Découverte du jeu Avatar : les frontières de Pandore par Ubisoft

When December comes, we all dream of taking a dream trip abroad to put an end to a busy year. Today, the Ubisoft studio pushes this wish to the extreme, inviting players more than four light years away from Earth with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The result: a stay we’ve been waiting for a long time, but in an environment that is less welcoming than anticipated.

Welcome to Pandora, a distant exomoon created by American filmmaker James Cameron for the Avatar cinematic universe in 2009. But for this journey, the Ubisoft studio gives us almost complete freedom to explore its leafy and verdant lands at our leisure, at the helm of a Na’vi (or a Na’vi, as desired), these well-known humanoid blue creatures.

This time, however, the roles are reversed. If James Cameron’s films revolved around humans trying to acclimate to the inhabitants of Pandora, the game features a Na’vi character kidnapped by Earthlings eager to educate them according to their customs and traditions.

Once free, the player-controlled Na’vi must reacquaint themselves with their own culture and fight the RDA, an Earth organization that has taken liberties on the planet Pandora at the expense of its nature.

Confusing Missions

All of this seems, in theory, quite simple. But in practice, it’s a different story. The quests offered to the player are often messy and confusing, with instructions formulated in incomprehensible jargon for novices.

Hack and destroy the cooling device of a drill? Find the pneumatic Echo tower? Okay… but where? And how? You have to figure it out – and often be patient – to find the mechanisms and processes to use, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora providing very few tips to the player on a mission.

Not to mention the combat mechanics that are not instinctive and the rather outdated weapons at our disposal, two elements that make the encounters difficult and sometimes unpleasant. We have also unnecessarily complicated tasks as simple as picking fruits or resources, forcing the player to find different manual maneuvers to pick up several trinkets in nature. A good idea on paper, but it quickly becomes boring and greatly complicates the most trivial tasks.

Magnificent

Fortunately, all of this takes place in invariably magnificent and luminous environments. Because even though we often lose our bearings in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, we never cease to be amazed by the landscapes, both diurnal and nocturnal, recreated with frankly impressive meticulousness.

Our stay on Pandora may not have been the most harmonious. But it remains memorable.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora ★★★☆☆

Available on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC