Massive Entertainment hasn't previously been known for its story chops, with the narratives of The Division games serving as more functional than inspiring. With Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora , it's important that the effective choices being made around the protagonist and narrative are ultimately well-utilized throughout the game. The culture of the Na'vi offers more compelling possibilities than the world of The Division , and using the protagonist's unique perspective and the lengthier runtime of a game could augment the films' limited window into this world in a way that significantly enhances the gameplay experie

Ubisoft has been aggressively ramping up its microtransactions over the past ten years, and the Assassin's Creed franchise is a prime example of this. Assassin's Creed releases following Assassin's Creed: Unity have had some of the most egregious microtransactions in a single-player game. While AC Valhalla 's armory might get fans playing again , this same loot-centric game design and increasingly MMO-style progression systems are underpinned by in-game purchases of cosmetics and gear. Perhaps the worst in-game purchases, however, come in the form of XP boosters, which have a direct impact on the glacial pace of base-game leveling and upgrad

Avatar: The Way of Water , the long-awaited sequel by the director James Cameron, has been a huge success. So far, it's the third highest-grossing film in history, surpassed only by Avengers: Endgame and Avatar itself. The tremendous reception of the film may serve the next video game in the franchise , Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora , still in development, as a source of momentum following the renewed interest in the s

Maps in expansive story-based open-world games like Frontiers of Pandora have multiple games worth of content spread out across the world, and players may want to skip past flying to their questline’s destination. It’s not common, but a system that trades premium currency for the ability to warp to new locations could be integrated into Frontiers of Pandora to bridge the gap between these massive biomes. While it's likely that cosmetics for these vehicles and animals will be locked behind microtransactions, there's a real chance that the transport itself will be restricted as w

In the same vein, water is almost another character in the new movie. Many exploration games such as Abzu and Subnautica have shown that exploring oceans and lakes can be really exciting, so perhaps the game can use these new locations to create a new gameplay experie

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora ** __ ** marks Ubisoft's foray into the world of James Cameron's Avatar , and the game seems to have picked the perfect protagonist for this journey. Originally announced in 2017, this title by Ubisoft subsidiary Massive Entertainment has, like the Avatar sequel films, spent a long time gestating. Pandora is a planet teeming with alien flora and fauna, and creating that environment in an underrated open world games-world scale is a demanding task. Now that the game's release is actually on the horizon, details like the playable character and narrative are becoming clear for the first t

The use of a Na'vi protagonist with an RDA background takes an important lesson from James Cameron's Avatar movies, which follow the originally human character Jake Sully on his journey in Na'vi society in a Na'vi body. Entering with this perspective allows the audience to experience Pandora through the eyes of someone equally unfamiliar with its wonders, minimizing any possible disconnect in the highly sensory experience while focusing the story around the Na'vi rather than the comparatively familiar RDA. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora 's Na'vi protagonist achieves a similar effect, as the game's exploration can be new for both the player and in-game character without losing out on the Na'vi an

The World Premiere trailer and the accompanying overview trailer, also available on the Ubisoft YouTube channel, highlight both angles of combat and a number of other Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora gameplay features that this perspective offers. One shot highlights an explosive takedown of a helicopter with a rocket launcher seamlessly followed by a midair strike with a bow, establishing that these abilities are meant to be used in tandem to maximize gameplay potential. Some players may ultimately prefer to stick with the familiar military technique or fully embrace the Na'vi style, but either choice or any mixture should be readily availa

Although the game can learn a lot from the movie, it should not be limited to that either. Often, movie tie-in games are overly attached to the story of the film without bringing anything new to the table, and are quickly forgotten. In recent years, these games have seemingly fallen out of fashion, with more tie-in games being sequels, prequels or franchise-related rather than straight retellings of the same story. Frontiers of Pandora seems to belong to the latter category, but it can still borrow ideas from The Way of Wa