Austin recommends: Avatar - Frontiers of Pandora (Review)

Keen for Avatar but don't have a PC quite up to Snuff well this video sponsored GeForce now powered by Cloud GG has got you covered they just launched their all new Ultra tier giving you access to RTX 380 servers 4K 60fps streaming support for Ultra wide monitors and much more it coincides with Game Pass arriving on GeForce now meaning you can play stuff like Forts and Motorsports on there without needing an Xbox or a high-end PC click the link below to try for free or stick around to the end of the video to learn more Avatar frontiers of Pandora man this game kind of surprised me so I did a Hands-On preview of this a couple months ago I left that preview feeling optimistic but lowkey had a few concerns namely the performance was shaky at times uh the combat and stealth sandbox felt quite limited and I had this gut feeling that this is going to be a very cut and dry liberate Pandora from the humans type deal simply a mechanism to send you clearing Outpost upon Outpost I said that this felt like a known quantity and yeah I was genuinely concerned that all those reservations would rear its ugly head in the full release however I am pleased to tell you that actually I really liked this hell I loved it so I got to preface this by saying that the last open world Ubisoft game I played was Assassin's Creed Origins and the last Far Cry game I played was Far Cry 3 I totally get that open world fatigue these games tend to be quite formulaic after all but I've had quite a break from that so I was going into Avatar feeling fresh fully prepared to embrace that kind of experience I am also a big Avatar fan especially the first film the story was pretty good but nothing extraordinary what was groundbreaking though was the visuals and World building which went a long way in making Pandora feel like a real place Avatar frontiers of Pandora is much the same it's got an okay story an intriguing tale of divided na'vi Clans and how they deal with the return of humanity running alongside the struggles of the young main cast who feel lost about their identity it loses its grip on the plot a bit toward the end uh but what it lacks in narrative payoff it more than makes up for with its drop dead gorgeous realization of Pandora the Western frontier is a staggeringly detailed gorgeous environment perhaps the best natural environment I've ever seen in a video game its sights sounds and clever use of haptic feedback make you feel truly grounded in this world offering a deeply immersive Escape that few games offer but is there more to the game than just being really really ridiculously goodlooking yes I was surprised to find out how much I enjoyed the combat in this game smooth traversal mechanics impactful sound design and a pretty decent arsenal of tools combined to build a challenging yet rewarding combat framework Quest design and side activities aren't bad either asking you to rely more on your sensors and navigational abilities rather than piling your map with objective markers it all folds neatly into the game's elegant hunting and Gathering systems it's resources giving Pandora's diverse biomes meaning encouraging you to learn the ways of the land and seek quality over quantity this harmonious relationship with the natural world is key to capturing that na'vi fantasy and that's really what this game is all about Ubisoft massive have done a splendid job here in ensuring all its systems service that Vision while still being fun to engage with it's not perfect I suspect many will still see this as just standard open world Ubisoft game number 37 but what it does undeniably deliver on for me is capturing that na'vi fantasy and making this feel like a real living breathing World much the same way that the films did this is a good game but if you're an avatar fan like me it's an excellent one as you're going to really appreciate everything this stunning slice of Pandora has to [Music] offer we are not Warriors but War has come [Music] we may not remember the words but we can still sing the songs of our people so the setup for this story is that you're one member of a group of na'vi children that have been raised and trained by the humans known as the RDA you've been taught their language how to handle their Weaponry offered food and shelter eventually this comes to an end though as we now convert with the timeline of the films where Jake Sully's actions to liberate Pandora have caused all RDA to evacuate the planet in an attempt to save the students from execution your teacher secretly stows you all away in cryosleep waking up some 10 years later with the rda's return it's here you'll enter the Character Creator nothing too crazy you can pick your body type face voice body paint and hair you'll unlock more options along your journey and you can switch these things at changing rooms in settlements you soon discover discover that you're the last remaining members of an extinct Clan known as the sentu storytellers that once brought the clans of the Western frontier together now I thought this was going to be a pretty cut and dry Revenge story and in some ways it is I mean you go out to each of the Clans you deal with their problems they rally behind you you fight back but to say that's all it is would be reductive because alongside this a plot there are some compelling internal conflicts and Mysteries running in parallel I mean first of all you're still just kid or teenagers specifically didn't know this going into the game to be honest but it leads to a lot of interesting story implications that really set this apart from the story of say Jake Sully who's a cocky hardened Marine with nothing to lose to be thrown into a rebellion at such a young age responsible for the lives of so many and to carry on the legacy of their Clan that's a very heavy burden especially for kids who have had their innocent Minds warped to be frightened of their own world there's a narrative through line regarding identity how do these