The world you can explore in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is inhabited by plenty of fauna and flora that you can gather for recipes and crafting. A few of these items though, like the Rain Thistle, aren’t as easy to acquire as some others.
06.12.2023 - 11:05 / ign.com / James Cameron
Short of somehow growing a Na’vi neural braid and jamming it directly into the base of James Cameron’s skull, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is pretty much your best option for taking a virtual tour of the stunning alien moon of Pandora. This open-world shooter serves up a mind bogglingly large slice of the fantastic fictional universe to explore, from staggeringly dense forest areas to picturesque open plains and properly intimidating mountain ranges both on land and suspended impossibly in the skies above. However, hidden amongst all that beauty is a disappointing amount of bloat, with copy-pasted enemy outposts and facilities that made venturing off the main story path far less rewarding than it has been in recent landmark adventures such as Elden Ring or the last two Legend of Zeldas. I still largely enjoyed the 25 hours I spent trying to fend off a resource-hungry human invasion, but I wish the environment itself had presented me with more compelling reasons to fight for it beyond its surface-level splendor.
I must admit that the two Avatar films have each impressed me far more on a technical level than they have with the quality of their storytelling, and in that regard Frontiers of Pandora remains true to its box office record-breaking inspiration. Set on an entirely new Western Frontier continent separate from the region where Jake Sully and family have played out two-thirds of a an apparently five-movie story arc, Frontiers of Pandora is an entirely standalone adventure with only minor references to the events of the films and, thankfully, not a single utterance of the word “unobtainium” – at least, not that I can recall.
Even so, its overall story arc doesn’t stray too far from the established series formula. Humanity’s colonising Resource Development Administration, or RDA, is an oppressive force in the Western Frontier with its numerous mining facilities. It’s up to us, playing as an unnamed Na’vi raised in captivity, to unite the three isolated Na’vi clans in the region and make a stand against invaders hellbent on doing more damage to the natural habitat than actor Sam Worthington has done to the American accent.
Broadly speaking, I was happy to step into the Kevin Durant-sized feet of the eco warrior spearheading the uprising, and there were some pretty heavy moments along the way that brought some real weight to the conflict, but I can’t say that I ever became particularly bonded with any one character in Frontiers of Pandora. A big part of the reason I never felt too invested in the individual plights of the countless Na’vi clan members I met over the course of the journey is that they’re largely indistinguishable from each other in looks and have exotic-sounding monikers that are easily
The world you can explore in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is inhabited by plenty of fauna and flora that you can gather for recipes and crafting. A few of these items though, like the Rain Thistle, aren’t as easy to acquire as some others.
We review Rauha, an engine-building card game published by Hachette. In Rauha, you are a shaman trying to score the most victory points.
Humans are horrible. You don’t need an allegory about the environment filled with blue aliens to tell you that. However, the joy of James Cameron’s Avatar isn’t in its humans, or the azure Na’vi, it’s in the vibrant, living world of Pandora. From the instant you start Frontiers of Pandora, it’s clear that Ubisoft has done an incredible job bringing this world to life, and while you bathe in the neon glow of its incredible wildlife, you’ll discover a people whose lives and culture you’ll want to protect.
Lakeshore Records is releasing a vinyl edition of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Original Game Soundtrack, and ComingSoon has your first look at the album.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a game this writer has been waiting a long time for. In many ways, it is the Hogwarts Legacy for fans of big blue folk and vibrant alien worlds. But with that apt comparison and Ubisoft Massive at the helm, does it do enough to stand on its own two feet? Or is it nothing more than a pretty tour through Avatar’s greatest hits? While it certainly is pretty and it does its best to hit those Avatar beats, Frontiers of Pandora actually won us over with one of the most enchanting open-worlds available on PS5.
Special plants called Tarsyu Saplings in are scattered in various locations of the gorgeous open world, with every flower giving your character powerful Skill Points. Gaining Points allows you to improve not just your combat prowess but also your ability to craft items and ride your Ikran. Finding each Tarsyu Sapling will let your Na'vi blossom into someone truly connected to Pandora.
An NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation mod is now available for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, bringing around 40% performance boost without some of the issues brought by AMD FSR 3 frame generation.
Blaze Fruit is a cooking ingredient that can be used in numerous meals in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It’s one of the most difficult ingredients to acquire because the plant from which the Blaze Fruit grows is an absolute menace that can send you flying.
Joining your friends in co-op games has a few benefits, from making the overall experience more fun to sometimes enabling the gameplay to be a lot easier with an extra person helping out. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has a co-op mode to unlock, and its implementation has been handled nicely.
After facing a delay from its initial Spring 2023 release window, FRAME BREAK and Amplifier Game Invest have confirmed that Lightyear Frontier will enter early access in March 2024. It will be available for Xbox Series X/S via Game Preview and PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store. Check out the latest trailer below.
The Na’vi resistance fighter simulator is here, and like many other big-budget games, it has a big price tag to go along with it — so it’s only natural to see if Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is on Xbox Game Pass or PS Plus to save a few pennies.
Ubisoft's Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is out fairly imminently, arriving on PS5 on 7th December. As a canon part of James Cameron's larger universe, an intriguing aspect fans can look forward to is the new creatures, characters, and storylines, which are already influencing other Avatar projects.