I’ve to confess, once I first noticed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, I assumed it was only a reskinned Far Cry. If something, it jogged my memory of Far Cry: Primal. However I not too long ago had the chance to leap right into a two-hour hands-on expertise of an earlier part of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the place I noticed it isn’t simply Far Cry: Blue Version. Positive, there are similarities to the open-world system that Ubisoft has mastered through the years. However Frontiers of Pandora additionally builds upon the system, whereas additionally melding it to suit the world of Pandora.

Within the two hours I obtained to play, I solely obtained to discover a small portion of the world and expertise and even smaller a part of the story. Nevertheless, within the two hours I additionally obtained really feel for what developer Huge Leisure was going for. In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, you truly really feel like a Na’vi exploring the huge and exquisite world of Pandora stuffed with unbelievable wildlife.

Eywa has heard you

My gameplay demo dropped me in the course of an enormous forest in Pandora, with no instruction on what to do subsequent. Be mindful this isn’t the start of the sport, however fairly an early section that Huge and Ubisoft particularly picked. My solely trace was an obvious quest tracker within the prime left of the display screen that knowledgeable me I used to be presupposed to be gathering some Mangrove Hive Nectar for a ritual.

I seemed round and noticed an intricately lush amalgamation of vegetation and timber, identical to we’ve seen from the Avatar film. Excessive within the sky have been floating islands with waterfalls flowing off of them, and throughout me have been the various sounds of Pandora. Bugs chirped and buzzed, animals known as out to one another, and sticks crunched beneath my ft as I ran throughout the forest. As day turned to nighttime, the forest lit up with vibrant hues of blue and purple whereas vegetation started to mild up and glow in each route. That is actually Pandora.

However not solely was this certainly Pandora—I used to be certainly a Na’vi. Sprinting felt like second nature, as I zipped throughout the forest ground. You’ll be able to maintain the leap button, and the longer you maintain it, the additional and better you’ll leap. You’ll dash prime huge treetops as you leap from department to department, parkouring internationally.

I simply wished to level out that Huge clearly put within the effort to make Frontiers of Pandora really feel like Avatar within the necessary methods. The world of Pandora is so detailed that it might be probably the most lovely rendition we’ve seen of it but. And from a gameplay perspective, you actually really feel like you might be taking part in as a Na’vi.

I see you

Not lengthy into the gameplay, I discovered myself climbing atop an Ikran Rookery to forge my very own bond with an Ikran. The rookery itself required very good parkour that solely a Na’vi may efficiently pull off, as I climbed to the highest. From right here, gamers get entry to their very own Ikran. You’ll be able to name the Ikran at any time, together with once you’re freefalling from the very best factors of Pandora. Your Ikran will swoop beneath you permitting to mount it from the skies as you soar by means of the skies. It’s an amazing feeling, and as soon as once more creates the actual feeling of being a Na’vi in Pandora.

It additionally supplies an insanely quick methodology of journey, permitting you to fly to every location together with quest goals. It’s the form of function that all the time felt lacking from the massively open-world environments Ubisoft is understood for.

All power is just borrowed

After forging the bond with an Ikran, I encountered the RDA for the primary time. I used to be impressed to be taught that I’m in a position to interact in fight from atop the Ikran, firing a flurry of arrows at RDA ships as they tried to take me down. You can too leap off your Ikran at any time, which is a cool added gameplay factor. Not solely are you able to land on the bottom and dismount, however you may also leap off from midair. After all, there’s fall injury, so that you don’t need to leap off from too excessive.

The gunplay itself felt very concise and tight. For my hands-on, I obtained to cycle between a typical bow, a sniper bow that had longer vary, dealt extra injury, however took longer to re-nock, and an RDA assault rifle. I sometimes used the usual bow towards commonplace human enemies, switching to the sniper bow when issues have been exceptionally distant. The assault rifle appeared very sturdy, particularly at shredding the armor of the RDA’s mech fits. I sometimes want to play first-person-shooter video games with keyboard and mouse. Nevertheless, for this hands-on expertise, we have been beneficial to make use of a controller. I used a DualSense (PS5) controller and it felt nice. Actually, I’ll even select to play with a controller when Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora releases.

Finally I made my solution to an RDA mining outpost the place I had the choice of stealthing my means in and sabotaging and disabling the outpost quietly, or stepping into weapons blazing. I tried stealth however was noticed by somebody about midway by means of, which rapidly was a firefight. It was an intense battle as an increasing number of enemies swarmed the outpost. However as a Na’vi, the power to rapidly scale up buildings and out maneuver my enemies made it so the fight by no means felt unfair by any means.

General, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora felt like an correct illustration of taking part in as Na’vi on the planet of Pandora. It’s clear that is an open-world Ubisoft sport, however there’s sufficient completely different there to make it really feel like a contemporary expertise as properly. It’s merely enjoyable to discover Pandora as a Na’vi, and Huge has made it really feel pure.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora releases on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Sequence X|S on December 7.