Avatar: The Frontiers of Pandora
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a beautiful game in the literal sense of the word. Unfortunately, the gameplay struggles to match the high level of graphics. There are certainly memorable peaks, but around them there is also a lot of less impressive content and it starts to feel a little repetitive as time goes on. However, the game has enough to keep players interested for dozens of hours, if only because the game world is worth exploring in its entirety.
Since James Cameron’s Avatar hit theaters in 2009, the franchise has become a household name. The sequel to this movie took a while, but it didn’t really matter. Last year’s Avatar: The Way of Water proved that Avatar can be considered among the biggest film series today. A third (2025) and fourth (2029) film is already on the calendar. On the heels of the first film, the first Avatar game was also released. That match had some beautiful moments, but at the same time it turned out to be unforgettable. The question is whether this second match will have a better fate.
Private road
However, this game immediately does something completely different from the previous Avatar game. It basically followed the story of the movie, as do many games based on movie franchises. We now live in a different time. Many studios have already shown how to make good games based on movies and other franchises, and one thing seems clear; Telling your own story is always better than retelling a movie story in a slightly different way. Ubisoft has given this new Avatar game its own story. The game certainly references events from the films, but it also allows the player to follow their own path. There are rumors that the game contains elements that return in the third film, but that remains to be seen.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora begins in the past, long before the Battle of the Hallelujah Mountains. That battle revolved around the attack by humans, or the Resource Development Department, on the Sacred Tree of Souls. During that battle, the RDA was defeated by Na’Vi fighters, the original inhabitants of the planet Pandora. Of course, you probably know this story from the first movie.
The game shows how a group of Na’Vi from the Satentu tribe were raised and trained by the RDA as allies of the RDA. It soon became clear that this did not depend on harmonious cooperation when RDA leader Mercer shot one of Na’Vi’s most brutal children to set an example. However, when RDA loses the Battle of the Hallelujah Mountains and withdraws from Pandora, the training program ends. Mercer orders his soldiers to kill the children, but Alma, a human who, like Jake Sully, usually has her consciousness in her Na’Vi avatar, saves them. She leads the children into a room where they are placed in cold sleep containers. When the RDA return to Pandora sixteen years later, it is Alma who saves them once again. It now appears that Alma has become part of a small coalition of people and Na’Vi who oppose the returning RDA.
The player, who is always addressed in the game as The Sarentu, learns that he is part of an ancient tribe famous as storytellers. The Saranto were more or less the Na’vi historians. From that background, Sarentu is the perfect person to ensure the various Na’Vi tribes in the region unite against the RDA. Only then will Na’Vi have a chance to win a potential battle and save Pandora from destruction. Because it soon becomes clear that the RDA does not have the best interests of the planet in mind.
