James Cameron's Avatar: The Game

The massive plot holes, very uninteresting mission objectives, and all the trudging back and forth act as a counter to Avatar: The Game's rich visual presentation. That is to say, Avatar is a great looking game with so little substance that even the inclusion of experience points won't be enough to make gamers care about the game beyond the first few hours.
 

That's not the only thing wrong with Avatar.

 

When the game presents you with the choice to join the Na'vi resistance or keep up the slaughter with humans, my natural choice was the Na'vi, a race of blue, lithe

giants that I assumed were acrobats of jungle world. Nope, they're uninteresting aliens with poor mobility which is in opposition to the melee weapons they employ.  Another downside is that the Na'vi make really big targets and the swarming human opposition is nearly impossible to spot unless they're firing at you. Both of these facts mean plenty of death and a rapid dwindling supply of "revives." I

restarted the game only an hour or two down the Na'vi storyline to choose the human side so that at least I didn't constantly feel frustrated because the approach is even more conventional thought, at best, the shooting feels haphazard and inaccurate.

 

Either side presents some of the most straightforward missions I've played recently. "Hey, go there and flip a switch, then come back." The vehicles and instant teleport nodes are scattered throughout, but I spent far too long trudging from A to B, trying to stay interested all the way.

 

         

And if you want to maintain that feeling of complete disinterest Avatar comes with an online component that feels like a contractual obligation rather than any real passionate look at a unique multiplayer feature. The Na'vi and humans, so radically different, could have made for some King of the Hill, Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag matches but, as they are, if you're on the human side you've won, pretty much without even trying. It's that simple and that is a crying shame.

Avatar does look awesome (even better, I'm told, when you're playing in Stereoscopic 3D) but there's so little fun here that your money is better spent elsewhere.

 

- D.D. Nunavut

(December 18, 2009)