(Old review – from the original HNTDAAB) Publisher: Ubisoft Developer: Ubisoft Year of Release: 2009 Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360 When Ubisoft dragged James Cameron up to talk about Avatar...

(Old review – from the original HNTDAAB)

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
Year of Release: 2009
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360

When Ubisoft dragged James Cameron up to talk about Avatar at E3 2009, they gave the impression that this movie game would be the one that broke the trend of film tie-ins always being bad. Unfortunately, this has turned out to be a load of rubbish as Avatar is nothing more than an average third person shooter/action adventure. Mr Cameron, we are disappointed.

The game takes place two years before the events of the film, and sees you, playing as a signal specialist who is part of the avatar program, involved in an attempt by the RDA to defeat the Navvi once and for all. Less then an hour in, you have to choose either to play as the gun heavy RDA or as the melee focused Navvi. You are locked to this decision for the rest of the game, although it does provide you an extra save at the division point allowing you to experience both sides without having to go through the early tutorial.

As the RDA, it turns into a competent third person shooter with you using a range of weapons and various vehicles to fight the Navvi in a variety of jungle environments (rocky jungle, junglely jungle, jungle with digger; the list is endless). The missions are a very repetitive, in an almost MMO style requiring long treks on foot between various quest givers who stand around with a big yellow arrow over their heads. The combat is alright, with the weapons all having a good kick to them (especially the heavy machine gun and grenade launcher) and a set of powers to assist. This range from useless (few situations use the cool invisibility power) to the nigh-on essential (I’m amazed the regenerator isn’t a permanent choice). You can only have three selectable weapons, as well as dual wielded pistols, and four powers so it comes down to picking the most powerful combination and sticking with it. You also have a suit of armour which, alongside the weapons and skills, are levelled up as you gain experience from killing the flora and fauna of Pandora as well as fulfilling objectives. I quite like the system as it is more interesting then simply “there are guns lying around the map – go find” although there is the same disappointment with some of the levels

If you instead decide to defend Pandora and side with the Navvi, then you are instead playing a third person adventure game, like a cut down and western version of Zelda. You only have two ranged weapons (including the massive machine gun from the film) but also get a dual wield set of swords and a big whacking staff. However, its not quite as good as playing the RDA as everything just seems so less precise and less enjoyable. I recommend sticking with the RDA unless you really want to play both sides.

One major issue I had with both sides is the voice acting. All the vocalists sound like they were dossed up on Novocaine. While the RDA are just about acceptable (apart from one guy whose voice changes from Australian to British every few words), the Navvi are all voiced by actors doing their best indigenous person voice, so it just sounds like the worst version of a play about Thanksgiving. The issues get worse with the vehicles. They handle horribly, despite being based on an engine that made Far Cry 2. The ground vehicles feel sluggish to control while the air vehicles of both side feel stilted to use. However, if you get rid of them it takes hours to get anywhere. Its the same issue that plagued FC2. In fact the game is basically a new version of Ubisoft’s Zebra Killing Simulator except in the world on Pandora.

Which is another flaw – for a game based on a film whose main claim to fame was its graphics, they are quite disappointing. Although many of the effects look actually quite good, the textures seem slightly faded and washed out. On top of that, the character models of real actors, such as Sigourney Weaver’s doctor character or Trudy the pilot or even Commander Scarface who turn up later, all look horrible and in some cases hard to work out who the hell they actually are. That said though, the worse culprit of the horrifying graphics are the Navvi who look just terrible. It’s really a shame seeing as they would be a major draw for most of the game’s target audience. Similarly the sound (as well as the voice acting as mentioned above) does the job but isn’t anything to write home about.

However, the straight action adventure isn’t all. The game also features a game of risk included at various points called Conquest. It acts as a way of getting various bonuses such as more XP or various boosts but it is completely throw away and not actually that much fun to play. Similarly, the game also has multiplayer but on PC it was completely dead every time I tried it. It sounds like a very generic multiplayer based on what I’ve heard.

Generic is really the word that describes the entire package. It all feels like territory that has been played before. In fact, if it wasn’t filled with reference to the Navvi and Unobtanium, it could be any space marine fighting natives game. However, I should say that the game is packed with extra info on the world Mr Cameron has created so if your wanting to get another trip back to Pandora this maybe an opportunity. Everyone else, its perhaps a rent to cleanse your pallet between games such as Mass Effect 2 or Bioshock 2. It’s like a sorbet – made of 7ft tall cat people and napalm.