18.7.2010

Despite reading some absolutely shocking reviews from the gaming press I thought I would try this game when I discovered it uses the Dunia engine. This is the engine which powers Far Cry 2 the open world shooter set in African jungles, savannas and deserts. I thought that game looked superb and ran very smoothly on my system which is still fairly high end (Core i7 920 DO, GeForce 2GB GTX285, 6GB DDR3 RAM). This game does not disappoint graphically although it looks quite different from Far Cry 2. I played it using the DX9 API with all settings maxed apart from antialiasing which I set to 4x rather than the 8x allowed in the graphics options.When you get away from the human encampments into the jungles you probably do not even need this as there were not many jaggies in the jungle. I got an average framerate in the mid fifties at 1920x1200 with vsync enabled and a minimum around thirty and the game ran remarkably smoothly with no trace of stutter or hitching. This is obviously a quality game engine and there is no feeling of the framerate struggling at all even in heavy combat scenes. I did not use DX10 although that is an option with this engine because I cannot really tell the difference graphically and it knocks roughly ten fps off the framerates. All I can see is the images are slightly darker which I can get by turning down the gamma or brightness without a framerate hit. This is not a criticism of this game engine by the way just of the DX10 API in general.The game uses very high resolution textures throughout and probably still gets such high framerates due to the skilful use of background fog to cut down the draw distances. This also reduces pop-in which I found less prevalent and annoying than in Far Cry 2 but did not ruin the feeling this was a large world we were exploring. The graphics options are extensive and most can be set at low, medium, high or ultra high so should still run well on older systems. The best thing about the presentation of the graphics is the colours. Far Cry 2 used fairly muted colour tones for artistic effect but this game uses the most vibrant colour palette I have ever seen in a game. From memory Prey, the science fiction shooter, and the original Mass Effect were very colourful but they cannot compete with this. My monitor is a HP 2475w which has a H-IPS panel well known for good colour and it is games like this that make me remember why I paid £400 for it. The colour scheme is practically psychedelic but anyone who has seen a tropical rain forest will know this is fairly realistic. The strangest effects occur at night because all the local plants and animals are bioluminescent so glow in the dark.The story is set before the events of the film apparently (I have not seen the film) and is not well explained - for example nowhere does it explain why humans use avatars of the native race, the Na'vi. However even I know from newspaper reports about the film there is a war going on between the natives who want to preserve the planet and the humans who want to mine it for resources. Humans use avatars because they are more suited to conditions on the planet. Anyway, all this and much more information can be found in the game encyclopedia. After a few quests you have to choose whether to side with the humans or the Na'vi. If you side with the humans you have access to conventional weapons and vehicles. If you side with the Na'vi you effectively play as a Na'vi by using an avatar and use their traditional low tech weaponry and native horses and dragon-like flying creatures called Banshees instead of vehicles. I played both but found playing as the Na'vi more interesting and you do not get attacked constantly by the local beasts and plants which can get repetitive.The game is close to a RPG in the mould of Mass Effect as your weapons and special abilities are upgradeable by spending experience points. The special abilities are similar no matter who you play and include bursts of increased speed and periods of invisibility very reminiscent of the functions of the Nanosuit in Crysis. I found the controls for vehicles hard to get used to particularly the Banshee which was a pity. I recently played Dark Void where you can use a jetpack to fly around simply using the mouse and the walk button (before you try any fancy aerial moves). Here you needed W, A and D to steer as with most vehicles but then space and shift to control vertical movement which became very cumbersome. The game has a lot of verticality if that is the correct word - you are often trying to navigate to a place, using your radar, which is either above or below you vertically. However the radar does not show whether the target is on the same level as yourself or above or below which could make navigating confusing.The artificial intelligence of the enemies could be poor at times. It was quite funny sometimes when an enemy was shooting at you from a distant ledge then saved you the trouble of shooting back by simply falling off the ledge and plunging to their death. The game uses the third person view but is not centred - your character is well to the left of the screen. This means that when firing sometimes you hit an obstruction in front of you despite it not appearing in the aiming reticle. If a more centred over-the-shoulder view were used this would not happen. In addition the game lacks the normal zoom for ranged weapons which is unusual - the conventional right mouse button for zooming is assigned for a quick 180 degree spin which might be useful if you are using an Xbox controller but not if you have a quick mouse. I found the Na'vi bow was useless as it was horribly inaccurate until I used the aim assist which is a feature of many console games then it was fine.The game is not a true sandbox open world game in the mould of Far Cry 2 or Oblivion as the missions follow a set order and the game maps used are not that large. However the route you take to your objectives is up to you and there are always alternative tactics you can try. In addition there are a few optional missions that can be attempted at any time. I personally enjoyed wandering around the game world looking at the unusual scenery in the gameworld of Pandora. One area where the game seems rather amateurish is the voice acting. Everyone sounds like they are reading scripts and the Na'vi characters have a range of rather strange accents, some of them sounding decidedly West African. In addition the character you play sounds like a young college boy/girl rather than a soldier and is not convincing at all. In addition the Na'vi storyline had a rather limp ending without a proper boss fight.Overall I found the game quite entertaining despite these occasional niggles which you get used to fairly quickly. It is a good mix of traditional shooter and RPG and is effectively two games in one as you can play as a human or a Na'vi. However the feature that sets it aside from most modern games is the engine. In my opinion the Dunia engine is better than the Crytek engine used in Crysis and Crysis Warhead. It can look as good but is much easier to run than that engine. I personally am sick of lazy console ports using the ubiquitous Unreal 3 Engine which often do not even seem to improve the texture resolution for the PC so end up looking horrible. This game shows you why the PC is so superior to the console for gaming and I cannot understand why it has been so badly received other than the fact no-one is prepared to give movie tie-ins a chance. If you want a great visual experience and are prepared to overlook a couple of gameplay faults this should prove an enjoyable game for you.Hope this helps

