... and sounds like a Na'vi... it MUST be a Na'vi!
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is set to launch in December, and Stevivor was recently treated to a hands-on session that rivalled the runtime of the most recent film, Avatar The Way of Water.
(For the record, our three-hour play session came just 12 minutes short; that’s three full hours on PC playing with a DualSense controller for those of you out there that can’t be bothered searching for the figure.)
All up, our session included the chance to explore a large area of Pandora’s western frontier, completing four mid-game main missions at the same time. We jumped around in time to accomplish this, so I honestly couldn’t make heads or tails of Frontiers of Pandora’s story. Thankfully, I really didn’t need to.
Mission one tapped into the hunting and gathering skills of the Na’vi; armed with two types of bows and an assault rifle, I opted for the former as I used tracking skills to isolate both flora and fauna. Dropping a cat-like being, my player-created character thanked the animal for its sacrifice in the same manner that has been established in the film franchise. Harvesting involves using your controller’s thumbstick to find a sweet spot, and then gently using your right trigger to pluck a flower from its stem.
Foraging appears extremely important as you’ve got both health and stamina to worry about; I had three healing opportunities in my build, and required food to keep my stamina – referred to as energy by Ubisoft and Massive – up. You’re also required to feed your mounts as they exhaust stamina having you along for the ride.
Animal pelts dropped with rarity and also were tied into the efficiency of how they were killed, mirroring Far Cry. To be honest, if you’ve played a Far Cry title, most of the systems and functions will feel second nature, though quite obviously focused through a sci-fi filter.
The western frontier looks more out of the original Avatar than Way of Water; I spent half of my time in a lush jungle clad in all manner of neon colours before eventually taking to the sky on an Ikran, the flying beast seen in the original. The second mission I took part in was essentially a recreation of Jake Sully’s bonding experience with the mount, and included a lot of verticality and some slight puzzle solving before taking to the actual skies.
Flying looks amazing, though feels relatively sluggish if I’m being honest. The explorable area we were set loose upon was vast; even when hitting the speed boost button I felt like I was moving above it at a snail’s pace. I quickly entered into the skills menu to add features like a barrel roll dodge, so here’s hoping that additional upgrades and enhancements will make the mount feel more fluid… especially as this follows the super-speedy flying experience found within Spider-Man 2. The image above looks far more exciting than my actual experience was.
The final playable mission revolved around a human encampment; I was tasked to disable generators, water pumps and the like while a fellow Na’vi took the skies as a wicked distraction. This mission was far more buggy than I’d have liked (though I’m playing on pre-release code far ahead of the title’s December release, of course) but was nonetheless effective in showing me that I could chain together Na’vi weapons, human technology like big guns and stun grenades, and the advantage that my newfound winged mount could provide.
If I learned anything from the mission – which I began as a stealth operation and quickly modified to hit-and-run tactics after being discovered – it’s that there’s no shame in using everything at your disposal. When overwhelmed, my Ikran provided an easy means of escape and also came in handy when I needed to reach the top of a large antenna tower (admittedly after my handler reminded me I had the beast at my disposal).
While the first mission proved that Frontiers of Pandora looked just like the films, the second and third missions on the Ikran showed that this sounds just like them too. It’s an incredibly faithful recreation of what Avatar fans will expect – though that could beg the question of how many people would label themselves as such.
With a little over a month before release, I left my play session hopeful that Frontiers of Pandora can continue with some polishing before its big debut. While it looks and sounds amazing, I’m hoping that SSDs are better optimised to get players straight into their big blue giant sci-fi roleplay desires.
Check out a gameplay video using my capture below.
Expect Avatar Frontiers of Pandora from 7 December on Windows PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X and PS5.
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Avatar Frontiers of Pandora7 December 2023PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X |
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