Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

The new project in the Avatar universe is not a failure at all. It is really nice to play as the blue-skinned Na’vi: they are graceful, strong, and this is clearly felt in the gameplay. The game world is also pleasing – inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is felt, and this is more of a compliment than a reproach.

But all the magic begins to crumble when you try to look at the project as a whole. Everything seems to be in place – the visuals, the mechanics, and the atmosphere. But together they do not add up to a complete picture. It is obvious that the development was difficult: the release was postponed for a year, and when you launch the game, you feel it literally from the first minutes. As if the final touches were applied in a hurry, haphazardly, just to make it in time.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Free Steam Account

It all starts off quite curiously: the story centers on a group of Na’vi who were taken in by humans as children and raised as their own. They grew up far from their roots, not knowing the culture or customs of their people. Now they have to not only figure out who they really are, but also earn the trust of other clans and reconnect with their family. The seeds for a cool plot, right? But the further you progress through the game, the more you get the feeling that the script was stamped out according to a template – as if a neural network had drafted the text, and no one bothered to read it to the end. Seriously, half of the characters are walking cliches, and the other half seemed to have accidentally ended up in the script. Dialogues? 70% consist of random lines that explain little. Only rare phrases bring any clarity. And the “unexpected turns” are so predictable that you can guess them almost by the timer. The purple-haired heroine (don’t ask her name – I didn’t remember it on principle) was especially annoying. Whether it was an attempt to stick the obligatory “hyperactive storyline” into the plot, or just a poorly written character, but each of her monologues was like a test of patience.

Nevertheless, there are moments in the story that really grab you. For example, how the heroes gradually remember their past through flashbacks – immersions in the avatar’s memory. Or the sudden destruction of an entire location, which forever changes the world of the game – a rare episode when you really want to hate people. And the taming of the ikran and the first flight to the magnificent soundtrack of Pinar Toprak is one of those moments that gives you goosebumps. It was also interesting to dig deeper into the lives of the local clans. Especially the clan of healers – it is clear that they tried hard on their story, even if not completely. But these successful fragments are too few. As a result, only a general feeling of sterility, artificiality and boring narration remains. Even Cameron’s films seem like the height of screenwriting compared to this game.

Roger Ebert once said, “A story is only as good as its villain.” Of course, this doesn’t always work (hello, Far Cry 6!), but an antagonist with clear motives is half the battle. Especially if he does evil with “good intentions.” But in Frontiers of Pandora, the villains are just cardboard features. The mad scientist Mercer, who shelters the main characters, appears for a couple of scenes – and dies. His assistant, Colonel Harding, also flashes a couple of times and disappears. No emotion, no depth, no intrigue. Just antagonists according to the instructions: so that they exist.

Save your money for snacks! Games are free with free steam accounts.

Why Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s Grind Is More Addictive Than Its Story

To be honest, the local grind here turned out to be so addictive that the story missions somehow faded into the background. My wife and I played Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora together, and what we remembered most were not the dialogues or plot twists, but the epic clearing of outposts, the destruction of enemy towers, the exploration of Pandora’s stunning landscapes, and the collection of all sorts of useful junk for crafting equipment. It’s clear that Ubisoft itself was not responsible for the gameplay, but its subsidiary studio Massive Entertainment – and this only benefited the game. Moving around the planet is a separate pleasure. Even on the keyboard, you feel the balance between the heaviness and grace of your hero. He can fall on top of an enemy with a crash, kick down a door, smash a valve with his bare hands – and at the same time silently and gracefully jump along tree branches, like a local super ninja. Jumps high, climbs dexterously, sneaks up on the enemy unnoticed – a real wild cat in the body of a two-meter avatar.

And archery is just a song. There are three of them in the game, and each is good in its own way:

• The Longbow is a versatile option: it hits hard and reloads quickly.
• The Heavy Bow is slow, but deals colossal damage.
• The Shortbow is ideal for an aggressive style: it fires arrows at breakneck speed and leaves no chance for enemies.

