Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora | A world on our shoulders

Of undeniable originality and with breathtaking graphics, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a great technical success full of discoveries. But this jungle is so dense that we get lost there.

Developed by Ubisoft’s Swedish studio Massive, to which we owe, among other things, The Division 2 And Far Cry 3, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora fits into the story directed by James Cameron in both films Avatars. Except that we start from an inverted premise: instead of a human who integrates with the natives of the planet Pandora called Na’vis, our character, female or male, is a Na’vi kidnapped and raised on a base military. When this project falls through, our Na’vi must relearn his culture and fight against the evil humans from the GDR who have come to ransack Pandora.

The art of harvesting

From the outset, we see that we are dealing with video game virtuosos, with colorful and vibrant images of Pandora and combat worthy of first-person shooter games developed by Massive. We must also admit from the outset, we are not madly infatuated with the universe ofAvatarwith its ecological metaphors without much subtlety.

But we have to tip our hat to the very ingenious reinvention of the usual RPG-style mechanics. Our character grows stronger by rediscovering ancestral skills, learning to make and manipulate Na’vi weapons while using human grenades, machine guns and hacking tools.

To regain health, our Na’vi has two gauges: the top one which regenerates, provided that the bottom blue one is strong enough. He can indifferently swallow military rations or meat and fruits harvested in the Pandoran jungle. Small surprising touch, you have to learn to harvest these fruits with a subtle combination of keys to obtain the best quality resource.

And we also have the possibility, as in Tears of the Kingdom, to cook our ingredients which then acquire greater efficiency. It’s up to you to discover which combinations are the most interesting.

The foundations are laid, it is with these tools that you will have to navigate the scenario and jump from one mission to another. You have to search every corner of this unexplored continent of Pandora located on the Western Frontier, find and associate with Na’vi clans, sabotage RDA installations and gather, hunt and inventory everything you come across.

The fauna and flora are confusing, it is impossible to know a priori what is dangerous or nourishing. We have Na’vi vision to help us analyze the environment, but it is so dense and so confusing that the exercise ends up making us dizzy.

Lost in the jungle

And don’t think this is an Avatar version of a classic shooter. There are a few moments of pure military combat but, in fact, direct confrontation with the GDR should ideally be avoided. The weapons we have available may improve with each mission, but we find ourselves clearly helpless in the face of these soldiers who appear from every corner and aim much better than you.

If there is a constant amazement at the very dense and original universe that is offered to us, we cannot help but rage on a few occasions. The missions are sometimes vague, the scenario where names and unknown concepts intermingle seems unclear and the indications are often very minimal. If the abundance of details dazzles us, it becomes an obstacle when it comes to spotting the enemy or the objects to harvest. Too often, in fact, we feel dropped into an incomprehensible world.

The impression, after around ten hours of play, is that the developers were remarkably inventive, supported by high-level technical capabilities, without having thought of filtering this overflow of ideas. In this fascinating world, the most patient will find happiness in browsing, discovering and moving forward step by step. The others would like to be offered a more solid common thread.