Game: Avatar

Last Updated on July 26, 2021

Published
by: Ubisoft
Developed by: Ubisoft Montreal
Release
Date: December 2009
Available only on: Xbox 360, Playstation 3,
PC, DS, Wii

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THIS GAME HERE

INTRO: Hey, another movie
tie-in! Based on the most expensive movie ever made! This one takes you
deep into the heart of Pandora where you will encounter the Na’Vi, that
race of weird blue people. Serving as a prequel to the flick, this one
has a fairly generic plot and the characters are sort of dull. The
jungle setting seems sort of lackluster too, despite being well
animated. You’re Alec Ryder, human RDA signals specialist and you get
to see how the Avatars are made. You’re a prime candidate too, so it’s
up to you to take over the Avatar and mine the (ugh) Unobtanium. You
get a choice early on too, to stick with the RDA or hug trees and save
the earth with the Na’vi. It’s a cool choice, but it doesn’t affect
much. Read on!

GAMEPLAY:

The
gameplay here is really generic and nothing all that special. You spend
a lot of time shooting targets and picking up items in the standard
‘find it and talk to this person’ sort of deal where you go back and
forth ad nauseum. You do earn experience along the way and can get some
decent little perks like health regeneration, invisibility and other
such stuff (if you play as the Na’vi).

If you stick with the RDA, you get lots of cool vehicles like jeeps and
helicopters. If you play with the Na’vi, you have to get close to bad
guys and slash them up with hand weapons. They’re also nine feet tall,
which makes for a cool visual effect. Besides these differences, you’ll
likely get tired of this game pretty quickly because it gets really
repetitive. There are some missions where you have to do the same thing
three times and you don’t even have any sense of urgency like a time
limit or anything. Just kill stuff, rinse and repeat.

Another annoying thing is the camera. The game is played in 3rd person
but your character seems to be centered to the left and that forces you
to constantly compensate when you’re moving around. Also, the mini-map
is terrible and will leave you more confused than anything.

Gameplay:
6/10

GRAPHICS:

Pandora looks great,
especially at night. It’s a beautiful thing to watch the water effects,
the game looks like a trippy 70s black light sort of deal and it’s
pretty incredible. It looks great during the day too. The lighting is
fantastic, the effects are good too. The characters look awesome as
well, especially the Na’vi, who are well detailed. The RDA characters
look a little bland, but they still work well with the rest of the
flourishing environment. There’s a ‘3d’ option here with glasses, but
it didn’t work on my TV.

Graphics:
8.5/10

AUDIO:

Sound is also well done, great sound effects, fantastic music and
special attention was given to weapon noises and the like. Great voice
acting too, although some of it sounds a bit lame from time to time
when you hear a stupid line. Definitely movie-quality stuff.

Audio:
8.5/10

FINAL VERDICT:

Well it’s no Chronicles
of Riddick, but this game doesn’t suck completely. Clearly the
producers at Ubisoft Montreal were working hard to make a quality
product but fell short in the gameplay department. The single-player is
just too repetitive on either side of the coin and the multiplayer
aspects for online play are really basic and generic, offering only
basic deathmatch, team deathmatch, King of the Hill, Capture and Hold,
Final Battle modes. I would probably stick with the movie, and hell, if
you loved it, this game’s worth your while- add half a point if you’re
a big Avatar mark.

Final
Score: 6/10

BUY
THIS GAME HERE