Set shortly before Avatar: The Way of Water , Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora takes players to the never-before-explored Western Frontier of Pandora. They take on the role of a Na'vi who was taken as a child by the RDA and trained as a soldier before they are put into suspended animation. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora sees players wake up fifteen years later and embark on a standalone story uniting the Frontier clans against the RDA.
Game Rant recently had the chance to play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora for roughly 2.5 hours, completing four main missions, doing a sidequest or two, and exploring the lands. What's immediately clear is how much of the game is designed for exploration, as that was the most novel part of the experience, and that translates over to combat and map design as well. Indeed, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora eschews the typical Ubisoft formula for open-world games for something a little different.
When first looking at the map of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora , it clearly looks as busy as any Ubisoft game . Expanding the map all the way out also showed us how big the area was, at least twice the size of the playable section we were given (which we could not explore all of during our time with the game), and everywhere the save file hadn't been before us was covered in clouds. There are color-marked areas, marked for resource gathering; names across wider regions, indicating things like swamps; and a few select stand out areas marked like the Home Tree. Some areas like the Ikran Rookery weren't specifically marked until we made it to them for the quest, so it's clearly a map that develops over time.
The big distinction from most Ubisoft open-world games is how that map is filled in. While the map showed RDA base areas, they were worked in the background of the map instead of an icon marking their location; in other words, they seemed like a natural part of the map and not something interactive like a radio tower in Far Cry . We also didn't see anything resembling collectibles like relics, lost letters, or anything of the sort during our time with the game. There were fast travel points like Na'vi camps for us to use, but while the map has the size and girth of any typical Ubisoft game, it didn't seem to have the bloat of icons that sometimes overwhelm players. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora also gives players the option of playing in a standard guided mode, where players can use waypoints to mark where they need to travel for some quests, or in a mode where players can only rely on context clues for travel. Either way, players are given context clues like "a giant stone monolith covered in purple flowers" to help narrow down where they are supposed to go.
This absolutely drives exploration in the game, and the environment design of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is clearly top-notch. While running around the forests, we encountered beneficial and detrimental flora. There were green plants that would explode if we got too close, plants that would shock us, plants that would block our path until we completed a puzzle, plants that gave us a speed boost, plants that launched us into the air, plants that would drop climbing points for us, and much, much more. And again, this was in a very small taste of what Avatar has to offer. Our favorite plant proved to be just about everywhere, and it was always a collection of plants that would shrink as we ran through and make a satisfying, whimsy "ploop" sound. It didn't do anything else, but it was enough to get a laugh plenty of times.
On top of that, exploring the tree limbs and tree tops is a lot of fun. Across these are a lot of plants that boost speed, and it saw us zipping, diving, dash, and jumping from point to point in a way not unlike a good Assassin's Creed parkour run . Whereas that emphasizes stealth, freedom, and coordination, this emphasizes speed, being at one with nature, and the limber physique of the Na'vi. The result is a fun environmental design that shows Massive's attention to detail, makes for a unique method of exploration in a Ubisoft open-world game, and really represents what Avatar is all about. It doesn't seem perfect though, as we found ourselves on quite a few long treks where we only really had sprinting across the ground floor as the only option.
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Another drawback when it comes to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora 's map and exploration focus is the inherent complexity of the dense design. For example, there was a point where we had to fly our Ikran to the peak of a floating mountain. Despite being right where the marker indicated we should be, we were actually on the mountain floating beneath the right one. Sometimes, the waypoints would be imprecise forcing us to search the area for the exact spot we needed to go. Combine this with long treks, and it could easily become a point of frustration for players. However, the trade-off of this accuracy is a dense map that offers ton of exploration opportunities.
Seemingly, Massive's answer to the long treks is the Ikran flight . This sped up going from destination to destination as soon as it was unlocked, but given we were at least a few hours into the game, it feels like it might be something that comes a little too late for some players. Ikran flight, overall though, is still a lot of fun and may be worth the wait for some players; jumping off a massive mountain, falling for a considerable time, and mounting the Ikran at the last possible second was pure and exhilarating experience. This doesn't abandon the entire "long trek" element of its exploration, but it does shorten it considerably. Furthermore, players are able to name their Ikran, and if players at least go with one of the pre-selected names, the player character will say it in dialogue. We couldn't resist name our Ikran Floof, just adding to the underlying humor found within the game.
Story-wise, the four main missions we did involved us aiding the Aranahe clan of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora in resolving an issue with the Klingor, bonding with our Ikran, taking down some flying machines of the Sky People, and assaulting one of their bases. Climbing the Ikran Rookery really put the environmental design to the test, giving us a circular chasm to climb and run up through where we interacted with some of the aforementioned flora, did a fun bouncing puzzle, and took giant leaps from place to place. It's such a simple task to give a player, but one that shines in terms of vertical gameplay design.
The assault on the base was also incredibly fun, topping many of the best outposts in Far Cry games . To destroy and take over the base, there were a handful of activities throughout we had to complete. Unlike Far Cry 6 outposts where it was as simple as destroy a propanganda billboard and killing the soldiers, we had to about three different objectives to complete before ascending to hack and take over the base. It's uncertain if every outpost operates the same way, but contextually, it wouldn't make a lot of sense unless they were all oil rigs. There's also a stealth option to taking over the bases, and while we tried, we didn't get far before a full-on brawl and fight for our life broke out.
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Combat in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is fast-paced, exciting, and even hilarious at times. At our disposal was a Heavy Bow with standard arrows and explosive arrows, a longbow with standard arrows and another kind of special arrow, an RDA assault rifle (with two ammo types, the second for shredding armor), and a throwing stick that allowed us to toss explosives and things that would cause status effects. The heavier weaponry came in handy when fighting the bigger mechs, while we'd switch to simpler ammo to take out individual soldiers. These soldiers are easy to kill, but they certainly pack a punch. In a quick face-off, a soldier fired a rocket at us before we could line up our arrow shot, and we saw the rocket flying toward us with explosive results.
At the same time, using the explosive arrows on the mech saw them explode, and sometimes the mech would go berserk and the soldier on the inside would be screaming hysterically. Lining up kill lanes, kiting enemies, and using the environment to our advantage made it feel like the combat is in close competition with the exploration.
However, it too had a noticeable drawback, and that was a lack of general combat encounters. Across those four main missions we completed, assaulting that base was the only time we ever really drew a bow or a gun for combat purposes. We could hunt a few creatures while exploring Pandora, but that was using a bow to get good shots similar to how Assassin's Creed 3 handles hunting . Even looting the animal leads to the main character saying a few words in commemoration and thanks. Yet, we only encountered one very small and short combat encounter when exploring the world, leading to it feeling like there's a lot of downtime and not allowing the combat to live up to its sheer potential. It could be the full game is different, but this sequence of missions and areas did lean more heavily into exploration than its combat.
avatar frontiers Of pandora weapons: Frontiers of Pandora is set to release for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on December 7. Game Rant played Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora via a remote preview.