7.5.2011

I don't normally buy games based on films, or 3rd person shooters. However,I decided it was worth a try now it's a budget title.I'm glad I did. This is a superb-looking game with reasonably solid gameplay. The 3rd person view works reasonably well. On the down-side, the flying sequences are let down a bit by clunky controls.You start with a tutorial phase and then have to make a decision about which side to choose. I expect many people who enjoyed the film, like me, wanted to side with the Na'vi. You are given a series of tasks which mean travelling through exotic landscape to your objective. You have to kill numerous humans on the way and at the objective too.Your weapons are a bow,a crossbow and various close quarters weapons (staffs and long knives). The combat is fairly repetitious but not boring.Despite your efforts, killing scores of humans and completing impossible missions, the Na'vi treat you with almost universal contempt. You feel isolated.If you choose to join the humans, you are rewarded with a far more interesting campaign. As with the Na'vi, you receive a series of tasks, which involve a lot of fighting. However the exotic landscape that was so benign when you were playing as a Na'vi, becomes deadly. Many of the plants become positively homicidal and you have to look carefully where you are going. There is a far greater feeling of being on an alien world.Your weapons are more interesting, too. They include assault rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, flame throwers, nail guns and rifles.The bonus is that your fellow humans mostly like you and appreciate your efforts! You feel part of a team fighting a long way from home in an alien environment.I have not tried the embedded strategy game. I'm not keen on strategy games but you might be.A few points that are worth noting if you jump into he game:1. The Video Option screen scrolls down to the important settings that turn it into a beautiful game.2. It's worth picking up experience points. You can spend them on upgrading your weapons and skills. Go to the weapons and skills menus and click the arrows to find what is available.3. Although you can only carry four weapons and four skills, you can swap them about using the weapons and skills menus at any time.4. If you fall off a small ledge and can't climb straight back, sometimes it's quicker to fling yourself off a high cliff (thus returning to the spawning point). In comparison, your route back by conventional means could take ages.5. Try both campaigns. They feel very different.I don't think it was worth it as a premium priced game. However, at the current price on Amazon, it's excellent value. I loved playing it!EDIT:I wrote the above review when I was half way through both campaigns. Afterwards, I found that I became more and more absorbed in the world of Pandora. Some rather nice vehicles became available in the human campaign and I came across another chance to choose sides. The Na'vi even started to like me in the Na'vi campaign!I have bumped it up to 5 stars. Even though it's not the white knuckle ride of a Call of Duty game, the campaigns each gave me over 12 hours of absorbing gameplay. I slowly became an expert at the flora and fauna. Once I discovered how to do it, I loved upgrading my weapons and skills. It's certainly worth five stars at this budget price for its excellent value. Even someone who has never seen the film would like it.

