Austin played 2 hours of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Hands-On Impressions)

this video is brought to you by Channel partner 4 years running Squarespace stick around to learn more about them as well as a special offer they're making available through my channel so a couple weeks ago I was invited to visit Ubisoft massive over in Sweden to get some Hands-On time with Avatar frontiers of Pandora this is not sponsored Ubisoft did offer to cover the flights and accommodation but we declined and paid our own way as we usually do for these sorts of things the day consisted of an opening presentation by the creative director followed by 2 hours of Hands-On time with the game then a presentation on the game's sound design another on the game's World building and finally a brief Q&A session with a group of senior developers Ubisoft did allow gameplay capture so all the footage you see in this video is my gameplay we were playing on PCS with PS5 controllers and we got to play through three scenarios that showcased various aspects of the game one focused on the Gathering and exploration one involving a bit more platforming to earn our Banshee and the final one showing off the game's combat through storming a human base so I went into this pretty excited to be honest I mean I'll admit by bias I'm a big fan of Avatar it's in my top three favorite movies of all time alongside Interstellar and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 14-year-old Austin back then was like damn that' make a sick video game then the licensed Avatar the game released and uh it was in fact a sick video game I played the hell out of that on my Wii it had two totally distinct story paths depending on if you sided with the humans or the Nai it had like a dozen upgradeable weapons and multiple mounts on each side a multiplayer PVP mode and I digress suffice to say when Avatar frontiers of Pandora was announced an actual AAA avatar game being developed by the team behind the division I was immediately all in so after a brief 2 hours with the game and multiple presentations I can say there's a lot here that I really liked and and a few things that I didn't like as much overall this game does feel like a known quantity nothing stuck out is overly surprising nor too alarming I do have some notable takeaways though that the trailers don't quite do justice the main one being the soundscape it'll definitely be worth playing this game with a good pair of headphones because the sound design here is really impressive Pandora has been wonderfully recreated here with the same dense flora and visual Splendor of the films It's A Feast for the sensors to be sure backed by some really cool Tech Gathering crafting and cooking is more or less what you'd expect though they've been tightly woven into the gameplay Loop here which works well to fulfill that na'vi fantasy combat is where I have a few question marks I mean the fundamentals are solid but the actual sandbox feels a bit more limited than I expected with few options for stealth or using the na'vi Affinity with nature to your advantage in any case though I'm still optimistic about frontiers of Pandora just like the films it's the same sound design visuals and World building that really left a lasting impression and honestly any chance to immerse myself back into the world of Pandora is a welcome one indeed so at the start of the event the creative director presented on stage to sort of set the scene as it were as you might have seen from the trailers the story is about a group of na'vi that were abducted as children by the humans known as the RDA they were then trained in their ways and secluded from the outside world during the events of the first Avatar film the na'vi attempt to take Pandora back the humans then start eliminating all the na'vi captives except for you as you're secretly ushered into cryosleep to ensure your survival you're then woken up years later during the events of Avatar 2 with no knowledge of Pandora or na'vi culture and you must learn their ways in order to Aid the fight against the return of the RDA while Avatar 2 is taking place over by the water uh this game is set way off in the Western frontier which is home to a brand new array of locations and na'vi clans so note that character creation is a feature of this game but not one that I was able to play with in this Hands-On demo I only had access to an early section of the game where I got to explore one of the locations the full game will have three distinct regions there's the open Plains a sort of eerie swamp and a rainforest Paradise which is the area I had access to here so this is a very pretty game immediately you will recognize the Striking visuals and how staggeringly dense the foliage is once you get up high you're able to really soak in those expansive Vistas and see right across Pandora's landscape so much interesting Flora going on that's been pulled straight from the films too all the bioluminescent plants lighting the way and those spiral plants that make the satisfying sound as you run past it's got a day and night cycle of course uh a dynamic weather system as well that can drastically alter the mood during the Q&A the creative director mentioned that one of his favorite things to do is