With so much gameplay coverage for the Avatar Frontiers of Pandora game, we’re starting to get a better idea of whether or not it’s worth buying and who it’s going to work for the most. From what we’ve seen, there are key features that will make it better suited to certain types of gamers, so we’ll take you through these to hopefully give you a good idea of whether or not it might be a good fit for you.
We’ll also add in some useful videos so you can see first-hand how game is going to play and what other big gamers think of the title having been giving a chance to play a demo already. Obviously, we’ll be writing a full review once we’ve had a chance to play the game ourselves, including a new score and more details about who the Avatar game is best suited for.
AdvertisementIt’s worth having in mind that the game takes place during the same timeline as the two Avatar films, but Frontiers of Pandora has its own unique story and set of characters, so if you haven’t seen either of the films that’s not that big a deal. However, it would probably be a bit weird to choose to play the game without having seen the films, so you’ve got until early December to get it in 6 hours plus of movie watching to catch up (you can read our Avatar review if you need to qualify your decision).
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Avatar Frontiers of Pandora first impressions
For the most part, everything we’ve seen of Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is pretty positive with an incredibly detailed game world environment to run around in. It plays in first person and delivers a mix of shooter d stealth action with distinct similarities to other Ubisoft titles, most notably the Far Cry series.
There’s going to be a lot of action with plenty of gun fights, silent sneaker missions, platforming and exploration, so it should be a lot of fun if you like that kind of game – which we do. It’s another open world title from the team at Ubisoft, which is one of the big power houses in the genre, but it’s being developed by Massive Entertainment, so it should have a slightly fresh take on things.
Massive Entertainment have a pretty strong back catalogue that includes Tom Clancy’s The Division 1 & 2 and Far Cry 3, so there should be a lot of quality built into Frontiers of Pandora. Having the Avatar franchise as its next game was always going to be a lot of pressure, but looking at the previous experience there’s more than enough to give us a lot of confidence.
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The developer is also working on Star Wars Outlaws, so yet another big movie franchise, so the Avatar game will be a pretty good indicator for the potential of the 2024 game. We’re hoping that they manage to land well with both of them, which would mean we’d have a couple of new game franchises to look forward to in the future.
AdvertisementAs you can tell from the videos, it sounds like the Avatar game has been put together with a lot of consultation with the filmmakers, and from what we’ve seen it definitely fits in with the incredible world that James Cameron has created. The big question for fans of the films is whether or not it builds in the same environmental tones as the movies and it’s fair to say that there’s more than a hint of this throughout the gameplay that we’ve seen.
Yes, there will be plenty of action sequences including gun fights, explosions and mech-suit arrow shots, but this is kind of balanced by the tribal community at the heart of the story. There are also going to be plenty of missions, encounters and side quests where you’ll need to rescue and help the wildlife of Pandora, and it looks like there’s a lot of respect for nature built into the system for hunting, gathering and crafting in the game.
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora has got a lot going for it from what we’ve seen and while there are going to be some gamers that it just isn’t going to sit well with, it’s clearly got a big potential audience when it comes out before Christmas 2023. Particular highlights include the huge and lush game world, the immersive sounds developed for the game, and the intensity of the action sequences.
There are some question marks over the sparsity of the game world in terms of it feeling like you’ve got a lot of open space to get lost in without that much to do. We’re also on the fence in terms of the diversity of experiences during exploration, but we’ll have to wait for the game to come out to find out more about this.
One of the best gaming experiences we’ve had is the massive scale of Far Cry 5 and it’s vast open game world. It didn’t have that much going on, but it was a hell of a lot of fun just taking in the backdrop and planning your next attack, so hopefully that’s the case again with Avatar Frontiers of Pandora.
