First look at Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

[Sopyu ftu äo]

Not sure yet if I'll give this game a try or not - a lot of it seems really compelling, but there's some other stylistic decisions that feel like they would clash a bit with what I want out of this kind of experience.

Well, that, and it'd need to support GNU/Linux - though I've usually had luck with that, there's only a small handful of games I haven't gotten to work under Fedora. Thankfully that has improved a lot in the last few years and it's pretty rare to come across situations where a game doesn't work at all.

Anyway, guess we'll see how all this ends up feeling. It does feel like there's some missed oppurtunities to make a game that is less formulaic in terms of the entire experience - this kind of world and immersion appeal just doesn't need the kind of combat-focused gameplay loops that are otherwise common in the genre. I wrote a little bit on this subject recently:

https://ivarhill.com/meaningful-experiences/

It does seem like this game is sticking quite close to the "Explore an open world mainly through combat" approach which is a bit unfortunate. The overall premise also reinforces that - I'd have liked much more to keep a solely Na'vi approach and emphasize exploration and discovery far more than combat mechanics, but oh well - maybe it can end up feeling interesting regardless!

I'm in two hearts. I'd much prefer not to go down the combat route, and focus instead on the message and spirit of the Avatar universe, ideally through guiding a character (and the character guiding the player - there should be a message to be learned) through cultural and spiritual learning, decisions and dilemmas, and also take it as an opportunity in canon world building. To me the movies have always been primarily about the culture - both spiritual and material - of the Na'vi clans. That's the conveyor of the teachings of the story, and the beauty, inspiration and hopefulness that matters. The combat has always played a minor or no real draw for me (other than perhaps cathartic satisfaction for me of imagining the forces of nature raining down that hell on Forestry Corporation back here on Earth... I really, really don't like FCNSW)

However, it is beuatiful and they have made some effort to expand the cultures of the universe, so I have put in my order. But yeah I do wish they ha been braver in doing off beaten path a bit. The movies did well despite being different to the usual formula, so Ubisoft really could have taken the risk.

I did read your blog post on this, and yep... I get that. Also, yay Disco Elysium - my partner loves that game

I really hope my old laptop (GTX 1070) can handle this. I'd have to buy aa whole new PC because upgrading laptop GPUs is.....horribly complicated at best.

Yep I must admit this is something I love about desktops - so easy to upgrade and you can just pick and choose the bits that matter to you - my laptop is an ancient Thinkpad X230 - it's bascially my word processor I can use in the garden or the woods or anywhere I want some peace, quiet and inspiration Thankfully the batter is user replaceable as the original died years ago... and I did swap out the old mechanical drive for an SSD, but otherwise perfectly happy with it to jot my thoughts and work on my novel

 

[Freedom]

We are just 30 days away from release! Luckily, from what it appears based on the gameplay impressions shown last week -- the game seems to do the 'Pandora Immersion' side of things quite well and also looks like it's a larger focus than the combat (which also looks on point).

Info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/17jwut2/avatar_frontiers_of_pandora_handson_and/
There is a lot more footage available now if you look into it on YouTube and Google News!

 

[Fake Sully]

We are just 30 days away from release! Luckily, from what it appears based on the gameplay impressions shown last week -- the game seems to do the 'Pandora Immersion' side of things quite well and also looks like it's a larger focus than the combat (which also looks on point).

Info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/17jwut2/avatar_frontiers_of_pandora_handson_and/
There is a lot more footage available now if you look into it on YouTube and Google News!

No way! I totally missed that it's being released so soon!!

 

[Fake Sully]

I heard it will have a 2 player CO-OP and also single-layer (of course ).
GTX 1070 is the minimum btw .__:

 

[Sopyu ftu äo]

Yeah those min sys requirements are pretty demanding. My CPU doesn't cut it. It seems they have full on raytrace as the only lighting option. Obvs nice to have for those with the CPU and GPU grunt to handle it but it shouldn't be the only option in town

 

[Blazil]

I agree it's not handy for those that don't have the required hardware.