18.8.2013

first of all - i love this game despite its obvious flawsi don't even refer to it as Avatar i call it Pandora as the shining star here is the environment of the jungle planet it looks absolutely stunning and the detail of the environment is sometimes overwhelming even now it looks like a next gen game i have played a lot of jungle games - Crysis, far cry 2 etc and this looks the best by far.the only problem i had was playing as the RDA and killing the Navi but once i distanced myself from the film and had to fight them that changed as the Navi are vicious fast big and strong and show no mercy, at one point i came across a lone navi being ambushed by a bunch of wolverines and he was going down so i helped out and blasted them,

18.1.2010

I'm an older gamer and new to the Nintendo DS. I bought mine to play puzzle games (like Prof. Layton) and after watching Avatar in the cinema wanted to experience more of the film - luckily Avatar for the DS is primarily a puzzle/quest game.First off, the Amazon description is for the wrong product - the closest you get is the Amazon.com description, but even that is mostly wrong. I've extracted the correct bit:Product Features - Platform: Nintendo DS* Become immersed in the world of the Avatar feature film, viewing James Cameron's universe from your own perspective* Experience a whole new epic Pandoran tale as Nok,

13.12.2009

Avatar the game is a bit of a mixed bag. I bought it because i'm wetting myself over the new movie and wanted to see more of Pandora and the beasties that inhabit this incredible looking world. The core components of the game are fairly basic, it's a 3rd person shooter and you can chose to side with the ten foot tall Navi, using primitive weapons and their incredible agility, or the humans and their arsenal of sophisticated weapons and vehicles.Once you've picked your side you are let loose on Pandora and can explore the vast world and everything it has to offer, collecting missions along the way, which usually involve killing enemies or blowing things up. The combat has some depth to it,

16.1.2010

Well, I start to hate the stylus after playing New Mario so beautifully without it.Avatar has such a vivid colours, and everything should be brilliant, but I am not so sure how much to rate this game. My experience of the stylus is pathetic and I am not sure who's fault is. I am sure that some faults are mine, but lets talk about the game faults I found until now.1- when u enter in a new location, are at list 7-8 seconds wasted of a running little creature in black and white on the screen. I study digital art and moving image, so I kind of do this things to add more time to my footage, but when we talk about games it should be fun and not wasting the time when all we want is to play.2-I'm shown how to unlock an entrance and when I try later-on is not the same thing,

26.12.2009

To start with i would like to say how unfair i think some of these reviews are. True if you are playing as the RDA it is no call of duty. However i found the navi side of the campaign was absolutely fantastic. You play as a Navi tribal warrior and pit yourself against the RDA's machinary with your bow, dual blades ,battle staffs, axes and crossbows I found the extremely gripping as you sneak your way through dense foliage string your bow and start t pick off the RDA troops before they even notice where you are or get to you. As you progress through the ranks their is a wealth of weapons and armour for you too unlock which allow you to dispatch with your enemies in style.The Graphics for this game are absolutely superb beyond belief,

17.11.2011

This game is really fun but it is quite easy. I would recommend it for your children. the grapghics were quite good. The best thing about it is the riding the Direhorses or the Thanators, but the best is definately the Ikran ( Banshees). Also, once you have finished the game, there is not much more to do. The most annoying thing about that i found was that once you are on the final mission, you have to get to the WELL OF SOULS to awaken the WRATH OF PANDORA. But, there is a endless gap between you and the floating rock the WELL OF SOULS is on. To get there you have to fly, but your Ikran is not there to fly you across, therefore fosing you to befriend the mighty Ikran, or whatever its called.

