Double Jump Gaming News

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a Far Cry game with a Blue coat of Paint

Article by: Kopen Luebke

Overview of Story

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a game based on the blockbuster movie, and soon to be series, Avatar. Not to be confused with Avatar: The Last Airbender. This game was released by Ubisoft in December of 2023 to a warm reception. This is actually the second game to be based on the Avatar movie(s) with James Cameron's Avatar: The Game releasing in 2009 for the PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, DS, Windows, and PSP. You play as your own created Na’vi. You and your group of fellow Na'vi's are captured by the RDA when you are young and forced to stay and eventually grow up under their control. Once you are old enough, you try to escape and hold a revolt, when one of your friends is killed by the RDA leader John Mercer. You escape with the help of outside Na'vi forces, who then take you to a shelter and set you on your way to become a true Na’vi and help take back the world of Pandora from the RDA.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Avatar: FoP is a first person shooter with cutscenes. The weapon selection is a great mix, you use a bow, assault rifle and flash grenades. I feel like the weapons work well with the story of how you grew up in RDA control and now you are discovering your Na'vi roots. You also hunt and collect supplies and food by hunting animals and harvesting fruits or wood to craft arrows. Your main gameplay is story missions, as well as taking out RDA oil rigs/bases. The enemies you face are pretty basic. There are normal soldiers as well as soldiers who use the large mech suits as seen in the movies. The travel mechanics are very nice in this game, with multiple plants around the world to help you move faster, such as a plant that emits pollen that lets you run faster, a "rope" plant that gets you to higher spaces and a jumping pad plant. You also get your very own Ikran to help make travel time easier. However the fastest way to move across the map is still, of course, fast travel. Finally the game looks beautiful and really benefits from the PS5 graphics.

SID Hacking Tool & Na'vi Vision

Another thing you have at our disposal is the SID tool. The SID tool acts as a hacking device and is how you finish off the oil rigs when you clear out the enemies. You use the SID to follow power lines and hack electrical boxes, and also to find weak points on the oil rigs. Another feature this game has is Na'vi vision. By holding the right bumper, you enter a vision that allows you to see resources, enemies, animal tracks, and main objective locations. This does make the gameplay simple and easy to follow and find your next objective and find resources.

Playtime and Price

According to howlongtobeat.com, Avatar: FoP has a playtime of about forty hours for the main and side missions. This is a good amount of game time, as it should be for the price. Avatar: FoP is priced at $69.99, at the time of writing this, for the standard edition. There is a deluxe, gold, and ultimate edition available, as is common for Ubisoft games, costing $79.99, $109.99, and a whopping $129.99 respectively, with not much emphasis on the respectively.

Gripes

Now this game is an Ubisoft game. As an Ubisoft fan, I came in skeptical. I was lucky enough to be able to rent this game from my college library, and I'm glad I rented and didn't buy it. Ubisoft are the creators of the Far Cry franchise, a game series that I enjoy and have played many entries in. This game feels like a Far Cry game that is wearing an Avatar costume. The gameplay and even some of the animations I recognize from previous entries in the Far Cry series. I understand that Avatar: FoP is running on the same engine, but when it is this close, it doesn't feel like a different game, it feels like an Avatar DLC for Far Cry 6 or Far Cry Primal, the two games which I relate this game to the most. While the unique features like the Na'vi vision and SID hacking tool/mechanic are appreciated, the rest of the game fails to catch my attention.

Conclusion

This game is nothing more than the Far Cry engine that got a makeover and some small tweaks. But honestly I can say it is better than Far Cry 6. The movie(s) are unique so you would think a game working with the source material of such a movie would also be unique. In the end, I had higher hopes for this game, but wasn't totally disappointed. For the price however, I would definitely recommend waiting for a sale before buying this game if you're interested.

Final Score: 7/10