On the other hand, I am somewhat surprised that the minimum required video card is one that is already 7 years old. And its Avatar, people, were we honestly expecting anything else than the most advanced graphics for the era? I think, apart from compatibility, they also have to cut-off the support somewhere where the video card can still do the game justice, and not make it look just like the 2009 game.

 

[Fake Sully]

Yeah those min sys requirements are pretty demanding. My CPU doesn't cut it. It seems they have full on raytrace as the only lighting option. Obvs nice to have for those with the CPU and GPU grunt to handle it but it shouldn't be the only option in town

I am pretty confident that LowSpecGamer will release a guide on how disable raytracing and make it playable, or someone else since he changed his videos' style...

 

[Sopyu ftu äo]

I am pretty confident that LowSpecGamer will release a guide on how disable raytracing and make it playable, or someone else since he changed his videos' style...

Oh, can you drop me a linkey to their site? Do want to get the game but I'm not going to rip out my motherboard for it unless it turns out to be absolutely epic.

 

[Freedom]

The game is only 10 days away now! Super close. @Eltu, what do you think based on the gameplay shown so far?

This is a great video that shows one section of the world:
And this seems like the latest credible news video on the subject:

 

[Eltu]

@Eltu, what do you think based on the gameplay shown so far?

It's certainly interesting to watch. I like the idea of them going a little deeper with things like praying to Eywa after killing an animal, although I also think the particular way they went about doing so robs it of its meaning. That's just to use one example, but there's a lot of these kind of elements that are supposed to be deeply meaningful but in the context of an otherwise fairly formulaic open world shooter kind of experience they get diluted down to Avatar-themed set dressing - which is a bit unfortunate. Still, will continue to follow things with some interest

 

[Blazil]

I also think the particular way they went about doing so robs it of its meaning

If I may ask, what kind of deep meaning are you searching for in the regular playing elements of a video game? Can such a thing be realistically expected?

they get diluted down to Avatar-themed set dressing - which is a bit unfortunate.

It depends on how you look at it. Less convoluted and familiar game play will in my view put all focus of the experience on the visuals and the story. That is exactly what I would want out of a game like this. Walking around in the world would already be enough for me and we are getting so much more than that .

I don't think we as Avatar fans should be picky. This isn't the Star Wars franchise with 50+ games where one can pick the game that suits one's tastes.

Anyway I have the game preloaded, all 78+ GBs downloaded, waiting for tomorrow...

 

[Blazil]

I have played the game now for several hours yesterday and today and so far I am definitely impressed. I will share some of my experiences, but won't spoil the plot with details beyond what was already shown in the trailers.

The game starts on a somewhat sad tone with a story and environment that reminded me of what happened in the 19th century with Native American children forcibly removed from their culture and assimilated in boarding schools, but now in the future and with Na'vi.

Then, once you get control of the player character, the game initially feels a bit awkward with being trapped in a human building, and having to duck every time when going through a door and having to sneak around to avoid human enemies. It reminded me of Alien: Isolation with the abandoned base, maze of corridors, flickering lights, hundreds of storage boxes and air vent passages (ridiculously Na'vi sized for some reason). I half expected a Xenomorph to show up and join the party

I think all that was done on purpose, however, as the further you progress, the more hints of the Pandoran biosphere start appearing. It starts simple, with bioluminescent moss in a random abandoned corridor. Then you start finding things like a swamp formed out of water that has leaked inside and a large hole in the roof through which you can hear the forest sounds. Eventually you escape the building and step out into the open forest and then the game really starts getting alive. I honestly spent a minute just looking around where I was standing. It is hard to describe just how much detail there is in that environment.

