Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora gets the world of Pandora right

I have to admit, when I first saw Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, I thought it was just a reskinned Far Cry. If anything, it reminded me of Far Cry: Primal. But I recently had the opportunity to jump into a two-hour hands-on experience of an earlier section of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, where I realized it is not just Far Cry: Blue Edition. Sure, there are similarities to the open-world formula that Ubisoft has mastered over the years. But Frontiers of Pandora also builds upon the formula, while also melding it to fit the world of Pandora.

In the two hours I got to play, I only got to explore a small portion of the world and experience and even smaller part of the story. However, in the two hours I also got a good feel for what developer Massive Entertainment was going for. In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, you actually feel like a Na’vi exploring the vast and beautiful world of Pandora full of incredible flora and fauna.

Eywa has heard you

My gameplay demo dropped me in the middle of a massive forest in Pandora, with no instruction on what to do next. Keep in mind this isn’t the beginning of the game, but rather an early segment that Massive and Ubisoft specifically picked. My only hint was an apparent quest tracker in the top left of the screen that informed me I was supposed to be gathering some Mangrove Hive Nectar for a ritual.

I looked around and saw an intricately lush amalgamation of plants and trees, just like we’ve seen from the Avatar movie. High in the sky were floating islands with waterfalls flowing off of them, and all around me were the many sounds of Pandora. Insects chirped and buzzed, animals called out to each other, and sticks crunched under my feet as I ran across the forest. As day turned to night, the forest lit up with vibrant hues of blue and purple while plants began to light up and glow in every direction. This is certainly Pandora.

But not only was this indeed Pandora—I was indeed a Na’vi. Sprinting felt like second nature, as I zipped across the forest floor. You can hold the jump button, and the longer you hold it, the further and higher you will jump. You’ll sprint top massive treetops as you jump from branch to branch, parkouring across the world.

I just wanted to point out that Massive clearly put in the effort to make Frontiers of Pandora feel like Avatar in the important ways. The world of Pandora is so detailed that it may be the most beautiful rendition we’ve seen of it yet. And from a gameplay perspective, you really feel like you are playing as a Na’vi.

I see you

Not long into the gameplay, I found myself climbing atop an Ikran Rookery to forge my own bond with an Ikran. The rookery itself required superb parkour that only a Na’vi could successfully pull off, as I climbed to the top. From here, players get access to their own Ikran. You can call the Ikran at any time, including when you’re freefalling from the highest points of Pandora. Your Ikran will swoop under you allowing to mount it from the skies as you soar through the skies. It’s a great feeling, and once again creates the real feeling of being a Na’vi in Pandora.

It also provides an insanely fast method of travel, allowing you to fly to each location including quest objectives. It’s the sort of feature that always felt missing from the massively open-world environments Ubisoft is known for.

All energy is only borrowed

After forging the bond with an Ikran, I encountered the RDA for the first time. I was impressed to learn that I’m able to engage in combat from atop the Ikran, firing a flurry of arrows at RDA ships as they tried to take me down. You can also jump off your Ikran at any time, which is a cool added gameplay element. Not only can you land on the ground and dismount, but you can also jump off from midair. Of course, there is fall damage, so you don’t want to jump off from too high.

The gunplay itself felt very concise and tight. For my hands-on, I got to cycle between a standard bow, a sniper bow that had longer range, dealt more damage, but took longer to re-nock, and an RDA assault rifle. I typically used the standard bow against standard human enemies, switching to the sniper bow when things were exceptionally far away. The assault rifle seemed very strong, especially at shredding the armor of the RDA’s mech suits. I typically prefer to play first-person-shooter games with keyboard and mouse. However, for this hands-on experience, we were recommended to use a controller. I used a DualSense (PS5) controller and it felt great. In fact, I may even choose to play with a controller when Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora releases.

Eventually I made my way to an RDA mining outpost where I had the option of stealthing my way in and sabotaging and disabling the outpost quietly, or going in guns blazing. I attempted stealth but was spotted by someone about halfway through, which quickly turned into a firefight. It was an intense battle as more and more enemies swarmed the outpost. But as a Na’vi, the ability to quickly scale up structures and out maneuver my enemies made it so the combat never felt unfair by any means.

Overall, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora felt like an accurate representation of playing as Na’vi in the world of Pandora. It’s clear this is an open-world Ubisoft game, but there’s enough different there to make it feel like a fresh experience as well. It’s simply fun to explore Pandora as a Na’vi, and Massive has made it feel natural.

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