halfcast kids fit into this world given their na'vi by Blood but know nothing of their culture these are captivating questions and it's quite fascinating to see how each of these characters grapple with them in their own way either confronting their circumstances or being consumed by it the individual stories of the na'vi clans were equally engaging you witness firsthand the problems caused by the RDA obviously pushing that Avatar theme of colonialism and Humanity's exploitation of the natural world but it's mostly how these Clan leaders respond to this issue that I found most interesting each have such distinct agendas all boasting excellent performances from their respective voice actors giving them such presence and gravatas safe to say whenever the story was directly dealing with the na'vi Clans I was all in on this fully switched on a real highlight for me personally Get Your Filthy blue ha I did not like her tone warn Su no more will suffer at their hand the human characters though are um they're a mixed bag ranging from okay to insufferable I found most of them written a little too quippy never taking events seriously enough despite the very lives of the na'vi around them at stake the worst offender has got to be the main villain of the game meet John Mercer that bland name perfectly reflects his character he's a surface level bad guy and to be honest his motivations were kind of unclear for most of the game really like it's kind of Revenge but also corporate greed yes we're doing that plotline for the third time he's real up in your face at the beginning of the game it pretty quickly establishes a vendeta between you and him and I thought to myself oh this is kind of like Far Cry I got a bit excited because the Far Cry series really is known for its villains where that relationship between you two drives the plot a traditional arch nemesis type deal you just want to come out on top by any means necessary now I don't want to spoil anything but after that brief intro John Mercer just kind of disappears until basically the Final Act of the game honestly I was so engrossed in the story of the na'vi Clans and their beef with humans in general that I actually forgot there was even a villain behind it all and I think the Riders did too because there's a point in the story where you've resolved a bunch of these Mysteries and plot lines and it isn't quite sure where to go from there so that's when suddenly the main villain just reappears and he's like hey I'm still here no word of a lie you interact with this man like twice throughout the entire story uh which I found quite perplexing given how much personal stake was established at the start he's completely absent with Zero Charisma or wit when he does appear bro thinks he's him but he's not even close as a result I think the story unfortunately falls off a bit in the Final Act it sends you on this wild goose chase to like reestablish him as a villain But ultimately it just isn't enough time for the whole Arc to stick the landing feels like a case of just one too many characters one too many plot threads clumsily tacked on to ensure one final battle between the na'vi and the humans conclusion aside though I did overall enjoy the campaign the writers were able to very effectively weave together the stories of the western Frontiers Clans such that it all links together organically the internal struggles of you and your clan the way these Mysteries fold one after the other I was hooked throughout but we haven't yet spoken about the game's true main character The Shining Star the real reason I could not wait to boot up this game each day and that's the world of [Music] Pandora the first time I stepped out into Pandora my jaw Hit the Floor absolutely Gob smacked by the immense detail and visual Splendor of this world I was actually not prepared for how good this game looks uh like I think my preview build must have been on Lower settings or something uh so to say I was impressed here is an understatement I do not say this lightly this is undeniably one of the most stunning natural environments ever created in a video game everywhere you go the foliage is remarkably dense from the trees climbing High to the Moss caked over its roots you can see everything and it all holds up under scrutiny Ubisoft has spared no expense in this regard this alien world is packed with so much variety and color to behold at all times of day especially under the sunset glow but Nightfall is when it truly Comes Alive lit up by the vibrant bioluminescence of its Flora there are three regions to explore each with multiple different biomes within them but also their own unique gameplay implications the king Law Forest for example is almost so dense that it limits your visib ability but really allows you to take advantage of verticality the upper Plains region is an expansive grass land leaving you open but its harsh winds create wind Tunnels for faster flight the clouded Forest is an eerie swamp land where fungus flourishes so you'll need to skin your hunts quickly before they're reclaimed by the land another neat interaction when it's about to rain you can literally see the volumetric storm clouds rolling in that's cool but you do not want to be in the air when the lightning starts so what do you do well you can fly up through the clouds pop out the other side unscathed and soar above it all basking in the safety of the sun's Rays such an awesome feeling one of my favorite things to do in this game performance is good too we tested this game on three PCS at their recommended settings all of these are running dlss on performance mode one with an RTX 4090 and an AMD 5950 X and as you can see it's running over 60 FPS at 4k on ultra settings another PC was an RTX 2080 TI and an AMD 3700x and this one's running at 1440p running 50 to 60 FPS at medium settings and then there's my machine with an RTX 3090 TI and an i7 as you can see it's pretty Rock Solid across the board maintaining well above 60 FPS at all times be sure to