Massive Entertainment’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will let players explore an open-world Pandora for the first time, with a canonical story tying into James Cameron’s hugely successful blockbuster franchise, but its gameplay seems reminiscent of another major Ubisoft series: Far Cry. Ubisoft ended support for Far Cry 6 in November 2023 with a final update, with the company’s next open-world FPS, Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora arriving just one month later to fill that gap.
Similarly to the movies, Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora will focus on the alien Na’vi tribes as they try to protect their home planet from being plundered for resources by the Resource Development Administration (RDA). Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora puts players in the position of a Na’vi who was kidnapped by the RDA as a child. Here, they were trained with their futuristic military tech to become an asset to the organization. At some point 15 years later, this protagonist seems to escape the RDA somehow and begins reintegrating with the Na’vi clans, combining the traditional skills they are learning from the Na’vi with the knowledge from the RDA to make them a “child of two worlds“.
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora – Story, Gameplay & Release Date
Here’s everything we know so far about the release date, price, story, and gameplay for Ubisoft’s open-world game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora’s Formula Resembles Far Cry’s
Both Games Consist Of Fighting An Evil Regime In An Open-World FPS
Much like Ubisoft’s Far Cry titles, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora consists primarily of first-person shooter gameplay in a massive open-world environment. The game combines an array of futuristic weapons such as the RDA’s guns with the more traditional bows and arrows of the Na’vi, with equipment that can be upgraded by collecting plants and other resources across the map.
Each Far Cry game since 2008’s Far Cry 2 seems to have players fighting some kind of new regime in a different environment. Most of these games – with the exception of Far Cry: New Dawn, which was a direct sequel to Far Cry 5 – serve as an anthology and have to establish new characters, enemies, and locations with each entry. However, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has the advantage of being canonical to the pre-established Avatar movie universe, so most players will already know the kind of threat they’re up against before even starting the game.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora features the RDA’s John Mercer as the main figurehead within the evil regime the player is tasked with taking down. Mercer’s role seems to be taking the place of Far Cry‘s dictators and cult leaders, such as Far Cry 4’s Pagan Min, Far Cry 5‘s Joseph Seed, and Far Cry 6‘s Antón Castillo. Mercer has a personal relationship with the protagonist, however, having been responsible for their abduction and indoctrination into the RDA as a child, which should make for some interesting conflicts when the two cross paths in the game.
The Far Cry titles saw players teaming up with rebel forces to free the land of their oppressors by clearing out various enemy bases, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will have players taking a similar approach to its open-world gameplay. The RDA has set up many bases across Pandora that are designed to extract its resources but cause widespread pollution. Conquering these bases and stopping the RDA from harming and poaching some of the planet’s creatures as well will list this pollution and allow Pandora to organically “heal“.
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora Season Pass – Story DLC & Differences
There are several editions of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora available with varying content, and its season pass includes further story DLC missions.
Frontiers Of Pandora’s Location Is What Will Set It Apart
Exploration Is Key In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
With the game’s core shooter gameplay in mind, it’s somewhat surprising that the initial vision for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was extremely different, with less of a focus on action and more on the cultural exploration of Pandora and the tribes and wildlife that inhabit it. Avatar producer, Jon Landau stated that unfortunately, this “didn’t fit into the gaming model“, but explained that plenty of features outside of shooting, such as cooking, were still incorporated to set it apart from other first-person shooters like Far Cry, providing a better insight into the way the Na’vi live outside their ongoing battle against the RDA.
It’s clear that the exploration offered in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will also make for a different experience from the Far Cry series. Whereas the Far Cry games do allow players to drive land vehicles, and have other traversal mechanics such as gliding or grappling depending on the title, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will let players tame and bond with the creatures on Pandora, such as the flying Ikran or the giant Zakru of the Upper Planes before utilizing them as mounts.
This approach to traversal taps into the interconnectivity between the Na’vi and nature that’s been explored in Cameron’s movies and makes for a far greater experience than simply using these creatures as a method to get from one point to another. The Ikran can also assist with aerial combat against the RDA, with the option to take down bases from above being a far more tempting prospect than infiltrating them on the ground.
The Far Cry games also include features such as scavenging in the open world to make weapon upgrades or health potions, but Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora seems to be pushing this even further. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora‘s approach to the scavenging process aligns more with the films’ focus on flora and fauna and further makes Pandora feel richer as a location by having different biomes which each spawn different plants and resources, encouraging further exploration.
Massive Entertainment’s choice to center its game in a new part of Pandora that hasn’t been seen before in the films will also help with providing a new experience despite having some familiar elements. It’s clear that while Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora may seem to share its core gameplay mechanics with the Far Cry games, its location and worldbuilding will be what makes the game feel more unique, as players will finally be able to dive into Cameron’s beloved alien planet firsthand and learn more about its lore.
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora
- Franchise:
- Avatar
- Platform(s):
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Amazon Luna
- Released:
- 2023-12-07
- Developer(s):
- Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft
- Publisher(s):
- Ubisoft
- Genre(s):
- Action, Adventure, First-Person Shooter
- ESRB:
- T
