As someone who became a huge Avatar fan after rewatching the first movie back in 2019 and realizing "Oh, this fucking owns actually." and then having this announced before The Way of Water even had footage for us to see had me so excited for another round at a game that actually could get what the film went for. Well for better or worse Ubisoft was the right publisher for this.
Gonna get it out of the way the movies are peak blockbuster cinema, end of. James Cameron has not lost his touch and continues to not miss (as long as he's not producing a movie or making a documentary). Both Avatars are everything a blockbuster should be perfectly blending spectacle, incredible VFX, and a gaggle of characters you root for. The game on the other hand and I'm not gonna sugercoat it kind of fumbles this. It's story isn't downright terrible and it's serviceable as "event we can't go too crazy with cause it's canon and happens between movie 1 and 2", but man does it really lack that punch Cameron's talents give his movies. It really feels kind of like the new Zelda games where they came up with this insane incredible world to traverse and then remembered they needed a reason for any of that to happen or connect. I don't know how to better explain it than it just feels super bland and safe compared to the movies. When we finally get something akin to the Destruction of the Hometree or the Tulkun Hunt it just sort of feels like "WELL WE NEED A BIT LIKE THAT!" and while it's visually impressive and oppressive it's so late in a story where I haven't been nearly as endeared to these characters that it just feels like filling out a checklist. Also a smaller, but just as problematic issue for me is the music. It's good, nothing really bad about it, but it's a damn shame they don't riff or just straight up use more of James Horner's (absolute real one RIP) or Simon Franglen's incredible work throughout. War and Bad Parents are insane bangers and god I just wish more of the combat music sounded that fucking good. There's good imitations of their works, but that's just it. It feels like imitation. Imagine if a Star Wars game didn't use some John Williams. People would freak the fuck out.
All that aside fuck the story, fuck the kinda not as good as the movie's music. Ignore all of that shit cause where this game owns is capturing the vibe of being on Pandora. Holy shit this phrase is overused for games, but you really feel like a Na'vi. You bump your head on the ceiling indoors and you're so fast and traverse the underbrush and trees like a spider monkey on pure 99.9% genuine meth. It's the closest a game has come to feeling like Titanfall 2 since Titanfall 2 and it's an Avatar game of all things. A game based on a movie that clearly had a heavy influence on Titanfall 2. It's a match made in heaven. I played this shit for 70 hours and never once got tired of slide kicking and Captain Falcon kneeing RDA goons across their skulls. Add in the fun as hell gunplay (with an insane Shotgun holy hell it's so sick) and like the best of games while the story may falter in the place that matters more for video games which is playing it? This shit passes with flying colors.
Being away from Ubisoft open world games since Blood Dragon has probably helped my enjoyment of this too. I don't know what's reused, old, or new and I don't care! I win! I am feasting.
I haven't even talked about being able to fly on an Ikran and how crazy that shit is to be chilling in the skies and then you dive bomb a Scorpion shooting out it's wings. It's good shit. Get it if you like the movies I cannot recommend this enough if that applies to you. Hope to god the DLC stories introduce Recoms I need that insane anime type beat contrast of natural Pandora Na'vi vs Na'vi decked out in future tactical military gear.
FUCK AVATAR IS SO SICK GRAAAAAAAAHHHHH
Gonna get it out of the way the movies are peak blockbuster cinema, end of. James Cameron has not lost his touch and continues to not miss (as long as he's not producing a movie or making a documentary). Both Avatars are everything a blockbuster should be perfectly blending spectacle, incredible VFX, and a gaggle of characters you root for. The game on the other hand and I'm not gonna sugercoat it kind of fumbles this. It's story isn't downright terrible and it's serviceable as "event we can't go too crazy with cause it's canon and happens between movie 1 and 2", but man does it really lack that punch Cameron's talents give his movies. It really feels kind of like the new Zelda games where they came up with this insane incredible world to traverse and then remembered they needed a reason for any of that to happen or connect. I don't know how to better explain it than it just feels super bland and safe compared to the movies. When we finally get something akin to the Destruction of the Hometree or the Tulkun Hunt it just sort of feels like "WELL WE NEED A BIT LIKE THAT!" and while it's visually impressive and oppressive it's so late in a story where I haven't been nearly as endeared to these characters that it just feels like filling out a checklist. Also a smaller, but just as problematic issue for me is the music. It's good, nothing really bad about it, but it's a damn shame they don't riff or just straight up use more of James Horner's (absolute real one RIP) or Simon Franglen's incredible work throughout. War and Bad Parents are insane bangers and god I just wish more of the combat music sounded that fucking good. There's good imitations of their works, but that's just it. It feels like imitation. Imagine if a Star Wars game didn't use some John Williams. People would freak the fuck out.
All that aside fuck the story, fuck the kinda not as good as the movie's music. Ignore all of that shit cause where this game owns is capturing the vibe of being on Pandora. Holy shit this phrase is overused for games, but you really feel like a Na'vi. You bump your head on the ceiling indoors and you're so fast and traverse the underbrush and trees like a spider monkey on pure 99.9% genuine meth. It's the closest a game has come to feeling like Titanfall 2 since Titanfall 2 and it's an Avatar game of all things. A game based on a movie that clearly had a heavy influence on Titanfall 2. It's a match made in heaven. I played this shit for 70 hours and never once got tired of slide kicking and Captain Falcon kneeing RDA goons across their skulls. Add in the fun as hell gunplay (with an insane Shotgun holy hell it's so sick) and like the best of games while the story may falter in the place that matters more for video games which is playing it? This shit passes with flying colors.
Being away from Ubisoft open world games since Blood Dragon has probably helped my enjoyment of this too. I don't know what's reused, old, or new and I don't care! I win! I am feasting.
I haven't even talked about being able to fly on an Ikran and how crazy that shit is to be chilling in the skies and then you dive bomb a Scorpion shooting out it's wings. It's good shit. Get it if you like the movies I cannot recommend this enough if that applies to you. Hope to god the DLC stories introduce Recoms I need that insane anime type beat contrast of natural Pandora Na'vi vs Na'vi decked out in future tactical military gear.
FUCK AVATAR IS SO SICK GRAAAAAAAAHHHHH