check the spec requirements though because this is quite an intensive game to run ultra settings at 60 FPS for example you'll need at least an RTX 48 80 my rig at 1440p could only run this game on high but it still looks fantastic you might notice some stuttering in my gameplay I had an issue every now and then where this would start to happen and i' need to change my settings to borderless window then back to full screen to resolve it could be an issue specific to my PC your results May Vary unsure about the PS5 performance as well because I wasn't able to test on there but otherwise in my experience performance was great encountered minimal bugs no crashes again I was concerned by some of the wild frame drops in the preview build thankfully that appears to be resolved here but it isn't just the visuals and dynamic weather that give this game such life it's the soundscape it's clear a lot of work has gone into the sound design no matter where you go if you just stop and listen for a moment you'll be able to hear everything that surrounds you from the birds in the canopy to the creaking of the trees the river flowing nearby the insects hell every plant has its own sound is that that looks like a Sol [Music] D the L clown look at the Mark you can identify nearby RDA activity not through a ping on your map but through the foreign sound of distant gunshots cutting through Pandora's noise allowing you to pinpoint exactly where it's coming from it doesn't end there though because to ground you even more in this world is the haptic feed back now I've been a little bit disappointed as of late with the amount of games on both PC and PS5 that barely do anything with haptics I think it's kind of undervalued how much it contributes to game field well feels bad man if you can't play Avatar with a PS5 controller because I really recommend that you do there is straight up no other game that takes advantage of it as much as this game does I mean you can feel every footstep making impact with the dirt beneath you uh splashing the water the nearby roaring of a fire the wind benath your Ian's Wings the breathing of these gargantuan mammals that one of the na'vi tribe live alongside literally everything all these elements combined to create a sensory Symphony an audiovisual Feast that makes you feel completely immersed in this world in a way that very few games offer Ubisoft massive have outdone themselves here when it comes to realizing the world of Pandora playing this game in the dark with a good pair of headphones taking in this world's Beauty listening to its music for an avatar fan like myself it really is a magical [Music] experience now this isn't just a glorified Tech demo there are gameplay reasons for exploring Pandora common complaint I hear about typical Ubisoft games is that the world is massive there's a lot of stuff in it uh you can see the map markers everywhere but none of it is Meaningful a big reason games like l and ring tears of the kingdom and boulders Gate 3 have seen so much success lately is because they're kind of the inverse of that still huge worlds but with minimal guides LED entirely by your own curiosity and rewarded handsomely for it I don't think Avatar engenders that same feeling of Discovery but I don't think it falls into the traditional Ubisoft Camp either it finds a good middle ground you may notice the heads up display here is quite minimal the only way to see the objective marker or track gatherable is through your na'vi vision and that's if you've got the guided mode on there is an option to switch to exploration mode which removes tracked objective markers entirely and asks you to rely on The Limited info provided by the quest like for example the guy you're looking for is east of Home Tree on the North Bank Of The Crimson lake or something side quests also won't appear on your map the only way to find them is to talk to na'vi in the settlements and even when you've collected a bunch only the tracked one will show up same thing with side activities and other discoveres there indicated by this soft sort of lens flare effect and using your na'vi vision will allow you to see them more clearly basically this game's never getting up in my face with more stuff to do everywhere I go bombarding me with markers it's just gently guiding me to things that might be of interest which went a long way in making me feel less overwhelmed in an otherwise overwhelming environment those side quests I mentioned aren't just throw away fluff to Pat out this world either they're all fully voice acted each with an actual story to tell they're nothing amazing but I did appreciate the effort that went into giving these some proper context it made me care just a little bit more about the tasks I've been given one factor to that enjoyment is that whenever I got a quest to cook or craft something well those felt quite fun and involved just by virtue of how these systems work now understandably you might roll your eyes to the thought of gathering materials ad nauseum to increase your character's power Etc but you see Avatar is all about quality not quantity no recipe or craft ever requires more than one of a specific material this holds true all the way until the end by that I mean you'll never need seven hides and five Moss to make a chest piece just one of each with the quality of the materials determining the stats quality is not completely random either you've got a hunter's guide it tells you in detail where and how to harvest the highest quality of these resources from there it's just a matter of aligning the right conditions through resting at a campfire and then searching for that location and carefully harvesting them with the assistance of haptics when it comes to hunting there's the added element of how clean your kill is Downing them with as few arrows as possible by exploiting weak spots inventory space is intentionally limited too I suspect to discourage you from hunting an entire species to Extinction so you can stock up instead