Who should think about playing Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
There are some simple givens for the type of gamer that Avatar Frontiers of Pandora will sit best with. If you’re a fan of the Far Cry series, then there is clearly going to be a lot in this for you, although, obvious without some of the darker aspects of those games. There will be plenty of run and gun opportunities, stealth-based take-downs and sprint melee attacks to look forward to. If you’ve seen either the two Avatar films, then you’ll know that there’s also bound to be a sinister villain to take on with comparisons to bid bads from the Far Cry series.
AdvertisementThere are also comparisons with Horizon Zero Dawn and its sequel Forbidden West, with the importance of the bow and crafting, so if you liked either of those two games then there’s the possibility that you might enjoy the Avatar game too. There may not be giant robot dinosaurs to fight, but there are plenty of big mechanical enemies to take on in the RDA side of the battle. Plus, you might find yourself up against some of the larger animals on Pandora either with mechanical augmentation or some other dangerous situation.
It’s also going to be a big draw for gamers that like open world titles with plenty to explore across a huge map and finding new vistas to look out on. If you just like to head out into the wild and you don’t mind a little first person action in the mix, then the Avatar game is probably going to be a half decent shout for you too. That’s not to say that it fits well with all open world gamer, because it’s clearly going to be very very different from title’s like The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
Another, given is people that loved the films and want to experience life on Pandora for themselves. It was a similar story for Hogwarts Legacy earlier in 2023, which gave fans of the Harry Potter books and films a chance to go to the school of witchcraft and wizardry. So, if you don’t mind a little shooting and stealth action then it could be a great way to immerse yourself into the world of Avatar.
Who should not buy Avatar Frontiers of Pandora?
If you take the opposite of everything that has been said above and you fit into any of those categories then you’re probably not going to love the upcoming Avatar game. If you hate an open world grind, or you’ve become jaded with that kind of game, or you can’t stand first person shooters, or you really didn’t like the Avatar films then you’re an easy out on this one.
On the flip side, if you’re a hardcore FPS fan this might not be for you either. Die-hard COD multi-player gamers probably won’t make the transition to Pandora all that well either, so you might want to stick to Modern Warfare 3 this year.
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The sad reality is that a lot of big publications use writers that clearly don’t like a genre to review games from it. That’s probably going to be the case again with Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. Hopefully there’s more than enough game to satisfy the people that do fit well with the experience to make it worth buying.
AdvertisementYou can see in the videos below that there can be a balanced approach to this, but there are videos out there of gamers that got to play the demo that don’t even like the Avatar series. This seems a bit nuts to us. It’s like getting Cocomelon fans to give their first impressions of FNAF, but hey, who are we to call it.
That’s not to say that Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is going to be a slam dunk for everybody with a slight appreciation for the core aspects of the game. There are still the issues that we mentioned above to take into account. We know there’s still time before the game is officially releases to look at minor developmental changes to fix some of these elements, and it’s fair to say that there’s bound to be more to the full game compared to the demo in the videos below.
We’re also hoping the game gets ongoing development support with updates, new features and improvements in the first year in the very least. It’s something that Ubisoft is well known for, especially with big fan following games like For Honor, The Division and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. If that’s the case, then some of the concerns about the sparsity of the environment could be dealt with after release with new features, enhancements and community feedback improvements still to come.
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Whether or not you’ve decided that you’re in on the pre-order for Avatar Frontiers of Pandora or you’re waiting on the full reviews, it’s definitely one to keep an eye on and we’ll be adding in more details for the game as they’re confirmed. We’ll also follow this up with our own honest review and score with more details on how the title actually performs, so head on back when we get a little bit closer to the December 7th release date.
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora first impressions videos:
The videos below are pretty good and should add to the notes above on whether or not the Avatar Frontiers of Pandora game is worth buying. Keep checking back for more details, though, and we’ll add any more relevant videos we find.
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We’ll update you with more details on the game as they’re confirmed. You can also check out our computer games section to keep tabs on the game. Visit the Avatar Frontier of Pandora website at https://www.ubisoft.com/sv-se/game/avatar-frontiers-of-pandora for more details.