From there you soon acquire a weapon and have to actively fight enemies, but I was honestly still admiring my surroundings by that point. Subconsciously being used to the enemy AI and bullet accuracy of the 2009 game I found myself almost immediately shot dead and felt bad for the character because the sad beginning of the game was still on my mind. I guess Quaritch was right after all that Pandora does shit you out dead with zero warning if you get soft. Except this time it was by the hand of the most dangerous Earthly predator of all

Now that I understood better the kind of tactics that the game was demanding, I succeeded in taking out groups of enemies without dying a second time. From that point onwards the game basically starts throwing all sorts of different kinds of situations and challenges at you. After killing the human intruders, you have to climb your way up along a waterfall, find a base where you are introduced to your faction in a kind of commune setting with Na'vi and rebel humans living together.

Next you have to take out a drilling tower that is very severely polluting the environment, in the middle of a rainstorm. The forest around it looks like a grey mass with everything covered in an oily substance. Although I didn't get killed, I found this part the most difficult one of the game yet, as I had to get used to the advanced enemy AI. I first showed myself and killed one soldier and before I knew it I was being chased into the jungle by 3 AMP suits and a squad of troops, who actually appeared to comb out the jungle in formation until they lost track of me. I think it took me an hour to clear the base of the defending troops before I could destroy the drilling tower.

Once the base is destroyed, the forest recovers (in game time). Before I knew it I found myself in a magnificent glowing forest at night that honestly looked more impressive in some parts than in both movies, with both known and unknown creatures and plants populating it. Even when there are no enemies around you have to be careful. As I was wandering around, looking anywhere but where I was going, I was almost killed by a nearby puffball that suddenly exploded, which I had apparently triggered.

Then, after some more calm forest glow, the RDA suddenly launches an assault as it becomes morning and you have to somehow find a way down from a tall cliff you are on and sprint through the forest to help your faction. You don't have time to engage enemies, since you are on a time limit. In a hurry I ran past a herd of hammerheads that of course didn't like that at all and started chasing me (should have held my ground, I guess). At your eventual distination, you are thrust into battle once again and have to use guerilla tactics to fend off waves of enemies being helicoptered in as if its the Vietnam war you are fighting.

At this point my game crashed and it refused to start up again. I am guessing it is some problem with Ubisofts servers since it said that authentication failed. Whilst I was playing, I also noticed some bugs with character motions, object placements, etc. So the game definitely could use some patching, but overall it performed very well.

I was somewhat surprised that even with a GeForce RTX 3060 most graphics settings are default calibrated on the medium to high range. So I'm not sure what kind of behemoth of a video card is required to play smoothly with max settings...

Overall I would say the game so far has given me the feeling that Pandora can pass for a real place, not just beatiful but also gritty and deadly where you never know what you are going to encounter next and where you have to think fast. So it definately has not been repetitive so far. I still struggle a bit with how many functions and buttons there are and the different things you need to do such as keeping your character fed. I am used to much simplier games than this, so I am wondering how many years it will take for this game to start feeling repetitive.

 

[Sopyu ftu äo]

Thanks for that! It's an interesting walkthrough.... I think I am going to bite the bullet on this one. I just got back a few days away up the coast (gorgeous bushwalks up at Three Brothers Mountains - will post some pics) and started a playthrough of the 2009 game, so it makes for an interesting comparison - though I must admit where you start off in '09 having to kill a load of nantang is pretty hard to do - so it seems to be a trend of starting you off in tears, and taking it from there?! Thanks, Ubisoft!

Not sure if anyone here will know where to get physical media for the PC release? Ubisofts website doesn't offer it, and the local game shop can't get hold of it either - online retailers all seem to have the console media but not PC.