it's about using only exactly what you need in that moment there's also no currency uh you simply receive items from other na'vi by acing reputation for your good deeds or donating items to the community this idea of giving instead of trading only taking from the land what's necessary it's all in service of delivering on that na'vi fantasy their relationship with Pandora is a symbiotic one and Ubisoft massive have really committed to that Vision here across every facet of the game I was really impressed by the way they've depicted na'vi culture here and translated that to such an enjoyable gameplay Loop finally let's talk about what surprised me the most the combat this is the main component I criticized in my Hands-On preview my concern being that the sandbox here was too limited not enough stealth options and didn't play enough into the advantages of being na'vi I honestly thought I'd grow tired of it pretty early on given what I'd seen but you know what I stand corrected I really enjoyed the combat here it starts with the movement to put it simply traversal in this game feels fantastic the default 75 fov made sprinting seem a little slow but turning that up to 90 felt about right to me you can slide which is something common in modern firstperson games but it feels notably smooth here retaining your full control and momentum especially downhill alongside this there's a jump that can be charged to LEAP higher as well as an air Dash ground round Dash and clamber there's mushrooms and leaves that'll launch you high Vines and pulley you can climb your very own icron of course that you can shoot from more than enough traversal mechanics here to take advantage of allowing you to get anywhere you please it all feels super fluid and agile just how a na'vi should be then there's the actual feel of combat itself weapon feedback feels excellent the haptics and sound design combined to give every pull or release of the trigger such impact trained by the RDA you know how to handle a few guns and on the night V side you've got various bows for different situations a sling for crowd control and a spear thrower which is basically a na'vi RPG while I said in the preview that I felt this may not be enough on the contrary I think that it is there's a lot to manage there and I can imagine the addition of even more Weaponry or even proper melee combat would probably over complicate things that's not to say there's no melee options though uh one of the most satisfying things to do in this game is punt RDA grunts across Pandora with a swift drop kick when it comes to stealth you'll do the expected thing of silently headshotting enemies and instead of lobbing rocks to distract them you can use a specific sling ammo that fulfills the same role you've also got a hacking tool known as Sid I felt like a spy using this this is mostly used for puzzles but you can also hack amp suits which will shut them down allowing you to run up and rip out the pilot what combat is also quite challenging there are difficulty options here I had enemies set to medium and let me tell you even on that setting these enemies are no slouch they're a good shot and hit like a truck even grunts can easily shut you down in a couple bursts it feels Fair though these aren't bullet sponges uh the time to kill on both sides is very low I suspect it's all balanced around how strong the food Buffs and weapon perks are there's also a range of enemy types here between Pandora's various hostile FAA and the rda's amp suit variants from ones that rain artillery upon you to others equipped with flamethrowers it's not a huge amount of variety and they can be difficult to pass sometimes In the Heat of combat but to be honest it didn't bother me that much because these encounters are actually paced quite sparingly throughout the campaign aside from the Final Act I think aerial combat is perhaps the weakest component here it can feel a little clumsy to control your icron while shooting but these situations don't occur too often but yeah that tight difficulty tuning was kind of key to my enjoyment it actually encourages you to employ stealth to pick off as many as you can first in combat you'll actively hot swap between weapons for their intended uses and Target those enemy weak spots you may run out of ammo and need to craft them on the fly as well as eat food to keep your Buffs rolling all while you can hear and feel the thudding of multiple amp suits closing in on your position it's a simple yet effective combat framework that I found quite engaging rewarding considered use of your resources positioning and accuracy [Music] so admittedly this review has been pretty glowing there's not too much to critique here except one thing of course this non-live service full price game with multiple DLCs on the web also has a cash shop there's packs of Premium currency you can buy they're specifically tailored to give you just not enough for the bigger cosmetic bundles the skins for your gear your character your earron your weapons I'm falling asleep as I describ this to you point is it's all dumb it's all expensive I mean a single body paint cost like8 Australian dollars for God's sake this is a firstperson game and I suspect that most people will play this single player paid Cosmetics are stupid in a game like this I cannot fathom why this exists just put all this stuff in the game Ubisoft how many times do we need to teach you this lesson at the very least I'm glad they're not really monetizing progression here like some of the Assassin's Creed entries there is some gear here hidden in the bundles but they're like not good at all that could change though Lord knows ubisoft's pulled that before I mean there were definitely points in the story where I was under the recommended gear score but I did the quest anyway and had no problems that gear score is dictated by your gear but if I ever felt compelled to increase it all I had to do was set my mind to crafting a few new pieces or doing a couple side quests basically