Avatar Frontiers of Pandora could be the best Far Cry in years

Earlier than I start my somewhat embarrassing anecdote from the current in-person Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora preview occasion, I ought to set the scene. After being bundled right into a dimly lit room together with another journalists by the beautiful representatives from Ubisoft, I took my seat and, following some temporary steerage on the controls, I used to be then let free to play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Fairly quickly after, I discover the at the moment lively quest: “Collect mangrove hive nectar to make niktsyey for the kinglor queen ritual.”

Thus, pricey reader, I started my hour-long trek via the dense forest within the hopes that I’d discover some nectar. Nicely… I say nectar, however because it seems, it was extra like all the honeycomb, however let’s not get forward of ourselves.

In Frontiers of Pandora, a number of Na’vi orphans are put into suspended animation and get up 15 years later, when people have already returned to colonize Pandora. As considered one of these orphans, you’ll enterprise throughout the Western Frontier to find your origins and assist the native Na’vi resistance drive again the RDA.

Like a moth to a flame, I used to be instantly distracted by the sheer quantity of colour on the display screen. If there’s one factor that Frontiers of Pandora actually captures from the Avatar movies, it’s the wild, stunning jungles crammed with odd vegetation and much more bizarre-looking creatures. I had no clue the place to start in my seek for nectar, so it wasn’t lengthy earlier than I put it to the again of my thoughts, lined up photographs with the picture mode, and took photos like a vacationer in the midst of the Amazon.

After my impromptu picture shoot, I ran across the jungle searching the native wildlife. It’s right here that I get my first whiff that this FPS game shares many similarities with the Far Cry collection, besides that, as a Na’vi, I can soar a lot additional and scale towering partitions. I’m impressed that weapons all really feel responsive and do far more harm to enemies than I anticipated at this stage. The controls themselves, basically, have been hardly ever a difficulty, however extra on that later.

I additionally take a while navigating the stock and abilities menus, tinkering with loadouts consisting of a variety of RDA and Na’vi weapons, in addition to armor to guard your Na’vi avatar. Every bit of armor grants small perks whereas additionally permitting the addition of mods to tinker with their visible design. Expertise are a mix of the traditional well being upgrades and harm boosts you’ve seen in related Ubisoft video games prior to now, however there are extra thematic examples, corresponding to one that enables uncooked meals elements to replenish twice the power they sometimes would.

In my quest to seek out some honey, I encountered the aftermath of a battle between the Na’vi and the RDA. Among the many particles is Aleymun, a Na’vi attempting to piece collectively precisely what occurred. I agree to assist her, which entails interacting with gadgets and linking them to get an image of what occurred. Through the use of a particular Na’vi Senses view, not too dissimilar to the Detective View from the Batman Arkham video games, I quickly piece collectively what occurred earlier than I’m instructed to maneuver on to cease one other squadron from establishing a mining base.

It’s right here that I work out that the Na’vi Senses additionally act as a navigation device, and it’s the one factor I discovered to be a problem. It wasn’t simply because we have been dropped into the center of the jungle to fend for ourselves, however extra in order that the UI iconography was complicated. If I have been far-off from the target, I’d see a big beam of sunshine, however on method, it could turn into neon claw marks after which disappear completely once I was within the appropriate location. This brought on me to slide up a number of instances, whether or not it was in my honey hunt or looking for a gathering spot close to a campfire afterward within the demo.

So it’s round this time I try the primary quest once more to seek out the honey. Because it seems, the mangrove hive nectar was in a hyper-specific location underneath a tree that I will need to have walked previous quite a few instances earlier than truly discovering it, no due to the navigation. Fortunately, I nonetheless have over an hour to expertise Frontiers of Pandora, so I press on. From there, I report my sticky findings to a close-by contact, and after skipping a little bit of the sport to save lots of time, I’m quickly chasing an Ikran up a mountaintop.

This sequence was a spotlight, because it confirmed that Frontiers of Pandora options environmental puzzles that stored me on my toes whereas additionally thrilling me with catapult launches and a tense second the place the very Ikran I’m attempting to tame decides to activate me. Finally, I bond with the Ikran, whom I identify Storm, considered one of a number of predetermined selections. Earlier than I do know it, I’m flying via the air with my new pterodactyl-like pal.

Flying is all the time a rip-roaringly good time, and I’m quickly performing aerial acrobatics with my new winged pal. Identical to the bottom motion and gunplay, the flight controls on PC are buttery easy, and I’m quickly performing breakneck stunts to check my mobility. You can too shoot your weapons whereas on an Ikran, which was useful when some drones determined I used to be getting too near their base. My mission is now to determine the best way to destroy the RDA aerial units hanging round within the sky, and that brings us to hacking.

The thought is comparatively easy: open the hatch by lining up a circle, then hint a cursor throughout a display screen from the start of the trail to the tip. It’s nothing too advanced, nevertheless it’s throughout this hacking minigame that I noticed Ubisoft clearly desires us all to play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora with a PlayStation controller to get the whole expertise. It’s because hacking depends on haptic suggestions to convey data. As a PC gamer used to keyboard and mouse, which has none of that tech, the minigame isn’t as cool, as you simply press buttons till you get in.

My subsequent goal is to raid an RDA base, blasting my means via enemies in mech fits and making an attempt to change off oil extractors in a second the place the sport feels essentially the most like Far Cry. Nonetheless, halfway via, I’m instructed my session is over, and I instantly really feel considerably conflicted about my time with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. On the one hand, it clearly requires some refinement to make navigation simpler, however every part else felt good to play.

We’re nonetheless some weeks away from the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora release date, however I favored what I noticed. It’s a visually beautiful expertise on PC, and in the event you’re a fan of the Avatar movies, this feels fairly spot on. That stated, whereas I noticed a variety of the open-world game, notably throughout my misadventures whereas looking for honey, I nonetheless sense there’s extra to find deeper within the jungle.