Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Review

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is one of those licensed properties that is surely an anomaly in games - although, perhaps less so these days. Marvel games aside in recent years, history tells us that these were the kind of games that were usually farmed out to the studio that can turn it around for the cheapest amount of money and in the shortest amount of time possible - a practice that still goes on today (just look at The Lords of the Rings: Gollum). The second major Avatar game is anything but that. Developed by the hugely talented Ubisoft Massive, and announced way back in 2017, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora certainly shows the extra time and effort afforded to Ubisoft's latest title. This isn’t a movie tie-in cobbled together to make a quick buck.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora sees you jumping into the shoes (bare blue feet?) of an unnamed Na'vi on the surface of Pandora. After years of cooperation between natives and humans (the RDA), tensions start to reach boiling point on the vibrant, idyllic world, when the RDA becomes more unhinged and erratic under the guidance of the psychotic Mercer, putting the future of the planet under threat. As such, it falls to you to reunite the Na'vi clans and take back control of Pandora.

At its core, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a first-person open-world action-adventure game. The best way to describe it is a little bit of Far Cry and a little bit of Horizon, and a whole lot of Pandora. That means you'll be infiltrating outposts however you choose, using your trusty bow and arrow to take down a whole host of bad guys and beasts, and using the local wildlife to traverse a lush and hostile planet full of colour and creativity.

The truth is, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s biggest draw is the eponymous planet itself. There’s no doubt about it - Pandora is a wonderfully creative and technical marvel. It truly is one of the most breathtaking open-worlds I’ve seen in some time. From the floating mountains to the bioluminescent fauna, Pandora is just a place of wonder, one that makes Frontiers of Pandora a true current-gen game that perhaps we've not seen enough of, especially this far into the current console generation. It's a place comprising beautifully diverse biomes, from epic waterfalls and towering moss-covered pillars, to dense forests and towering mountains. Pandora is a pleasure to spend time in.

Where Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora does falter every so slightly is in its gameplay. Aside from a few noteworthy set pieces like climbing the Ikran Rookery to bond with your Ikran, the quests themselves are a little samey. That said, there are some visually stunning spectacles that the game throws at you, as you venture through its narrative.

The minute-to-minute gameplay hardly sets the world alight either, and with only a handful of bows and RDA guns, the game doesn't really evolve all too much as you progress. That's not to say it's bad - it's actually pretty great - but it doesn't quite match the ambition of the Pandora setting itself. That said, when you get into the flow with the game's parkour-style platforming, you'll experience Frontiers of Pandora at its best.

The open-world itself is (like any Ubisoft game worth its salt) also chock-full of busy work activities to get stuck into. These can range from a plentiful range of side quests to helping out the inhabitants of Pandora, as well as liberating installations and outposts. Naturally, there are myriad collectibles to seek out and activities like the Sarentu Totems and Memory Paintings to partake in, too. Nothing to blow you away, per se, but pleasant distractions from the main story quests, nonetheless.

I can't say that I'm a fan of the levelling and progression, with it almost forcing you into the game’s crafting systems. And it's pretty essential that you keep on top of your gear, too, as regardless of the difficulty you're playing on, you're seemingly made of glass, meaning it's not the easiest of games. Dying regularly truly highlights the game’s questionable checkpointing at times, to boot. On top of that, while most triple-A games these days have a fluency and a flow to them, the constant fade to black moments and load screens are a touch jarring.

While Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s gameplay is nothing outstanding, the experience itself is one to truly savour, thanks, in no small part, to the awe-inspiring world of Pandora. We’re not exaggerating here when we say that Pandora is one of the most remarkable and wondrous open-worlds that we’ve seen in recent times, perhaps ever. It’s a visual spectacle if ever there was one. The truth is, though, that while incredibly fun and enjoyable for the most part, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora remains an epic visual showpiece, one that is a little shallow and somewhat lacking in substance, something, ironically, that’s been said about James Cameron’s blockbusting films themselves.