yeah you're not going to be encouraged to spend money just to keep up with the campaign even if they did add that stuff the game provides you with more than enough options to help increase your power beyond that despite my lack of criticisms game is by no means perfect I think the skill tree is kind of lame and most of these upgrades could have just been placed onto gear to make them feel even more meaningful I think there aren't enough events that occur in the world it's basically just the RDA terrorizing the wildlife or you can go up and remove trackers from them I don't like that the side quests are mostly confined to the settlements I wish there were more to discover for yourself in the far reaches of Pandora but even with these gripes in mind even though the story struggles to stick the landing even though it's combat and side quest maybe nothing extraordinary I thoroughly enjoyed my 30 hours with this game because of how effectively it delivers on that nav fantasy as I said in the intro Avatar frontiers of Pandora is a game really made for Avatar fans I think it's a decent game regardless don't get me wrong but you'll have an enhanced appreciation for it if you're into the films you will bond with an ikron tame a dire horse discover all manner of strange new beasts you'll push back the RDA with the speed and athleticism of a na'vi using the weapons and food you've crafted from the land's Bounty and all this exists within a masterfully crafted slice of pant Pandora whose worldclass visuals and sound design will completely transport you it releases today on PS5 Xbox series and PC and supports two-player Co-op if you want to bring a friend along with you bottom line if what you've seen here looks interesting if you're hankering for an open world game that will immerse you thrill you and potentially move you I recommend Avatar frontiers of Pandora but if you're an avatar fan like me I strongly recommend it [Music] so Avatar frontiers of Pandora is actually pretty good I know we all had our doubt so it's nice to see Ubisoft land this one maybe you want to check it out for yourself but don't have a current gen console and your PC is a little long in the tooth don't worry though you don't need to for out hundreds of dollars for a new console or thousands of dollars for a new pc instead you can be playing the new avatar game in minutes on an RTX 380 enabling up to 4K resolution 60 FPS and support for ultrawide monitors it's all thanks to this video sponsor GeForce now powered by Cloud GG GeForce now is a powerful gaming platform that lets you play hundreds of games through the power and magic of the cloud mean you can play those games on your TV your old outdated PC your tablets and even your Apple devices this is possible because GeForce now does all the graphical processing in the cloud and just beams you an image similar to something like Netflix it's been available for a while now and people have loved it but last month Cloud GG made a massive upgrade to their infrastructure when that really transforms this entire cloud gaming experience their new Ultra tier membership is the first time you'll be able to experience RTX 3080 servers this means you can get up to 4K 60 FPS or 1440p at 120 FPS the 120 FPS number is significant because many modern TVs support 120 FPS mean you can play cyber Punk on your TV at that frame rate if you want to without needing to spend hundreds of dollars on a console or thousands of dollars on a high-end PC this membership tier is also the first to support Ultra wide resolutions and as someone who rocks an ultra wide monitor myself that is a very worthwhile addition Avatar frontiers of Pandora is going to be available day one on GeForce now powered by Cloud GG that means you can play it on an RTX 380 PC for just a tiny tiny fraction of the cost of purchasing that Hardware outright that's not all though recently GeForce now signed a partnership with Xbox which puts Game Pass games on GeForce now that means that 25 New Game Pass games immediately join the GeForce now service including the brand spanking new fora Motorsport new games are added to the service all the time just recently you got Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Lords of the Fallen steam World build City skylines 2 and even the classic Oni Musha Warlords first of all you don't need to buy these games twice these games are pulled from your existing steam epic or Ubisoft libraries meaning you can continue to buy games wherever you please but play them through the power and convenience of GeForce now there's a free trial available all the time allowing you to test this for yourself and for less than the price of a cup of coffee you can get a full month of the basic team membership giving you the chance to stream games on the fly with ease if you find yourself loving it and using it often you may want to check out that Ultra tier giving you next end features like R tracing 4K 60 FPS and Ultra wide PC gaming is I think the best way to go about it but the cost of Entry is often intimidating and you have to worry about upgrading your hardware and troubleshooting issues ETC if you want to get into PC gaming without any of the cost or hassle then GeForce now is absolutely the way to do it allowing you to play hundreds of PC games with ease you can try for free by clicking the link below thanks GeForce now powered by Cloud GG for sponsoring the video and thank you for watching it [Music]

Channel: Skill Up

Views: 250,818

Keywords: skill up, skill, up, gameplay, games, guide, avatar frontiers of pandora, avatar review, avatar game 2023, avatar frontiers of pandora PC, PC graphics, avatar game review, avatar ubisoft game, avatar, avatar 2023 game review, avatar open world, avatar pandora game, avatar pandora, avatar movie game, avatar frontiers of pandora review, ps5, xbox series x, xbox series s, PC, cutscenes, let's play, part 1, reaction

Id: Z0AsC_NRtEM

Length: 29min 47sec (1787 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 07 2023