Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Genre: Open-World, First-Person Shooter, Action

From the moment that Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora was originally revealed, it’s been regarded as a Far Cry clone with an Avatar skin – a first-person shooter with open-world elements and a checklist of things to do. After playing it for review, it’s essentially that, which is unsurprising considering that it’s from Ubisoft (but developed by Massive Entertainment, best known for Tom Clancy’s The Division games).

That said, the game does include elements from other games like Horizon Zero Dawn to spice up the gameplay, seeing as this game is set in the universe of James Cameron’s Avatar.

Horizon Forbidden Pandora

For the core gameplay in Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora, it feels like Ubisoft took the framework of their Far Cry games and added elements from games like Horizon Forbidden West. In Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora, you do have access to guns like assault rifles and RPGs, but you’re meant to focus on your Na’Vi weapons such as bows and arrows and spears and slings. There are multiple versions of bows, including heavy bows for more damaging shots and the like. How is the gameplay like Guerrilla Games’ Horizon franchise? Well, the variety in the gameplay comes from being able to craft different types of ammo/arrows by using resources that you find in the world like sticks and leaves. It really feels like a combination of the combat in Far Cry and the Horizon games in that way.

What confounded me when I was playing Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora was that even though it mostly followed the same Far Cry tropes (such as clearing out enemy outposts), the game confusingly omits one specific mechanic that’s already a staple of every modern Far Cry game; being able to perform stealth takedowns. It’s funny because the game does encourage stealth, especially for clearing enemy outposts. However, stealth gameplay in Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora is basically just shooting enemies with arrows without having other enemies noticing you doing that. I know Na’Vi are meant to be peaceful pacificist but when you’re already killing enemy humans in the hundreds with guns and arrows, why not include the ability to perform takedowns? The stealth gameplay feels rudimentary and simplistic without the ability to perform takedowns.

The highlight of the game is when you get your own Ikran, the flying dragon creature from the movies. You can live your dreams of being a Na’Vi by jumping off a cliff and summoning your Ikran mid-drop like an expert dragon rider. It all feels and looks awesome; this is the best part of the game and one of the few truly unique things about the game that distinguishes it.

Another gameplay mechanic that feels a bit annoying to maintain is the energy system. You have an energy meter that’s separate from your health bar. When this energy bar is depleted, you stop automatically healing. In order to start healing again, you need to eat to keep your energy meter filled. Sustaining this feels like a chore, since it feels more like an excuse for the developers to add a cooking mechanic to the game. You don’t have to engage with the cooking mechanic if you don’t want to, since you can just eat raw food to sustain your energy.

Unfortunately, the most frustrating thing about Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora is its forced grinding and level-gating. Story quests in this game will sometimes have sudden level requirement spikes and you’ll need to complete the side quests to get the resources to increase your level. You see, you don’t actually level up by accumulating EXP in Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora. It works more like the recent Sony Santa Monica’s God Of War games, where the quality of your gear and skills/abilities determine what level you are. This is why it’s annoying to grind. You can’t simply grind EXP, you actually have to find better gear or collect resources to craft better gear. When I ignored most of the side activities, I found myself heavily under-levelled halfway through the game, with enemies capable of killing me in a few seconds. Sure, you can decrease the difficulty of the game at any time but the level-gating is still annoying by making the game feel more like a chore.

There’s also not much variety among enemies. Human enemies are basically just variants of the same two types; human soldier and human in a mecha exo-suit. The game doesn’t have proper boss fights, so what it likes to do is throw wave after wave of enemies, including those in mecha exo-suits. It becomes a chore to deal with these waves of enemies, especially against the mecha exo-suits and especially when you’re under-levelled. Since the Na’Vi has Native American qualities like living peacefully with nature, hunting in this game is a bit downplayed compared to the usual Far Cry games. Don’t get me wrong, you still need to hunt for resources but it’s a less vital part of gameplay now.

Last but not least, it’s not easy to navigate through the open-world map. Instead of clear icons, the developers decided to use different types of glowing lights or energy shapes for different things on the map. This makes it confusing to discern what’s what on the map, considering how dense it is. Thankfully, being able to fast travel to major places and having the Ikran makes traversal not much of a hassle in this game.

As for the story in Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora, you’re basically following in the footsteps of Jake Sully from the movies, but instead of a human becoming a Na’Vi, you’re a Na’Vi who was forcefully kidnapped as a child and forced to live as a human. As such, when the story begins in the game, your character doesn’t know much about his/her/their tribe or Na’Vi culture in general. Then, you’ll go about visiting different Na’Vi tribes and convincing them to join the Resistance against the humans AKA the Sky People. It’s exactly what Jake Sully did in the movies but this all takes place in a different region on Pandora, so you won’t exactly be playing alongside Jake Sully or anyone from the movies. The plot follows that aforementioned predictable formula, but if you’re a fan of Avatar lore, you’ll be able to appreciate learning more about the various new Na’Vi tribes in Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora.

The graphics in Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora look beautiful, similar to the jungles of Far Cry 3 and the wilderness of the Horizon games. There are all kinds of weird animals and plant life around the open world, making it all feel somewhat alive. It also feels lived-in because you’ll sometimes come across random Na’Vi in the jungle or by the shores fishing. You can even talk to them and they’ll sometimes give you a gift (mostly food or other resources).

It took me around 12 hours to reach 70 percent of the game before I encountered a game-breaking bug which prevented me from progressing through the story. Since the game doesn’t allow manual saves and completely relies on autosaves, I didn’t have the option of being able to reload an earlier save to try and fix this issue.

Be Na’Vi

An Avatar game was a strange choice to become a game from the beginning, and adding the Far Cry formula to it has resulted in a game that’s not good but not too bad either; it’s just mediocre. Hopefully, Massive Entertainment’s next game, Star Wars Outlaws, looks to have higher prospects of being a better game and not just another uninspired game based on a famous IP. Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora is truly only for fans who just want more from James Cameron’s Avatar, but not those looking for a great open-world game to sink their teeth into.

PROS

• A mix of gameplay styles from Far Cry and Horizon games.
• Being able to fly on the Ikran.
• Beautiful graphics and a world that feels alive.

CONS

• Not being able to perform takedowns/assassinations like conventional Far Cry during stealth gameplay.
• Frustrating and forced level-gating the story quests, requiring you to grind side quests and collect resources/crafting.
• No variety in enemies, basically the same soldiers and mecha exo-suits most of the time. No proper bosses either.
• An open-world map that’s too dense with confusing light icons.
• A game-breaking bug near the end of the game that prevented story progression.

FINAL SCORE: 60/100

Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora was reviewed on PC based on a review copy provided by Ubisoft. Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora will launch for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on 7 December 2023.