A natural choice for a video game, James Cameron’s epic 3D action adventure has set new standards for how films are made. Seeing as how the Titanic director has put his stamp of approval on this, big things are naturally expected. Cameron reportedly sees the video game as much part of his Avatar vision as the film. But does it deliver on its promise?
Well unlike the film, which by all accounts is amazing, it isn’t the be all and end all of video games. However that’s not to say it’s a bad game to play, far from it.
If you haven’t seen the film yet, I won’t spoil things for you. Let’s just say the game puts you in the role of a human called Ryder who is sent to the wild planet of Pandora, where the humans encounter an alien race called the Na’vi. To help survive on the planet and to attempt to co-exist with this race, your human consciousness can be transported to a Na’vi body through the Avatar program. However, you are soon forced to choose between the two sides and are plunged headfirst into a war against the races. Whether you choose to side with the humans or Na’vi’s, it’s up to you, although I found the humans slightly easier to play as.
The choice you make greatly affects the overall game, with the emphasis on hand to hand combat with the Na’vi and action shooter with the humans. Whichever side you choose, the game plays in a third-person perspective with the camera situated over the shoulder and to the right of your character. You can’t help but feel the game would have been better if it had been designed as a first-person shooter, and the viewpoint can be slightly off-putting at first, but you do get used to it in the end.
Graphically, this game is a stand out success, with the rich jungle landscape of Pandora well represented with alien trees, plants and terrain all adding to the experience of playing on another world. Colourful ain’t the word for it… Sound wise its ok, with good voice acting and cinematic score throughout, and as a translation of the film, it does a commendable job.
However, its the actual gameplay that let this one down. Combat is poor on both sides, with it being hard to aim your gun for humans and plenty of frantic button mashing as you try to destroy whatever creature you’re fighting before they come close enough to kill you. The foes throughout the same tend to be the same, so once you’ve played it for about an hour, you have pretty much seen it all too.
The game is structured in such a way that you hardly have any choice in your missions. You are just told to run from point to point in the map, killing enemies or collecting items in order to advance to the next stage. There are some pretty cool weapons, vehicles and animals to ride along the way, but you never really feel in control of events. Everything seems too structured and you never really have much freedom in tasks.
The source material – i.e. the film – is so much better than this. You can’t help but feel with a little more time, this could have been a great game, but there are some real issues with the way the game is structured and the action is presented. Only buy if you are a die-had fan of the film. For the rest of us? It’s a case of try before you buy.
