When Ubisoft introduced that it was making an Avatar recreation, I admit to it wasn’t essentially prime of my record of video games to play. I wasn’t a fan of the movies (don’t love them, don’t hate them) and the recreation regarded sort of generic in the teaser trailers. However when it got here nearer to launch, I admit I modified my thoughts. I had nice religion in builders Large Leisure in any case they’ve finished with The Division, and if anybody could make an open-world exploration recreation, it’s Ubisoft.

Additionally, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was popping out at the excellent time. Any earlier in the 12 months and it might have been drowned out by the deluge of extra thrilling video games, however early December is the excellent time for a by-the-numbers Ubisoft sandbox title. As I used to be mentally worn out from the extra advanced titles 2023 has thrown at me, I used to be prepared to love Frontiers of Pandora.

Now, after having performed it, I’ve one factor to say:

I fucking quit.

What in the Ubisoft help telephone tree…?

Let me paint you an image: I personal a number of gaming PCs, together with the one on which I do most of my work. Admittedly, I haven’t constructed a brand new one shortly, so that they’re not the most up-to-date rigs in existence, however they’ve managed each different recreation this 12 months with out challenge. And Frontiers of Pandora solely functioned on one of them. Once I tried to load it into my residence PC, it was comically damaged — we’re speaking quest triggers that don’t, invisible enemies and my character falling into black voids each jiffy.

Even after I loaded the recreation up on my work PC, the just one that might help it, it’s nonetheless having points. I used to be even anticipating some bugs – in any case, it’s a Ubisoft sandbox. I used to be not anticipating the recreation to be fully unplayable, with a number of in-game bugs, entire recreation crashes and even a number of save-game corruptions. After a sure level, I had to quit – it was simply an excessive amount of work. And whereas the recreation may be marginally extra useful on console, I’ve heard some gamers are working into the identical bugs there.

So to that finish, I’ll warn you up entrance that this recreation doesn’t get a ranking from me. As a result of I can’t evaluation a recreation that I can not play. I put a number of hours into the recreation – I actually tried my hardest to expertise as a lot as I may. However even after Ubisoft and Large have launched a number of patches, the recreation continues to be barely useful on my PC. And imagine me after I say I attempted all the fixes I may suppose of and nonetheless obtained crashes and corrupted saves.

So right here’s what I believed of Frontiers of Pandora, for what time I managed to play it.

It was all going so effectively: The great things

The sport takes place on the titular Pandora – and I hope you’ve seen the films, as a result of the recreation does little-to-nothing to assist you to perceive the world and the lore. It doesn’t even clarify what an Avatar is, however fortunately it doesn’t matter an excessive amount of. You’re an orphaned Na’vi, stolen by the villainous people of the RDA for brainwashing, however are saved when your Avatar trainer stuffs you in a cryochamber for 16 years whereas the occasions of the movie collection occur.

If you awake, you’re instantly thrust into the world of the Resistance, a human-Na’vi cohort attempting to oust the RDA from Pandora, in addition to the precise Na’vi tradition. You’re a Sarentu, a member of a misplaced tribe of nomadic storytellers – which roughly implies that you’re free to discover the map as you would like with out anybody questioning you. You should unite the native Na’vi tribes with the Resistance to battle the RDA whereas studying about your individual misplaced tradition.

If this recreation will get one real praise from me, it’s that it’s attractive. The world of Pandora is as lush and delightful in the recreation as it’s in the films, and the numerous biomes the participant can discover are all breathtaking, particularly as soon as your character will get a flying mount and might view them from above. There’s additionally a verticality to the terrain I not often see in sandbox titles like this – the Sarentu is regularly scaling cliffs or climbing bushes and it feels pure. The range of natural world helps hold the visuals attention-grabbing.