 

[Wind12]

Seems like the game is really cool, I got it a few weeks ago, and my worst fears came to pass, that there would be this amazing Pandoran world to explore, with new clans and your own ikran, but the difficulty level and skill needed to play through the game would be too much for me to deal with( I am not a gamer by any means, but boy did I want to explore FOP's Pandora) the last and frankly only modern game that I played through was the original Avatar The Game, but I thought with co-op that I would eventually get through the new games story. Well, after 8 hours and not being able to get through this drill tower quest which is still in the tutorial stage, and too early for co-op to be unlocked, the feeling of having this amazing world to explore but never being able to get too it, being stuck in a tiny part of the map with a third of it being poisoned by the RDA base that takes me out over and over again, I let my frustration get the best of me and I ended my disk of the game. :/ So now FOP is a source of strepression (stress and depression rolled into one) seeing all the amazing screen shots of other Avatar fans who are able to wander the beautiful world, and knowing that I just can't get myself there. (Also I already set all the game parameters to the easiest settings beforehand knowing I would struggle but it still wasn't enough.)

 

[Blazil]

Well, after 8 hours and not being able to get through this drill tower quest which is still in the tutorial stage, and too early for co-op to be unlocked, the feeling of having this amazing world to explore but never being able to get too it, being stuck in a tiny part of the map with a third of it being poisoned by the RDA base that takes me out over and over again, I let my frustration get the best of me and I ended my disk of the game. :/ So now FOP is a source of strepression (stress and depression rolled into one) seeing all the amazing screen shots of other Avatar fans who are able to wander the beautiful world, and knowing that I just can't get myself there.

I will make an attempt to help you out on this, because I really think everyone deserves to enjoy Pandora without the game being a source of stress and depression.

It took me an hour to get through that drill tower quest the first time (on medium) and I honestly thought that was already long. I am also not a real gamer, but I have played likely a bit more games than you have. I have so far only been playing on medium because I thought that that was the experience the developers had intended.

Firstly, in AFOP you have to realize you are a Na'vi and not a human. This is important, because you are not a tank than can take a lot of head-on damage. As a Na'vi your primary strength is agility and the element of surprise. So don't attack the base head on like you are Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando. Try to pick off isolated human enemies one at a time, ideally out of sight of the others, using a bow. And if they (inevitably) discover you, have them chase you into the forest where you have the advantage with a lot of cover positions. Perhaps scout out the forest before you attack to find good places to lure them into for a distraction or an ambush. I believe that if you agitate them enough they will look for you more thoroughly in the forest. That actually gives you the opportunity to run around their position, go back to the base and disable it without killing them, though you do have to be quick about it. You don't have to kill every enemy to take out the base. Once the base is taken out, the remaining enemies evacuate in any case. I think you could theoretically even take out the base without killing a single enemy, though that might take some practice.

Things to avoid doing during combat:

• standing still on open ground
• fleeing in a straight line once discovered
• trying to fight 'honorably' with only a bow - instead use all weapons you have, and save the stun grenades and assault rifle rounds for the AMP suits - they are destroying Pandora so they don't deserve an honorable death

The next part of the game after destroying the base is quite possibly one of the most beautiful as the forest heals and it turns into night. To me that part honestly looked on par or even better than the first night scene in Avatar just after Neytiri rescues Jake from the Viperwolves.

So don't give up

 

[Wind12]

I will make an attempt to help you out on this, because I really think everyone deserves to enjoy Pandora without the game being a source of stress and depression.

It took me an hour to get through that drill tower quest the first time (on medium) and I honestly thought that was already long. I am also not a real gamer, but I have played likely a bit more games than you have. I have so far only been playing on medium because I thought that that was the experience the developers had intended.

Firstly, in AFOP you have to realize you are a Na'vi and not a human. This is important, because you are not a tank than can take a lot of head-on damage. As a Na'vi your primary strength is agility and the element of surprise. So don't attack the base head on like you are Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando. Try to pick off isolated human enemies one at a time, ideally out of sight of the others, using a bow. And if they (inevitably) discover you, have them chase you into the forest where you have the advantage with a lot of cover positions. Perhaps scout out the forest before you attack to find good places to lure them into for a distraction or an ambush. I believe that if you agitate them enough they will look for you more thoroughly in the forest. That actually gives you the opportunity to run around their position, go back to the base and disable it without killing them, though you do have to be quick about it. You don't have to kill every enemy to take out the base. Once the base is taken out, the remaining enemies evacuate in any case. I think you could theoretically even take out the base without killing a single enemy, though that might take some practice.

