Overall the game is a visual treat, though the quests and battles are repetitious and not as exciting as one would hope coming off as a movie tie-in. It is worthy of a rent and go when there isn’t much else going on, but not one recommended for purchase and repetitive play.
Avatar: The Game takes its story, setting and characters from James Cameron’s recent hit film, Avatar. It is a third-person action video game that was released on the Playstation 3 and PSP, the Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii and DS, and the iPhone on December 1st, 2009 (December 8th for the PSP). The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft and has a rating of ESRB: T.
There are two modes to the game, single player and cooperative play, as well as the chance to choose between 12 different male and female characters. As you browse the selection, the rendering of that character’s avatar is also available so you are able to see just what you are getting. The game uses an auto save system that saves pretty frequently throughout gameplay.
Choose Your Side
The gist of the storyline is that you are a character named Able Ryder who goes to the alien planet moon, Pandora, located in the Alpha Centauri star system. A military group named RDA has set up their positions on Pandora to battle the Na’vi (indigenous people of Pandora)and mine for their precious mineral, ubontanium. Soon after you arrive and venture into the land, you are faced with a decision. Will you choose to battle alongside your fellow humans? Or will you become a protector of the Na’vi?
This is a crucial moment, not just for the life of your character, but in your style of gameplay. If you choose to remain with the RDA (Humans), the game will remain as a third person shooter and from there on, your Na’vi avatar becomes unavailable. If you decide to side with the Na’vi, RDA characters will be unplayable BUT the game now becomes a third-person adventure.
Battlefield With A View
Because of the film, there were high expectations for the graphics of Avatar: The Game. The cinema bits are, sadly, disappointing. But for the world and gameplay, the graphics are just, to put it simply, gorgeous. The landscape, shrubbery, weaponry, base objects (such as the mesh on the satellites, nuts and bolts here and there, wood texture on crates, fabric on the straps, and details on the computer screens to name a few), plant life, creatures, and even the Na’vi were done in amazing details and the textures used weUghre perfect.
The setting is well lit, clear and sharp.
<h>Seriously?!
Aside from the graphics, there are a few noticeable irritants from the get go. A small gripe is the inability to pause during the cinema and it would be nice to be able to review current quests and those that have been completed. The camera positioning throughout the game is awkward, and at times, debilitating. The door system at the base you first arrive at is, for a lack of a better word, annoying. Once you enter a set of doors, you are locked into a small space and have to wait about 4-5 seconds before the second doors open. This is okay for entry in to and out of the actual compound, but for the doors inside? This was definitely something that could have been shortened. Luckily, the areas that have doors away from the compounds do not have this annoying delay.
The biggest gripe of them all is the written parts – subtitles, quests, information on various items, etc. ALL the writing made the game frustrating. The type is very small and very tight to the point it almost seems to blur here and there. It’s a definite eye strainer. Sure, the interactions between characters are voiced, but what if you are hearing impaired or are simply trying to keep the telly low in order not to wake sleeping members of your household?
And the quests? Reading the quest details is shoddier than trying to read the character conversations. The heading is the only writing that’s satisfactorily legible. Bold, strong and bigger. Unfortunately, the details revert back to that teeny tiny font and to make things even worse, it’s slightly transparent, increasing the difficulty ten-fold.
Despite going through the menu options, there seems to be no solution. You are able to fiddle with the inputting, the size of the television and tinker with your distance from the set, but with no change in font size whatsoever. Reading instructions and such for any game has never been a really notable issue until now. It is heartbreaking when one thinks about the details these game designers went through to include various backstories, instructions, history, etc in the Pandora-pedia for the various plant life, creatures, weaponry, skills, and personnel. What’s the point if you can’t read it?
Finding Your Way
Moving on, maps are provided in the game to help you reach your quest destination. A small map is made available at the bottom right of the screen while a larger map is accessible by going through the select menu.
The start menu pulls up a selection to view weapons, armor, skills, experience, the Pandora-Pedia, options, and to quit the game. It is worth noting that in the options menu, you have the ability to turn on 3D. This usually requires an HDMI I/O connection and a 120 hz capable set, but according to the Avatar: The Game forums, you do have the option of outputting in most standard stereoscopic 3D formats as long as the television or monitor is 3D-Enabled. It must be 3D-Enabled in order to decode and display the game in stereoscopic 3D.
Move Over, Wiki
Accessing the Pandora-Pedia will pull up even more information that can come in handy during gameplay. There are options to view information about Pandora’s flora, fauna, and geography; the Tree of Voices (the Na’vi) and RDA files (which will provide information on weapons and armor as well as a variety of other subjects) and Personnel files. The Personnel file contains your character’s biography, audio journal and tutorials.
Controls
Basic Controls:
RT analog – camera control. Also clicking the rt analog snaps the view 180 degrees
T analog – movement
Y – communicate and investigate objects that will be stored in the Pandora-pedia and is also used to reload your weapon.
A – jump
R2 – shoot
L2 – Dodge
Additional Control Information:
Whether you continue the game as a human or a Na’vi, each race will have a set of skills – such as the Ultrasonic Repulsor, Genetic Regenerator, and Chromatic Blend. These skills allow you to hold off enemies for a short time, heal yourself, or blend in to your surroundings. To access these skills, you would hold down the L1 and press Y, B, A, or X to activate.
You will gain more and more skills as you journey on and a bonus is the ability to assign the skills to whichever of the four buttons you see fit.
Humans
As a human, you will come across vehicles that you will be able to operate and travel in. The controls are pretty basic whether driving the buggy or cruising on the gator.
LT analog steers the vehicle
RT analog controls the camera view
Y allows you to exit vehicle
R2 accelerates the vehicle
L2 allows you to either brake or reverse.
Just a little note:
The buggy is fun to drive, easy to navigate and it sure tears up the road, but it is possible to completely break your buggy by crashing into things. Also, you CAN set it on fire and cause it to explode if you happen to drive it into deep water.
The Na’vi
For the Na’vi, instead of vehicles, you will have creatures that you can hop on for a ride. The first one you run into is the Direhorse. To ride:
RT – run
LT Analog – steer and move
RT Analog – camera view
A – jump