Fly Above the Clouds during a storm to escape the threat of being hit by lightning unfortunately didn't get to try this myself but it's a neat thing that I'm looking forward to in the full release worth mentioning though that I did have some performance issues where on a few occasions the frame rate would drop significantly for a short while this is a work in progress build of course but it is something that I'll be keeping an eye on when the game releases as a current gen only game it's also taking advantage of Ray tracing uh in fact during the Q&A session the technical director clarified that there is actually no nonr tracing mode so similar to the recent Spider-Man 2 wasn't a lot of reflective surfaces to really showcase that here in the demo but I imagine you'll see this really come into play during the rainy weather or around those Ironclad RDA bases I'm going to be honest it was a bit of sensory overload at first but the one thing that kept it manageable was the UI namely that there isn't much of it it's quite minimal which I really appreciate especially given that the UI in some Ubisoft games can be a bit much I was also informed we were playing this in the guided mode mind you uh there's actually an exploration mode in the full game that will further reduce UI elements incentivizing you to really use your senses for navigation The Sounds in particular were quite a highlight uh part of the event involved us going into the sound director Booth where he explains some of the tech involved in producing this soundscape a notable point is that the noises you hear in the background are not just some tracks being played on Loop to sort of fake the ambience rather every plant creature and structure has its own positional audio all working in concert to create this very diverse very real soundscape do you think that is your that's coming to join us you can locate RDA bases from the woring of their generators uh every bird you hear is an actual bird singing in the canopy this soundscape is also reactive to the player so when you fire a human gun for example all the wildlife will scatter reducing the soundscape to near silence inversely they will not be spooked by na'vi weaponry and whistling for your Banshee can sometimes result in the bird's whistling back apparently 2 years of work went into just player Foley so recording the player's footsteps on on various terrain uh and all the weapon sounds all slightly different under various weather conditions if the player is wet or dry it's nothing that will materially impact your gameplay but it's these neat touches and attention to detail that help to deeply immerse you in the world of Pandora so my first objective was to find a specific fruit to harvest and bring back to the healers note that I only needed to find one of these uh the creative director made the point that when it comes to harvesting there was a real focus on quality over quantity as a result certain gatherable can be quite rare and harvesting them in specific locations and conditions will grant you higher quality yields you'll need to build up this library of knowledge through scanning plants with your na'vi vision which also allows you to track them when it comes to Gathering each plant has its own little mini game where you'll use the Dual sense haptics to feel for the right angle to pull the fruit without damaging the plant very satisfying to do even Gathering materials from animals has this process to it uh killing with na'vi Weaponry will give you better materials whereas using RDA weapons will render them unusable you'll get down on your knees pay respect to the creature and to AWA before skinning it your spirit goes to AWA and your body stays to become part of the people thank you for these gifts this folds neatly into the crafting and cooking which are also really core to the gameplay Loop here you're not just pushing nebula stats with gear uh each piece you craft or meal you cook provides meaningful benefits that can enhance your desired play style from my experience they don't require loads of components either just a couple with the highest grade materials you've got again quality over quantity at one point during the demo I Came Upon a lake I saw an animal drinking by the water and as I approached I watched it Keel over and die in front of me confused I looked to My Demo assistant and asked what happened uh he told me to turn around lo and behold the area here was completely polluted to hell and back uh there's dead Wildlife everywhere all color sapped from the environment a plain indication that an RDA base was nearby this is a key part of the open world many locations have rotten away as a result of the rda's influence and destroying these bases will allow nature to reclaim that area providing you with more plants and Wildlife to harvest alongside these there are also random events that appear out in the world like a trapped animals surrounded by RDA that I needed to clear out or the time I Came Upon A Beast with a tracking Dart implanted that I could remove if I approached carefully all of this exists in the way that it does to further push that relationship between the na'vi and Pandora which stands in stark contrast to something like Far Cry where it's all about destruction and Anarchy