Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is the latest offering from Ubisoft and marks a visually ambitious foray into the lush and alien moon of Pandora. While the game’s visuals are no doubt stunning, there’s a lot to unwrap under the surface of this game – both good and bad.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Story
In the vast expanse of the Western Frontier, players assume the role of a Na’vi from the Sarentu clan, abducted and raised by the RDA. There are several nods to the events of the movie and it’s evident that the game is taking place on the sidelines. John Mercer is your typical bad-guy who seems to have little regard for the local flora and fauna (you included). It’s all about the investment. It’s unoriginal but executed really well. Especially if you’re familiar with the Far Cry series as a whole. The voice acting is great, but doesn’t do much to elevate the storyline, which we found to be fairly average.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora allows players to craft their own Na’vi character. We question the existence of a character creator here at all. Sure, if it was well executed and mattered in any way at all we would be all for it but for the purposes of this game it feels pointless. All of the character customisation options feel almost indistinguishable from one another, you could randomise everything and still end-up with something looking almost identical to what you started with. In typical Ubisoft fashion, you do have additional cosmetic options for your character, including equipment and weapon skins, and Ikran looks and they do look nice.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Gameplay
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora positions itself as an open-world shooter, navigating the player through a carefully crafted blend of ranged and melee combat. We expected this to be good considering the amount of experience Ubisoft has with open-world shooters and we weren’t disappointed, at least as far as gameplay mechanics are concerned. There’s enough for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to distinguish itself from other Ubisoft open-world titles. The unique exploration and traversal mechanics stand out, allowing players to form bonds with creatures like the majestic flying Ikran and towering Zakru. Of course, all of this is further enhanced by the game’s stunning visuals. The game emphasises the significance of flora and fauna through an improved scavenging system, adding some amount of depth to the gameplay loop.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Graphics and Design
Visually, the game is a feast for the eyes, leveraging the Snowdrop Engine to its fullest potential. Realistic lighting, a diverse array of wildlife, and meticulously detailed environmental design coalesce to create an immersive experience. They have without a doubt recreated Pandora and the feeling that we got when we first watched the movie within the game. The game also includes software-based Ray Tracing, enabling effects even on hardware lacking native Ray Tracing support, which is nice, were it not for the overall optimisation issues the game seems to suffer from.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora demands substantial GPU resources. We played the game on PC and even with the ability to finetune settings, adjust shadows, reflections, and more, the game would be almost unplayable at times. This is on an RTX 4080 mind you. At the other end of the table, on a desktop with an RX 7900 XTX we saw absolutely no issues and the game ran like a dream. We still aren’t quite sure as to why this is the case but it was certainly jarring. The game supports both FSR 3.0 Frame Generation and DLSS 3.5 to help with performance, with future plans for DLSS Frame Generation in an upcoming update. Especially useful for a game as demanding as this one.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Verdict
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a visually stunning game, one which can truly immerse players into the captivating landscapes of Pandora. The storyline and character development align with the established Avatar franchise, but there’s still something more to be desired there. However, we would still recommend the game for its gameplay mechanics and meticulous world design.
The game demands a lot of GPU juice, so to speak. Understandably, this might pose a challenge for players with mid-range or older GPUs.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora succeeds in delivering a mesmerising journey into the heart of Pandora, capturing the essence of the Avatar universe despite some narrative and customisation limitations. Overall, we’d say this is a solid entry from Ubisoft, and one that thoroughly showcases what game visuals are capable of achieving.
SKOAR! – 8/10
MOAR!
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S
Played On: Windows
Price: INR4,999
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Manish Rajesh
Manish can usually be found fervently playing video games of all kinds or… no wait he’s pretty much always playing games View Full Profile
