Game Review – Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Hello, dear readers! My name is Victor, and I am a totally blind gaming, technology, and entertainment journalist. I am also an ambassador for universal design, an accessibility consultant, advocate, and tester.
Ubisoft’s highly anticipated Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora action video game is now available for PC and current-gen consoles, and after spending a few days with it, it’s time for me to let you know what I think. Developed by Massive Entertainment, which some of you may remember is actually a Ubisoft Studio, in close collaboration with James Cameron’s production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, and Disney, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a first-person adventure that takes place in the same timeline as the Avatar movies, built using the latest iteration of the Snowdrop engine.
We received our download code exactly on launch day and since then, Alina has been spending time in this captivating universe.
I have to admit that I am not a fan of the Avatar movies. I’ve tried to watch them multiple times, even when the first one was released a long time ago, and find them completely uninteresting. I don’t know why; maybe it’s the writing or the characters, but I cannot connect to anything or anyone in them. The only thing that I partially like about them is the world. So you can imagine my surprise when I realized that I actually enjoy the story in this game more than I did the movies.
Remembering the beautiful cinematography from the first movie, I am happy to report that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora manages to capture the look and feel of Pandora perfectly.
In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the human militaristic RDA corporation is back on Pandora, stripping away resources from the land. As if this wasn’t enough, they are also killing its blue inhabitants. We will play as a Na’vi, born on Pandora but abducted as a child and raised away from Na’vi culture.
After a short introductory segment filled with confused teenagers and quite a lot of drama, we are set free in the Western Frontier, a never-before-seen continent of the planet, complete with brand-new Na’vi clans, flora, and fauna. Once here, we are encouraged to explore the vibrant open world in single-player or online, in two-player co-op. There are a lot of things to do on Pandora, including a banshee companion to bond with and ride in the open skies.
Our main objective is to protect the Western Frontier from the RDA, reconnect with our lost Na’vi heritage, and unite the warring clans against the common enemy.
As expected, the gameplay is quite similar to what Ubisoft players are used to from the Far Cry series. Although we need to take down camps, upgrade our skills, shoot, or sneak our way through countless enemies and explore the planet for resources and secrets, the game has its own originality and atmosphere.
Throughout our adventure on Pandora we will encounter a variety of enemies, from RDA soldiers to fearsome wildlife, and we will need to use our Na’vi skills to outsmart and defeat them. We will use mainly primitive weapons such as bows or spears, but from time to time we can also turn the tables on our enemies and use their own powerful guns or grenades against them.
I understand that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora looks quite well. From the moment we step into the lush rainforests and soaring mountains of Pandora, we are immersed in a beautiful world. The graphics are truly remarkable at times, with vibrant colors and intricate details that bring Pandora to life in vivid ways. It seems that the Snowdrop engine is used to its full potential, creating a seamless and visually pleasing experience.
During my own time with the game, I noticed that the voice acting is good, and the soundtrack is excellent.
As you may already know if you follow me on social media, my own adventure with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was cut short because it lacked suitable accessibility features for blind gamers.
Although Ubisoft communicated transparently with the accessibility community about the entire suite of accessibility features we can expect in the game, a recent trend that other publishers need to take up as soon as possible, I wanted to try it out to see how it handles and if there is universal design involved.
You can check out my YouTube video if you want to see how that went…
Suffice it to say that the text-to-speech is broken; it does not read button prompts or tutorials. There is no navigation assist, no specific sound cues that blind players can use to find their way through the level, and the user interface uses a dated cursor-style navigation system that Ubisoft has known for many years that is problematic for the Blind. So practically, the game is completely inaccessible for gamers that can’t see.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora mainly plays like a blue-skinned Far Cry Primal shooter and there’s nothing wrong with that. I believe that fans of the Avatar movies should definitely give it a try because it really manages to capture Pandora in all its glory. The story is OK, the gameplay is fun, the world is huge, the graphics look well, and the music sounds epic.
Sadly, for me, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora feels like a huge step backward made by Ubisoft when it comes to blind accessibility. I guess that for everyone else, it depends on their abilities or disabilities if they are able to play and enjoy this game or not.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is now available worldwide on Ubisoft+, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Amazon Luna and PC through Ubisoft Connect.
Review copy provided by Ubisoft
Victor Dima
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