere apology for that. I have faced some health conditions that affected my ability to play, in addition to that I wanted to give the game its due and provide a comprehensive and objective review, and I hope the review will be worth the wait.
Developer: Massive Entertainment from Ubisoft. Publisher: Ubisoft. Game classification: Adventure, Action, Sci-Fi, Mecha. Platforms: (PC) (PS5) (PS4) (Nintendo Switch) (Xbox Series S|X) (Xbox One).
Launch date: 07-Dec-2023. Launch price: $69.99 Playtime: ~20 hours. Review version: (PS5).
Great photography with a story that isn’t the best
The story events at the beginning were somewhat slow. My fears were about to come true at the beginning of my first experience with the game Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Despite this, the game gradually got rid of this problem and carried, at its core, stories inspired by the films, whether the first part. Or the second, which depicts the story of the Na’vi people of the Sarentu clan discovering their true homeland.
In general, my opinions about the story itself are that it is not that strong, but it is acceptable to some extent. The presence of the famous Avatar characters increases the enjoyment of the characters relatively as I interact with the blue characters that I see in the movies, but this does not negate the importance of having a story that is stronger than the one in the game. The resources were better than what I actually saw, but the problem was rooted in the game, such as the characters, with whom I had no affection at all.
Great dedication to game missions
The story offers good main missions with good division. The journey begins with a set of main missions that showed me the world and how it works on a daily basis. The second chapter begins with tangling relationships with humans while the Na’vi clans lead the events of the third chapter to convince the Sarentu clans to join the ranks of the resistance.
The tasks provided a great variety of ideas, but I cannot handle the repetition that plagued the game many times, but as I said, the game world and its stunning design in terms of visuals or the stage itself, gives these repetitive tasks a good mind and I was able to enjoy it to a great extent without any problem.
The game’s depiction of battles, but with a studio imprint The Massive It gave a great feeling of how much dedication was put into the overall game design, putting in all the details you saw in the Avatar movies back in the day.
As for the side quests, they were very repetitive and I was frustrated with them due to their general lack of resourcefulness, but if you are a fan of the world of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, you will greatly enjoy them and even give you some unique pieces and tools. In terms of events, they do not add anything new to the story, but are very superficial, unfortunately.
Play style
The game focuses its gameplay on combat in general, and therefore the game offers some weapons that are naturally similar to human weapons, whether they are advanced weapons such as rifles or somewhat old ones such as spears and arrows. The events of the game take into account the clans hiding in the presence of humans, so some weapons give votes. Almost non-existent to complete the task as discreetly as possible (spear and bow).
In the game, you can carry up to 4 weapons at the same time, which provides great freedom during combat, whether you want to complete the mission secretly or in front of everyone, and here the game will not restrict you to anything at all.
Infiltration is often much better because the difference in terms of weapons and capabilities is largely in favor of humans. This does not put you under force or anything like that, as you were able to complete similar tasks in completely different ways because the game offers great dynamism in the method of executing the task.
Great design for the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora skill tree
Both in form and content, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora offers good level-up content as each skill set is placed in a tree branch to convey the feel of the game world as closely as possible in every aspect of the game. In terms of the content itself, the game provided good elements in combat, health, or even with the taming of animals… Yes, the animals here are tamable.
Some of the skills in this tree give you abilities to deal with the famous Ikran from the Avatar series, which is very interesting. In any case, the tree provided me with a special and unique experience throughout my adventure with the Na’vi.
In the game, you can upgrade weapons, clothing, and appearance in general, because the upgrade is not limited to abilities here, and here the RPG element is clearly evident, so that the game proves itself as one of the best games that possess this element during 2023.
The world and graphics
We cannot forget the most important element in our review today, which is the game world that is attached to the movies. Apart from that, it is extremely rich in details and visuals that give a wonderful atmosphere. The world during the day gives off its cuteness, but the night gives you darkness and reveals its fangs with the appearance of some strange creatures.
All of this is well served by the wonderful graphics that the game has. The trees and plants have a dazzling appearance and I felt that at some point I was walking in a museum of the beauty of the scenery and how attractive it is. It is a visual shift in Ubisoft games without a doubt. Unfortunately, this level was not without flaws, as the game relied on the engine in its scenes, as all Ubisoft games did, and we do not know when the company will get rid of this life-killing approach in the dialogue scenes of its games, but this did not contain the facial expressions that were very elaborate.
Technical performance
With the introduction of this technical shift for Ubisoft in particular, the PS5 device on which we tested the game was able to master it well while providing the performance and accuracy mode, but the game suffered somewhat in difficult moments such as explosions and difficult technical scenes, but this is something that does not happen often, so it does not There is no need to worry about this aspect on PS5.
As for the precision mode, it helped push the performance forward with visuals that were slightly less accurate. I cannot forget the wonderful support for Dualsense techniques from the game, as some puzzles relied entirely on these techniques to solve, in addition to the sound effects that were managed professionally. Severe.
Arabic language support
It is worth noting that the game is translated into Arabic for menus and dialogue texts, and this is not something new for Ubisoft and its presence in the region, but the translation was plagued by some technical problems, as this matter spoiled the experience from time to time with some literal translation of some dialogues, but its presence in general will help. Who is not good enough at understanding dialogues conducted in English.
The last word
Positives
- The gameplay was very fun.
- The skill tree provided a great experience.
- The world design was amazing, as if I was walking inside a painting.
- Great depiction of the Navi people.
- Great technical performance on PS5.
- A major technical shift in the visuals of Ubisoft games.
- The game content is very huge.
- Chain dynamics in task execution.
cons
- The story was average and suffered from a lack of depth and emotion in the characters.
- The quality of the dialogue and cinematic scenes was poor because they were made on the engine and not in a separate cinematic format.
- The world was huge, but it lacked the diversity and detail it deserved.
- Arabic language support needs more scrutiny.
Very good – 8
8
Very good
The game presented a dazzling depiction of the world of Avatar, which we saw in more than one work of art. The playing style was more than satisfactory, and its charming world truly amazed me, but with a superficial story and characters that needed more emotional depth, but in general this did not prevent my enjoyment of the game, which appeared to have tried hard to take on a challenge. Making a game with a heavy legacy, “Avatar”, from a first-person perspective.
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