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Introduction

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a first-person/third-person shooter adventure experience that takes the well-known Far Cry formula and reskins it with Avatar. Ubisoft doesn't usually hit home with strong, dynamic gameplay and highly enthralling storylines. But as I am a sucker for Avatar content, I thought it was worth the gamble. But does this game feel the warm embrace of Eywa, or is it just Unobtainium?


🟩 Positives
🟥 Negatives


🟩 The story isn't as bad as I anticipated. It's rather well-thought-out and plotted to deliver some impactful moments and genuine surprises.
🟩 The gunplay is fast and fun, with the ability to adjust difficulty on the go, which augments how much damage you do and gets done to you, allowing control over how much challenge you want.
🟩 One of the most beautiful game experiences I have ever played. It is a stunning open world with dynamic terrain and environments to captivate the senses at every turn.
🟩 The audio matches the visuals in nearly every sense of the word. The soundtrack perfectly contrasts almost every situation, and the atmospheric immersion is breathtaking.
🟥This game is riddled with performance and crash-inducing bugs.
🟥 The gameplay mechanics for the mini-games aren't fun at all. They become repetitive quickly and tiresome to complete.
🟥 The world doesn't feel full of activities it feels like someone detailed an extensive plot of chores for you to suffer through.



Story

You play as a captive Na'Vi in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Captured by the RDA and trained for their purposes from a young age and freed fifteen years later from your bonds to settle the grudge against the ones who took you from your home and family. You must travel across Pandora, unite the fractured clans and bring peace once again to your home.
The story is pretty good, especially considering the studio it came from. The world feels somewhat immersive, the characters grow on you, and the general plot has enough substance to bite into and keeps you hooked for most of the campaign.

Gameplay Analysis

Combat
Combat in this game is identical to the Far Cry franchise in nearly every way. Your character isn't invincible and has limited resources compared to the enemy you are facing, so this leaves you with essentially one tactic against the odds: guerilla warfare.
Your general task in Avatar against the enemy will be to infiltrate bases quickly and quietly, taking out enemies as you can while focusing mainly on completing base-specific tasks to shut them down as fast as possible for maximum rewards.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3283041195
You have very few weapons to utilise to this end. There are three variants of bows, each for different ranges and conditions, an assault rifle, a shotgun, a spear-thrower and a throwing device for casting explosives of varying capability at moderate distances. On top of these weapon choices, you can modify weapons with special items to change the benefits they provide such as higher weak spot damage or health returned on kills.
These all give you some options for combat scenarios and allow you to plan your next moves.
The last piece of the puzzle is your gear. Armour has many different traits that can completely change how your character functions. Some armour has health increases, others have damage bonuses, and you have some flexibility in their augments as you can change the mods on them, much like your weapons, to mix and match their capability.
Exploration
Avatar emphasizes exploring the world, even giving you an option in the settings to turn off map and compass markers, so you have to follow directions given to you by the settlements and quest log. Exploration will grant you many boons, such as increased health and item upgrades you wouldn't be able to attain otherwise, it also gives you a decent opportunity to locate resources for crafting new items that require plant and animal materials to create.
Exploration is easier when you attain your Ikran, the bird creatures the Na'Vi ride. You get this fairly early on and isn't a spoiler as it's on the banner art of the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3283040833
The map is also quite dynamic, where clearing a base doesn't mean it will remain the way it is forever. Over time the base will be reclaimed by nature, and new plants and resources will become available. I found this particularly unique as I hadn't seen many games utilise this as a feature.
Mini-games
As you adventure and explore Pandora, you will eventually utilise the mini-game mechanics to do many different tasks such as hack computers, repair electrical lines, paint memories and a whole era of other tasks. These are often fun and intuitive, providing an interesting side adventure to break up the combat sequences. They rapidly become repetitive and monotonous, especially after your fifth straight hack or drawn-out memory painting.

Audio and Visual

There are little to no negatives I can say about the visual state of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It is without a doubt one of the most stunning aesthetic experiences I have ever had in gaming and I am in absolute awe over how seamless the world is considering its robust beauty and minute detail. From the first moment you step into the forest, to the first time you fly above it, you will be blown away by the sheer scope of the world and how much passion went into designing it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3283039952
The audio isn't quite as high quality but still offers a significant level of detail over the forest atmosphere and the general animation sounds of running through brush and splashing through puddles. I will say that the sound of the rain in this game is genuinely mesmerising though and this game has a perfectly ambient soundtrack for just roaming exploring, capturing that wonderment of the unknown.

Performance and Specifications

I ran the game on High settings, one down from the highest, at 2560 x 1440 and still saw some significant frame dips. This game is fairly resource hungry and only high-end machines will run it at ultra at this resolution or more for any prolonged period.
🟧 A lot of bugs. Frequent crashes and performance bugs that cause you to become stuck, unable to change weapons or cause you to fall through the world.
RAM: 32GB 3200GHz G-Skill (DDR4)
CPU: i9 10900KA 3.70GHz
GPU: MSI Ventus RTX 3080

Final Thoughts - Imperfect

Review chart here.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora isn't a pioneer game for the industry. It's a Ubisoft game in nearly every way you can imagine, the story is alright, the gameplay is fun, the violence is toned down and the world is beautiful and sprawling. It's far from perfect, but it's an ideal dumb fun filler experience, that is worth a shot if you can get it on an enormous sale so you don't have to cry in the shower at night over what an idiot you are for buying what is mostly mid-tier content at full price. Don't go into it expecting much and you won't be disappointed!
The Na'Vi need your help to free Pandora, but if you want to free your heart, head on over to Hell, Purgatory and Paradise where every review is an adventure.