blowing [ __ ] up without consequence frontiers of Pandora is clearly a commentary about civilization's impact on the natural world which manifests itself here in the way you carefully Harvest materials use only what's necessary and how Pandora's flora and FAA are impacted by The Return of the RDA in the open world there's also hidden puzzles platforming areas to reach skill points hacking mini gamess to reactivate camps there's side quests as well though the ones I did were quite brief often involving just visiting a single location finding a thing and then it was done unsure if we can expect any sort of in-depth Quest Chains It's all rather basic open world events which is a concern of mine but hopefully there's enough to stumble upon in the full release to keep exploration feeling fresh you're okay the best part of this demo was in the next section where I was bounding between these Sky Islands as I make my way up to the Banshee Roost movement in this game feels pretty good you've got a slide charge jump double jump lots of different plants you can utilize for traversal as well my only gripe is that the running speed even while sprinting felt a little slow it could just be because of the fov but yeah it didn't quite reflect the speed and athleticism of this 10t tall species the music that kicks in here though is wonderful I mean it feels like it's been ripped straight from the films though I can confirm that it is a totally original [Applause] [Music] score I then bond with my Banshee and away I went for my first flight uh doesn't feel as fluid as say the Griffin in Guild Wars 2 which is the best flying mountain in any game seriously look it up but it's still fun to fly uh you can dive bomb barrel roll and shoot from it there was an effort made here to ensure you form a connection with your Banshee as well they're meant to be an extension of their Rider after all like your character you can gear them up customize them give it a name feed it its favorite food to top up stamina hell it has its own skill tree I was assured that you can fly the Banshee anywhere in the world as well so yeah it's not just in designated zones or anything note that you can only fly in third person though there's no first person option bit of a shame as I would have liked to have maintained that immersion inherent with the first person view because yes I am that kind of guy that exclusively drives cars at Cyber punk in first person I think it would have helped with the combat as well because sometimes the banshee's wings would get in the way and I'd be firing blind but regardless it was admittedly fun to try and swoop by an enemy and head shot them with an arrow while maintaining speed in the final section I then fly my Banshee over to a nearby RDA base where I got the chance to properly try the game's combat I was told I could take this on either silently or guns blazing I started stealthy one shot an amp suit but then he blew up and alerted the entire base so guns blazing it is the fundamentals of combat are solid sound design is again a real highlight gunshots are meaty the sound reverberating nearby metal materials and the bows especially pack some serious punch like the heavy bow sounds like a rocket launcher the sound designer pointed out that they wanted the bows to feel more satisfying to use than the human weapons and they've certainly achieved that here notice I did say bows because yeah you've got three different bows here a heavy bow long bow and short bow each with a couple different ammo types there's also a sort of slingshot thing that you can use to lob various explosives then you've got three human weapons an RPG assault rifle and shotgun you can't aim down sights with these just hip fire but it makes sense given that these are alien to na'vi if I'm not mistaken that's about it that's all the weapons there are no melee weapons in this Arsenal which is odd you can only punch bit of a missed opportunity if I'm honest given the vast array of Weaponry showcased across the films and the first avatar game I imagine Ubisoft massive wanted to keep this as a shooter which is what the studio is most experienced with and to their credit they have indeed nailed the feel of ranged combat here seen a lot of commentary online that this game looks just like Avatar Farcry I will say this demo at least when it comes to actual gameplay didn't completely dissuade that notion on the contrary I feel this sandbox could have benefited from pulling more from that series because those games have quite a developed sandbox by this point so many tools for stealth or assault all I could really do is shoot things it felt strange because the whole game does a pretty great job at reinforcing that na'vi fantasy obeying the rules of Pandora except the combat you can't send your Banshee to attack dudes uh you can't throw bait to attract a fotur into the camp or something you can't zip line along vines or set silent traps or make use of natural poisons or carnivorous plants or even just distract enemies by throwing rocks these are things you can basically do in Far Cry that would have felt right at home here using Pandora's natural order to your advantage and encouraging a stealthy play style to avoid disturbing the environment in terms of enemies in