REVIEW: Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is the chance to get to know the film universe up close 23k3g

The great cinematic success, Avatar, by James Cameron, has a very rich world in the form of Pandora, the main stage for the conflicts and adventures that we experience on the big screen – and it is an almost subconscious desire that we want to explore this with more freedom – the Ubisoft gave us the opportunity to do this, with Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, one of the last major video game releases of the year. Check out our review Next: 3g414i

Avatar or Far Cry 7? 3k2s54

Okay, maybe the subtitle was an exaggeration on my part, but it's funny how the basic notion of open-world gameplay Ubisoft for a first-person game can actually be seen as a continuation of the experience gained in the franchise Far Cry. 

Pandora is vast, with several enemy bases and exploration opportunities, but what changes here in relation to the franchise is the fact that we do not control a human, but a Na'vi, in a much more “animalistic” experience to explore the different environments proposed by the planet's alien biomes, allowing players to get lost in the stories and prefer to explore the world much more than trying to follow the script.

The Na’vi we control can climb trees, move across different terrains at speed, pick up weapons and wicks of the opponent and above all explore in a much freer way than we have ever seen in any game in the franchise Far Cry, thus allowing a much more interesting experience for the player. 

The tropes of open-world games, however, are not as escapable as they seem. The blue creature we control has access to an almost exhaustive list of activities to carry out and a system of crafting of extensive items, which allows the most diverse objects collected on the journey to be transformed into clothes, armor or weapons. 

That is good? Depends. Personally, I'm exhausted by this kind of open-world experience, which has flooded the shelves since the beginning of the PS4 era, but even so, within the alien world and the visually minimalist experience of Frontiers of Pandora, in which the character increasingly gives us the sensation of a sense of discovery, I even found it interesting to find the most diverse items during exploration.

This minimalist approach, by the way, is very interesting precisely because it allows players' senses to be more active during the journey. It's not a mini-map that takes us to the next objective, but rather identifying interesting parts of the world and following them. Of course, anyone who doesn't want this type of experience can activate assists, but at least in of novelty, this game design decision was pleasing enough to make Pandora much more immersive.

Graphics help even more with immersion 596v1j

But all this immersion would be nothing without the beauty that Ubisoft managed to put into Pandora, which I dare say is now one of the most beautiful video game worlds we've ever had the chance to experience. 

The vegetation, the ground, the sky, everything is alive and has a unique nature, a vivacity that is rarely seen in video games. Just as the films surprised with their beauty in 2022 and 2009, this game surprises for the same reason, mainly because it is interactive.

The game is also well optimized in PC, allowing a Radeon RX560 run at a stable 30 FPS on medium without major difficulties, something I thought would not be possible – but of course the most complete and satisfying experience will be on current generation consoles and more powerful computers, which can explore the full graphical limit and beauty of this well-made virtual Pandora, which takes place a little after the first film, but before the second.

A somewhat blue conclusion  2t6c54

Well, so far we've only talked about the game's positive points, as they really exist and are notable – but the game's problem is that despite all these advantages, it unfortunately fails to deliver a product that, I believe, for many, will capture your attention. until the end. 

See, the positives are positives, but the nature of the open world type of game that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora It doesn't allow the game to deviate from the commonplace of the genre, making the experience somewhat exhausting after many hours. The main gameplay loop isn't enjoyable enough, and the beauty of the game doesn't sustain as much as it could.

This makes Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora potentially one of those games that buying it at full price would perhaps be a waste of, placing it more as a curious experiment in exploring the world of the popular film franchise than something that will stand out in the world of video games.

Of course, for those who fall in love with Pandora, it is possible that the world alone sustains the entire game experience, but for those who do not share this feeling, the experience will be very different. Anyway, we have a very curious title on our hands, and it reminded me a lot of the nostalgic times when films constantly had video game adaptations – even the quality being good, but not so remarkable.

Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

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