Things to avoid doing during combat:

• standing still on open ground
• fleeing in a straight line once discovered
• trying to fight 'honorably' with only a bow - instead use all weapons you have, and save the stun grenades and assault rifle rounds for the AMP suits - they are destroying Pandora so they don't deserve an honorable death

The next part of the game after destroying the base is quite possibly one of the most beautiful as the forest heals and it turns into night. To me that part honestly looked on par or even better than the first night scene in Avatar just after Neytiri rescues Jake from the Viperwolves.

So don't give up

Irayo nìtxan for trying to help, I just don't know, I struggle with strategy on the fly, honestly I feel like my head can't keep up wth things even like it could 10 years ago, on top of that my stress level goes up easily and it just compounds especially since I genuinely hate the RDA (and the beginning of the story really reinforces that). Also at least in my experience, I have never been able to find a gun at the level I was at, I only have the bow and grenades. I really wish the "easy" setting would dumb down the enemy response instead of just cutting down on damage, for people who want to see the story and explore Pandora, but who are not really good at realistic shooting games.

 

[Blazil]

Irayo nìtxan for trying to help, I just don't know, I struggle with strategy on the fly, honestly I feel like my head can't keep up wth things even like it could 10 years ago, on top of that my stress level goes up easily and it just compounds especially since I genuinely hate the RDA (and the beginning of the story really reinforces that). Also at least in my experience, I have never been able to find a gun at the level I was at, I only have the bow and grenades. I really wish the "easy" setting would dumb down the enemy response instead of just cutting down on damage, for people who want to see the story and explore Pandora, but who are not really good at realistic shooting games.

OK, maybe I was wrong and there wasn't a rifle yet at that stage (can't remember exactly, I took out tons of bases in the mean time...)
I do recall this was the hardest base to take out since you don't have all weapons and hardly any upgrades, can't carry that many arrows, etc.

I must say I too struggled with the sudden leap in realism between AFOP and the old PC game. The old PC game was perhaps a bit too easy in the end. Being too easy also runs the risk of becoming boring...

Btw, what is the hunger level of your character? If you are starving your health won't automatically regenerate and that would put you at a major disadvantage, because with regenerating health you can take small pauses to heal in between shooting at the RDA by taking cover.

 

[Wind12]

OK, maybe I was wrong and there wasn't a rifle yet at that stage (can't remember exactly, I took out tons of bases in the mean time...)
I do recall this was the hardest base to take out since you don't have all weapons and hardly any upgrades, can't carry that many arrows, etc.

I must say I too struggled with the sudden leap in realism between AFOP and the old PC game. The old PC game was perhaps a bit too easy in the end. Being too easy also runs the risk of becoming boring...

Btw, what is the hunger level of your character? If you are starving your health won't automatically regenerate and that would put you at a major disadvantage, because with regenerating health you can take small pauses to heal in between shooting at the RDA by taking cover.

I learned to eat before going in and I could heal myself if I got an opening, but I could never get beyond taking out the power transformer I always died trying to use the SID thing(even with it set to be automatic). I don't mind there being tough game play(I think it is needed for it to be successful) but I do still wish the easiest setting was a lot easier for fans who come to the game to explore Pandora without really wanting a challenge to be able to do so.

 

[Nawmtirea]

For those who have been holding out on buying Frontiers of Pandora, Ubisoft has it on sale on their website now for 25% off. I wish I hadn't spent $169.99CAN for it 3 weeks ago. It would have been nice if they had given pre-orders that same discount.

 

[Wind12]

After destroying my disk out of frustration a couple of weeks ago, I just don't know if I can bring myself to get another one, every time I think about FoP I just get a profound sadness 😔 I could get my brother to play it for me, but then it wouldn't be my journey, and I would just be watching someone elses journey.