Ubisoft has crafted several Role-Playing series of games each set in a unique world providing an immersive experience regarding both narrative and character. Two of the most popular series from Ubisoft are Assassin’s Creed and Farcry which provide unique open-world experiences hinged on the setting of their worlds. The latest open-world role-playing game from Ubisoft is an Avatar game set in the Western Frontiers of Pandora World which has never been showcased before even in the Avatar movies. This new continent of Pandora is unique to Gamers as well as Avatar franchise fans.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is the second Avatar game from Ubisoft developed by Massive Entertainment. The first game was released back in 2009 and the scale of that game is not even close to the latest Avatar game obviously with all the new gaming technology and world scale built into it. The open-world experience of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is unique to all of the other role-playing series from Ubisoft which lets players step in the shoes of a Na’vi learning the traditions of their world and ability to navigate Pandora.
Story
You play as a Na’vi orphan who has been abducted by a militaristic corporation known as RDA which enrolled you into The Ambassador Program (TAP) in which the young Na’vi are raised in the human sphere. The young Na’vi gets trained to learn how to use human weapons and navigate Pandora like the humans. These young Na’vi become envoys of RDA for further studies of RDA while it provides human advancements to the clans living on the continent. However, as the relationship between humans and Na’vi gets bad, RDA unleashes its military tech on Pandora’s grounds resulting in escaping from TAP.
The young Na’vi who escaped from TAP built a Resistance against RDA to stop them from polluting the grounds of Pandora, killing the wildlife, and disrupting the natural balance. The main protagonist is from the Sarentu Clan which he needs to find and learn about while utilizing the strengths of both human and Na’vi backgrounds.
The story of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora takes place at the time of the movies but the setting of the Western Frontier continent of Pandora is unique to the movies which gives the audience an insight into 3 unknown Clans of Na’vi living in the continent.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is unique to other role-playing series from Ubisoft but does have a somewhat familiar feeling as the Farcry series. Things that somewhat resemble Farcry in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is restoring nature by disabling the RDA Facilities in areas that are polluting the surrounding areas. With the pollution, wildlife has disappeared as well and all the natural resources have decreased. For you to gather the resources and interact with the wildlife of that area, you must restore nature in those areas. The way it resembles Farcry is by activating the towers to find new resources, learn the locations of new animals, or unlock areas on the map.
However, the actual gameplay of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is unique due to various mechanics. One of the crucial early mechanics that you need to get your grasp on is the healing mechanic. As you take damage in your adventures across Pandora, your health will regenerate automatically depending on how much Energy you have. Alternatively, you can use the Health Packs and Med Kits to instantly restore your health instead of waiting for the health to recover on its own. You can increase the maximum amount of HP by finding Bellsprings in the world and utilizing the Vitality Skills in the Survivor Skill Tree.
Energy plays a crucial role both in exploration and healing and it can be restored by eating the fruits and mushrooms you find in the world or cooking food at the cooking stations which can be found on home bases. If your Energy is depleted, your character’s HP will not be restored automatically. You will have to eat food or raw items to fill the Energy bar. Like the Health Bar, you can also increase the maximum Energy by utilizing the Vigor Skills in the Survivor Skill Tree.
Speaking of Skill Tree, your Na’vi abilities and character stats will increase by spending skill points in the skill tree which can be accessed from the character menu. There are 5 different skill trees through which you can enhance various skills of your character to make exploration and survival more rewarding. Exploration in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora can be done via various means as there are several various wildlife whom you can interact with to travel quickly through the Pandora. Your flying companion Ikran will be of great assistance both in exploration and completing quests around Pandora and you have access to improve the skills of Ikran through Rider Skill Tree.
The World of Pandora is broad and holds various activities that are crucial for your survival. One of the crucial RPG features that you will utilize in the game is crafting to make better armor and weapons. Crafting can be done in two different ways, one is quick crafting which is mostly used for crafting the arrows for your Bow weapon, and the other one is done at the crafting station where you can craft higher-tier armor pieces and weapons using the crafting materials you gathered in your adventures across Pandora. There are various armor sets that you will get to craft for better survival and there are 9 different weapons divided between Na’vi and RDA. The Na’vi weapons contain Heavy Bow, Longbow, Shortbow, Spear Thrower, and Staffsling, whereas the RDA weapons contain Shotgun, Rifle, RPG, and Stun Grenade. You will get access to all of these weapons in your playthrough and assign them to a quick inventory slot to use them frequently in battle to tackle the RDA enemies.
Sound and Visuals
If there is a term where we can say Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a Next-Gen game then it is Sound and Visuals. There is no doubt that the Pandora world showcased in the game is both astonishing and breathtaking. The vast scale of the world with dynamic atmospheric mechanics sets the bar of the visuals even higher and provides an immersive experience. The weather changes in Pandora make the exploration experience more immersive and if you find yourself in a weather of rain, you can fly above the clouds on Inkar to get out of the rain. The detailing of the Pandora world is portrayed to its best and you will see significant differences as you get to meet all 3 different clans of Na’vi while progressing through the stories. Areas around these clans are unique to other clans’ areas and the wildlife is also unique which makes the exploration even more rewarding.
The sound design of the world is very impressive as you can hear every sound of wildlife and creatures around you. If you close your eyes and stand in the forest, you will be able to hear everything in a crystal clear sound which is very impressive and enhances the experience of the game. The voice acting and various gestures of the characters make them alive and interactive.
Performance and Bugs
I played 15 hours of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora on PC and I am very glad to say that it is very well optimized. I was gaining 80 – 100 FPS on High – Ultra mix settings with minor 2 – 5 FPS drops. In terms of performance, I didn’t witness any issues but if anyone is thinking of playing it on PC, you must install it on SSD otherwise, you will face severe loading times along with bugs in cutscenes. I tested it both on SSD and HDD as I witnessed several bugs regarding the loading of textures and displacement of characters and items but as soon as I ran it in SSD, everything went to smooth with faster loading times and no game-breaking bugs.
Verdict – Score 9/10
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is truly a Next-Gen game with a brand-new exploration and fast-paced combat experience. The movement of Na’vi is more dynamic allowing you to climb on higher grounds with ease and sliding in between the enemies to shoot arrows straight through them. We recommend Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to all Gamers who are willing to experience a new adventure from Ubisoft as well as the fans of Avatar movies to witness the Western Frontier of Pandora that has never been showcased in movies. Witnessing the Western Frontier and meeting various Clans of Na’vi will put you in a whole new appreciation for the developers who made the world in that detail with everything almost to perfection.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will be available on December 7th, 2023, on PlayStation 5, PC, and XBOX Series X|S.
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