The first Avatar film taught us about the wide array of land and air-based animals that exist on Pandora, from the horse-like pa’li to the flying ikran. The Way of Water expands this concept even further, introducing the ocean-dwelling ilu and tsurak mounts as well as the majestic tul
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is primarily a first-person open-world action-adventure game. It does, however, appear to have moments of third-person gameplay when taming and utilizing the creatures on Pandora such as the flying Ikran or the Zakru of the upper planes as mounts to traverse the world of Pandora, with the Ikran also assisting with aerial combat against the RDA. Players will also be able to visit the tribe’s Hometree and use it as a refuge to rest and learn from the others who inhabit
The Avatar series made a huge splash (pun intended) with the release of its highly anticipated second film, Avatar: The Way of Water. The incredibly successful movie saw the world of the fantasy planet Pandora expand even further, with new tribes, creatures, and lore being established throughout its runt
Set in the never-before-seen Western Frontier of Pandora, Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora takes place fifteen years after the events of the first Avatar film and prior to The Way of Water in a time when humanity has returned to Pandora to continue exploiting its resources. The Na’vi protagonist finds themselves free of the RDA, but also a stranger in their own birthplace. Over the course of the game’s main campaign, players will witness the Na’vi reconnecting with their lost heritage as a Sarentu – a tribe of which they bear a mark upon their face – while learning from the memories of their ancestors, and discovering what it truly means to be Na’vi, while joining forces with other clans to protect Pand
Although not much focus has been put on the feature in the game’s announcements and gameplay reveals so far, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora can, alongside single-player mode, be played online in two-player co-op. As is the case with another Ubisoft FPS series, Far Cry , players will be able to join their friends at will, with the option to drop in and help each other with the occasional level, or to fight side-by-side throughout the entire game’s campa
There are some interesting notes here, including the fact that the Nintendo Switch or upcoming Nintendo Switch Pro will not be getting some variant on the title. It does appear that the game will launch on all of these platforms at the same time though, meaning there are no delays for PC play
Although it is a central part of their culture, successfully bonding with an Ikran is quite dangerous. Just reaching them is difficult enough. It requires traversal of the Hallelujah Mountains , a range of floating peaks where any misstep could send an unfortunate individual falling to their death. Upon finally reaching the biggest mountain, Mons Veritatis , actual interaction with the Ikran can begin. The caveat is the “correct” Ikran is identifiable because it will immediately try to kill its future rider, requiring them to wrestle with it until they can get their braid properly connected. The final step involves riding the Ikran off a cliff. As Neytiri puts it, “the first flight seals the bond.” However, this process takes a few minutes, during which the rider will have to continue wrestling with the Ikran which will alternately be plummeting, flying erratically, and/or resisting the rider’s influe
Although the game can learn a lot from the movie, it should not be limited to that either. Often, movie tie-in games are overly attached to the story of the film without bringing anything new to the table, and are quickly forgotten. In recent years, these games have seemingly fallen out of fashion, with more tie-in games being sequels, prequels or franchise-related rather than straight retellings of the same story. Frontiers of Pandora seems to belong to the latter category, but it can still borrow ideas from The Way of Wa
Which isn’t a bad idea, and Avatar’s range of exploration and combat fits snugly into the blueprint, especially when you are on the side of one faction vying for territory against another. You’ll take over outposts by completing some pedestrian objectives, or save wildlife from patrolling grunts while exploring the world. There are also resources to gather, locals to help with everyday problems, and discoveries around which are designed much like modern Assassin’s Creed games. Although, websites most of these were already taken care of in the portion of the world I was allowed to explore, so it was hard to get an accurate idea of what moment-to-moment gameplay would be like aside from scripted missions. It wasn’t ideal, but Pandora remains a gorgeously massive place.
Flying feels incredible, though, and goes a long way in conveying the sheer vastness of this world. Your Ikran isn’t limited to the clouds, but can soar far above them until it flirts with the precipice of space, all before flying back down in a process that not only takes minutes, but teases parts of the map I wasn’t allowed to explore yet, and couldn’t wait to uncover. It’s hard to ignore what Frontiers of Pandora is going for in its design philosophy, and how much of it fails to offer up anything new. But if it manages to flesh out the world of Avatar and its many ideas just enough, those shortcomings could be forgiven. There is a unique appeal to being dropped in a licensed game that goes beyond being a tie-in, and wants to push the universe further with its own spin on things, although it’s hard to tell how compelling its ideas can really be when the gameplay it relies on is made up of things we’ve seen so many times before, and also done better elsewhere.