this demo there were only the human grunts on the ground the humans in the amp suits the helicopters and various hostile animals they each have distinct weak points that you'll need to Target some of the animals had specific animations I needed to wait for to be able to pierce their armor however I will say that none of these demanded you really change up your approach there are actually no difficulty options either which is curious even in the full game I was told so I am a little worried about difficulty that said during this demo I thought the damage scaling overall was pretty decent there were multiple occasions here where I was really on the back foot desperately searching for health or ammo making considered preparation for these sorts of encounters quite [Music] crucial so that's my first impressions after 2 hours with Avatar frontiers of Pandora again a mix of things I liked and things I was less keen on but I also still have some outstanding questions like for example the story while I adore the first Avatar movie I don't think the story there was anything original it's the presentation and the World building that really captivated me and I suspect frontiers of Pandora will do the same I mean it does succeed in feeling like you've been thrown straight into the film retaing The footsteps of Jake Sully your character is fresh to the na'vi world after all experiencing all this for the first time so even if you're one of the seven people that haven't watched Avatar you will be well serviced by this onboarding experience obviously though there's not much I could glean from this short demo when it comes to narrative at the moment it seems to be a very familiar story about anti-colonialism environmentalism Etc but I do think those themes of preserving the natural world really do come through here in the way that Pandora's landscape and soundscape respond to your actions and human interference I'm really excited to visit the other locations though particularly the open PLS biome which looks quite distinct from anything we've seen in the films during the World building presentation we were told about a clan there that shares a symbiotic relationship with these giant beasts who they feed and they build makeshift settlements behind to protect them from the harsh winds like that's super cool I want to see what that's about how they're impacted by the RDA I'm curious to know what Combat on a DI horse feels like or how sick I can make my Banshee look and what Secrets can be found within this stunning slice of Pandora there's already DLC planned likely taking us to new corners of the world and the game also supports two-player online co-op which is excellent likely the way I'll end up playing it so yeah as I said I'm feeling optimistic about this game especially 14-year-old me he's like cheering right now I like what it's doing when it comes to sound design visuals its message regarding the natural world and our relationship to it interested to see how it all pans out when the full game releases across PS5 Xbox series and PC later this year on December 7 have you ever dreamed of starting your own business doesn't have to be the next Amazon it could just be you making stuff you like to make selling it online for a neat profit maybe you want to provide a service giving your time and expertise to others whatever it is you might want to do you're probably going to need a website and there's no better place to build a website than Squarespace Squarespace provide intuitive end to-end tools allowing you to make a professional looking website in minutes it starts with their templates just choose one that interests you and you can immediately start customizing it to your taste after that you can start utilizing all of squarespace's e-commerce functionality it has everything essential to transacting business online ordering an inventory management support for postage and tracking accounting support to ensure you're tracking your tax liabilities plus it supports a huge range of backend payment options like stripe PayPal and afterpay back in the day you had to pay companies tens of thousands of dollars to set this stuff up for you and money every single month to manage it now you can do this stuff yourself for a fraction of the cost making it easier than ever before for you to turn that business idea of yours into a reality if you're interested and you want to check it out then visit Squarespace to start building your website through their free trial and if you want to get serious use offer code skillup for 10% off your purchase of a domain name thanks Squarespace for sponsoring the video and thank you for watching [Music] it [Music]

Channel: Skill Up

Views: 330,153

Keywords: skill up, skill, up, gameplay, games, guide, avatar, avatar 2, avatar frontiers of pandora, avatar frontiers of pandora gameplay, avatar game, avatar game trailer, avatar game review, avatar game impressions, avatar game ps5, avatar game pc, avatar game 2023, avatar frontiers of pandora review, avatar frontiers of pandora reaction, avatar frontiers of pandora impressions, hands on, review, impressions, trailer, release date, pc, xbox, ps5, series x, coop

Id: v91y87R5iDk

Length: 20min 9sec (1209 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 30 2023