Magnus Jansen: It's a great question or a train of thought, because this was something that was very important to us from the start. Because starting out, it's no secret if you know anything about video games history that when that movie-licensed video games or any licensed video game can be - it can turn out bad if you're just looking for a quick cash grab or just a quick thing. And I'm super happy to say now, especially back then when we started, that in the first meetings with Lightstorm, James Cameron's production company, it was super clear that they did not want to do that, a bad game or a quick, "Let's just you redo the movie and so Hollywood hopefully can get some mon
It’s a good movie! Breaking new ground in the realm of visual effects while building upon the world James Cameron created in countless ways. It’s still pretty dry and predictable when it comes to storytelling and characters, but for the average joe it is more than enough for a film that provides rock solid entertainment value without inspiring much else. This brings us to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, a new open world game from Ubisoft and Massive that aims to faithfully expand upon the filmic world with new characters, mechanics, and ideas. After a couple of hours with the game though, it sure seems like a souped-up version of Far Cry .
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s small tech demo talked about a lot of flashy details in a very short amount of time. The video shows off the same scenes and views from the game’s reveal at E3 but offers technical explanations of how the game does what it does. While the title looked ambitious even after its announcement, finding out how the operations for NPCs will take place and how the world of Pandora is being brought to life for players to experience helps to reinforce how much of a feat it
Story-wise, the four main missions we did involved us aiding the Aranahe clan of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora in resolving an issue with the Klingor, bonding with our Ikran, taking down some flying machines of the Sky People, and assaulting one of their bases. Climbing the Ikran Rookery really put the environmental design to the test, giving us a circular chasm to climb and run up through where we interacted with some of the aforementioned flora, did a fun bouncing puzzle, and took giant leaps from place to place. It's such a simple task to give a player, but one that shines in terms of vertical gameplay des
Combat is also very easy , or it at least it was in the preview build. Human mechs that I recall taking out dozens of Na’vi in the films can be downed with three arrows or fewer than a full magazine of bullets in Frontiers of Pandora, turning outposts into a cakewalk. You are also very tall, so human enemies can be brushed aside with a light punch unless they’re hiding in the mountains or atop tall platforms aiming snipers at you. Even as a new species in a video game that could easily expand on the types of technology and weapons they have access to, Massive hasn’t done much here to take advantage of that. I can use some sort of cool launcher that can fling poisonous or explosive projectiles, but when it’s more of a chore to use than existing weapons, there wasn’t much of a point. Much of it feels uninspired.
Magnus Jansen: Right. So to me, when I watched the movies, especially the first one all those years ago, I came out of the movie theater and I had this feeling that I had been to a place, because the world was so - the crafting was so qualitative with such detail, not just in the technical expression and realization, but in all the backstory and the clans. And everything just was so well-made that it felt like a real place. And that's immersion - it's escapism, pure escapism. You're transported somewhere. And that kind of escapism I think is super powerful, and one of the big reasons I play video games. And to go to a place and be there, I think it's essential that it has a good balance of danger, but also just niceness to hang
Your mileage with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will vary depending on two things: your love for Far Cry, and your love for Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora Beginner Guide. If you’re the only person on this planet who loves both of these things more than anything, then I have some amazing news. Otherwise, this feels like a visually stunning open-world game without the mechanical or narrative depth required to help it stand out in a year of masterpieces. I want to see more from the full game, but only for the benefit of my doubt that it offers something beyond these lukewarm initial impressions.
The concept that NPCs, most of which seem to be animals so far, are able to understand player progression implies a relationship between the player and the world around them. The dynamic aspects of the game and the Snowdrop engine it is using already sound incredible but a truly evolving game is always exciting. Open worlds that actively evolve as players progress have become more common, the main conflict in The Witcher 3 is an example, but Frontiers of Pandora sounds like it may have taken this up a le