The motion and gunplay are additionally satisfying. Normally in a title like this, first-person navigation can be restricted to human agility and velocity. In Frontiers of Pandora, the Na’vi protagonist is quick and dexterous sufficient to parkour throughout the forest, making navigation on the dense forested areas extra enjoyable than anticipated. And if your individual blue toes aren’t ok, the recreation affords a number of animal mounts, together with the winged ikran, to velocity the course of.

The protagonist has entry to a handful of weapon varieties, all of which get the job finished of slaying villainous RDA forces. There’s not a lot selection, even with the compulsory crafting system, however there doesn’t actually need to be. The Sarentu comes with a built-in potential to see enemy weak factors, that means that fight is as quick paced and crisp at the starting of the recreation because it’s going to be.

I additionally recognize how low-key the “gamey” components are. There’s a restricted HUD that reveals you a normal well being and vitality meter, in addition to a compass which you’ll flip off in settings. All the things else solely seems if you use the in-game Na’vi senses (mainly Eagle Imaginative and prescient) to go searching. It’s clear and retains the participant’s eyes on the magnificence of the world round them. Does anybody keep in mind that previous King Kong FPS from 2005? Frontiers of Pandora’s HUD jogs my memory barely of that, particularly if you happen to flip off all of the optionally available components.

Sufficient about the Resistance: The unhealthy stuff

Since everybody already is aware of how I really feel about the recreation’s technical points, I received’t repeat them right here. The primary downside with Frontiers of Pandora itself is that, for a recreation so exotically lovely and with a lot story promise, it’s fairly fundamental. It’s a by-the-numbers sandbox with a humdrum primary story and a map full of factors to uncover. Like I stated earlier than, I used to be trying ahead to “fundamental” after a 12 months full of excessive highs and lows, however that doesn’t change the indisputable fact that the recreation by no means exceeded my expectations.

The story itself can be – effectively, I don’t need to say a “let down,” however there’s a glimmer of what may have been that will get smothered in banality fairly early in the recreation. The Sarentu participant character comes throughout as earnest and heartfelt, desperately wanting to join with Pandora’s dwelling spirit Eywa and their very own historical past. Had that been the recreation’s story, I believe I might have loved it extra. As a substitute, they nearly instantly get shanghaied into serving to the Resistance, which feels prefer it calls for extra loyalty than it deserves.

The entire recreation is about begging three Na’vi tribes to assist the Resistance, when it feels prefer it may have been about the Sarentu and their siblings studying extra about themselves and Pandora. The Na’vi they meet are actually prepared to educate them till they begin blathering about the Resistance. That is my good distance of saying none of the facet characters are deep or attention-grabbing and I failed to join with nearly everybody except for the Sarentu’s siblings.

That is compounded by the indisputable fact that there’s no actual risk from the RDA. Sure, they’re colonizing Pandora and have to be stopped, however there’s no sinister villain performed by Stephen Lang prepared to fly in and menace the Sarentu. There’s a villain – a besuited RDA pencil pusher and his navy lackey – however they solely make a couple of appearances and for the most half the participant character is battling faceless RDA troops. It begs the query, if one Na’vi (who’s barely a Na’vi) can take aside the RDA bases like they’re made of LEGO, why do we want the tribes to cooperate with us so badly?

So must you play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora?

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is at its greatest when it’s letting the participant discover Pandora and be a Na’vi – in different phrases, when it’s giving any fan of the Avatar movies precisely what they need. The sandbox is so lovely that, in every other 12 months, I’d need to give it a prize for its artwork design and the in-game motion and navigation is ideal, notably as soon as the participant will get a mount.

Nonetheless, if you happen to’re anticipating greater than a cookie-cutter sandbox title with boring characters and a narrative that doesn’t appear to go anyplace, you then’ll most likely be upset. As said, I can’t price the recreation as a result of I can’t end it (I can barely play it), however from what I’ve seen, I doubt there are any big and spectacular surprises ready for me in the closing third or so of the recreation.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is accessible on PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X/S and PC. Ubisoft gave GamesBeat a code for the functions of this “evaluation.”