22.2.2010

I've been playing this for a few weeks now and am still quite enjoying it. I'm not the movie's biggest fan but was interested to see how the world of Pandora worked within a game environment and to be honest, I'm not disappointed. The game isn't best I've seen in terms of graphics but perfectly functional. Pandora looks pretty amazing, especially at night. The world is very immersive and the single player maps are pretty big. Exploring every nook and cranny of each map is one of my favourite parts of the game. The character models look pretty good and all of the RDA machinery and weaponry are very authentic to the film. One issue I have is the frame rate which can sometimes be pretty iffy.

9.11.2012

I bought this game months ago and gave it away to my granddaughter as I couldn't seem to get very far into it before getting stuck and I found being a human quite frankly boring. I again bought a used copy to have another try at it. For me the game came into it's own once I decided to become a Na'vi. The world of Pandora is absolutely gorgeous and for me the joy of the game is exploring this wonderful place and I've spent hours doing just that. When fighting the humans the Na'vi use a bow and arrow, a crossbow, dual blades and fighting staffs as opposed to the RDA guns and very effective they are too. I have spent many absorbing hours learning about this complex and beautiful world.

19.2.2010

I really like this game; mainly because I love good art and am a massive Avatar fan and wanted to immerse myself further into the world of Pandora, which this game does admirably.Granted, the AI is rubbish, and the script clumsy (sadly an all too common failing in games), but the play areas are expansive and convey the jungle/floating mountains very well. Occasionally the games transitions into night time, and this is a real treat on the eyes and gives a whole new life to the play areas - unfortunately there seems to be no logical pattern as to when this happens, and is sadly a rare event :(On the whole, if you loved the movie, and love game art for its own sake, then you'll most likely love this game; otherwise,

12.1.2014

( Final Fantasy Queen ) This was the Seller that I bought this game from. They were fantastic, I was looking for an Xbox game for Christmas for my Grandson, and as It was very close to Christmas I didn't think I would get it in time. But this seller said they had a new copy still in the cellophane, and that it would be sent First Class Mail, so I ordered it straight away living in hope that I would get it in time, as the shops had sold out of it where we live.They did send it first class and I got it. I was over the moon, and so was my Grandson,as he loved playing my copy on my PS3. Thank You ( Final Fantasy Queen ) For being a Great Seller. If I could give you 10 stars I would.

20.1.2014

I thought this game was very engaging and it kept up my interest for many hourse of gameplay. The graphics are beautiful and very detailed, and the world of Pandora is large and great to explore. The game provides the opportunity to fly you own Ikran, or if you choose the human route a Dragon battleship. There are also several land vehicles such as buggys, or Direhorses as a Na'vi. I have thoroughly enjoyed this game and seriously recommend it to anyone who enjoys avatar. I found the gameplay at times challenging, however it was never too difficult for me-so I definitely am for this game!

24.8.2010

Can't understand why so many find problems with this game - it's brilliant!The avatar world is pretty much faithfully reproduced - if you ever wanted to explore Pandora, then you won't be disappointed. Vehicles, buildings and scenery are all highly detailed. UBIsoft have really captured the scale. atmosphere and detail of Pandora; screenshots I've seen don't do it justice. What I love most about this game is that you can take your time to explore as well as carry out the missions. Buy this game - I highly recommend it. 10/10

8.7.2010

My daughter had been bugging me to buy her this game since she saw the movie. Eventually i gave in a bought it for her, it did take her a while to complete the game first time playing. Since then she has managed to play the whole game three times in one week. She says that she enjoys it but that it could be more challenging and with more levels. I have not played the game myself but from my daughters responce if you want something challenging avoid it but just for a bit of fun to while away the time buy it.

James Cameron's Avatar: The Game - Reviews

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