Flying feels incredible, though, and goes a long way in conveying the sheer vastness of this world. Your Ikran isn’t limited to the clouds, but can soar far above them until it flirts with the precipice of space, all before flying back down in a process that not only takes minutes, but teases parts of the map I wasn’t allowed to explore yet, and couldn’t wait to uncover. It’s hard to ignore what Frontiers of Pandora is going for in its design philosophy, and how much of it fails to offer up anything new. But if it manages to flesh out the world of Avatar and its many ideas just enough, those shortcomings could be forgiven. There is a unique appeal to being dropped in a licensed game that goes beyond being a tie-in, and wants to push the universe further with its own spin on things, although it’s hard to tell how compelling its ideas can really be when the gameplay it relies on is made up of things we’ve seen so many times before, and also done better elsewhere.

So far, it sounds like this aspect of the planet is being tested as a main feature of the game through the in-depth NPC reactions to players and their decisions. Being able to react to certain obstacles differently depending on aggression or mood, and the acknowledgment of the player’s progression seems particularly complex. Most, if not all, games have features or quest steps that prevent players from reaching an area before they are intended to, and while speedruns are a great challenge , Frontiers of Pandora’s system sounds like an all-encompassing approach to these st

Unfortunately, Ubisoft doesn't appear to be interested in toning down microtransactions any time soon, if AC Valhalla and the upcoming live-service Assassin's Creed are any indication. Still, if Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora can resist the urge to commodify collectibles, gear pieces, and in-game currency, tying these resources to real-world money, it would result in a game that is much less frustrating and more focused on offering a fun experience over one that has the most profit potential. The game would also avoid the problems that Assassin's Creed games face when it comes to pac

The concept that NPCs, most of which seem to be animals so far, are able to understand player progression implies a relationship between the player and the world around them. The dynamic aspects of the game and the Snowdrop engine it is using already sound incredible but a truly evolving game is always exciting. Open worlds that actively evolve as players progress have become more common, the main conflict in The Witcher 3 is an example, but Frontiers of Pandora sounds like it may have taken this up a le

Which isn’t a bad idea, and Avatar’s range of exploration and combat fits snugly into the blueprint, especially when you are on the side of one faction vying for territory against another. You’ll take over outposts by completing some pedestrian objectives, or save wildlife from patrolling grunts while exploring the world. There are also resources to gather, locals to help with everyday problems, and discoveries around which are designed much like modern Assassin’s Creed games. Although, most of these were already taken care of in the portion of the world I was allowed to explore, so it was hard to get an accurate idea of what moment-to-moment gameplay would be like aside from scripted missions. It wasn’t ideal, but Pandora remains a gorgeously massive place.

When trying to track down an objective, instead of a map marker you are given a handful of generic descriptors that are meant to encourage natural exploration of the world, but in most cases I would simply follow the quest icon and walk around awkwardly until I stumbled upon what I was searching for. Pandora is a fairly homogenous mixture of bright colours and alien fauna, meaning it was difficult to pinpoint proper landmarks or feel like I was making a mark on a place I would come to fondly memorise. It felt like an extra hurdle, and one that doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from its contemporaries. Sprinting can feel weirdly slow too, making on-foot traversal of Pandora a bit of an afterthought once you have access to a flying mount who can be summoned from literally anywhere. When I could fast travel or soar into the sky, walking around on my lanky blue legs didn’t feel worth the trouble without knowing exactly what side missions would await me on the ground.

It would have been easy for the video game to be set primarily on Earth for budgetary issues to tell a slightly different story set in the world of Avatar. But it's really the planet of Pandora which appeals most to audiences, with its lush landscapes and peculiar fauna and fl

This absolutely drives exploration in the game, and the environment design of Avatar Frontiers of Pandora expansion: Frontiers of Pandora is clearly top-notch. While running around the forests, we encountered beneficial and detrimental flora. There were green plants that would explode if we got too close, plants that would shock us, plants that would block our path until we completed a puzzle, plants that gave us a speed boost, plants that launched us into the air, plants that would drop climbing points for us, and much, much more. And again, this was in a very small taste of what Avatar has to offer. Our favorite plant proved to be just about everywhere, and it was always a collection of plants that would shrink as we ran through and make a satisfying, whimsy "ploop" sound. It didn't do anything else, but it was enough to get a laugh plenty of ti