By the end, I spent almost the entire game running around with a short bow and turning local robots into hedgehogs, shooting arrows so fast that you can’t help but smile. By the way, arrows are crafted on the fly – no need to go anywhere, just choose a weapon – and make yourself some ammunition.

What bows, what stealth? Give her more ammo – and you can start clearing Pandora right now. The fire from human weapons here is powerful: opponents fall with one shot, even exoskeletons don’t last long. True, reloading is long, and ammo must be obtained either from defeated enemies or from captured bases. But the coolest detail is how the world around changes after our raids. You clear an outpost – and along with it, the dirty air disappears, the brown filter goes away, and the plants begin to bloom again. Each victory literally brings beauty back to the planet. After this, you want to clean out Pandora completely, so that it can finally breathe deeply – without factories and soot.

Pandora’s Open World: A Paradise for the Eyes, a Nightmare for Navigation

As I mentioned, crafting in the game is a separate mini-game. Almost like in Breath of the Wild, only here you go on expeditions across the world of Pandora again and again in search of rare resources. The best equipment requires not just skins and herbs – you need unique samples, and you can only find them in carefully hidden corners that are not marked on the map. The encyclopedia will only give you a vague description, like: “loves fog and northern slopes.” Some plants appear only in the rain, others – exclusively in the morning fog. Animals also need to be killed “according to the rules”: quickly, cleanly, without suffering. Otherwise, the skin will be spoiled. Pandora is, of course, the main star of the show. It is, without exaggeration, the most beautiful open world I have ever seen in games. The problem is that the beauty gets in the way in places. This is what you constantly encounter:

• The rivers are too visually similar to each other, and it is difficult to understand where exactly the desired reed grows.
• The forests are so dense that it is almost impossible to navigate, even with a mini-map.
• When flying on the Ikran, it is easy to fly past the desired point – there are no landmarks.
• The terrain is too detailed, and because of this, you often lose the sense of scale and direction.

In Breath of the Wild, everything was simple and clear — minimalism worked in favor of orientation. Here, the map is your best friend, and you are constantly forced to refer to it so as not to get lost. The leveling system also turned out to be strange. To get skill points, you need to look for special flowers — tarsya. Some, especially large ones, also give unique abilities. And to increase health, you need to find a plant called spore. Touch it — and immediately increase your endurance. But finding them is not easy: they are not highlighted in any way and are not marked on the map. The only landmark is a blue circle that appears on the screen if you accidentally end up nearby. Not very intuitive, especially if you are used to beacons or glowing towers like in Zelda.

Surprisingly, I really think that more freedom would have benefited the game. They would have given the player a world without frames and restrictions — like Nintendo did in its latest Zelda games. So that he himself could choose where to go, what to do, and collect the story bit by bit. Fortunately, the Na’vi reputation does not block the plot – it’s more like a local currency. If you don’t want to do crafting, no problem, you can buy equipment from merchants or find enemy bases with loot.

But there were also technical problems. Not critical, but unpleasant. The game does not want to run on video cards with less than 8 GB of video memory. Even my RX 6800 with 16 GB starts to choke after half an hour at maximum settings. And my wife’s laptop with 4 GB of video memory on the 3050 just gave up, even at minimum settings. In the end, I had to buy another copy – for PS5. At least crossplay works. It’s a pity that this was announced literally a day before the release.

Is Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora worth playing?

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is not a failure, but you shouldn’t expect any delight either. The plot is so sterile that at times you want to cover your ears, just to avoid listening to the stone-faced heroes utter lines devoid of life and emotion. But the gameplay itself and the feeling that you really became a Na’vi on Pandora are captivating. Sometimes, however, it gets boring, and you have to come up with entertainment on the go.

The ideas borrowed from The Legend of Zelda were beneficial to the game – but, alas, the riot of colors and details on the screen prevents these mechanics from revealing themselves to the fullest. The leveling system is controversial, and is aggravated by the fact that the game world does not react to changes in any way – everything is tied exclusively to the interface. The graphics, of course, are impressive, but they come at a high price: even on the PS5 there are noticeable FPS drops. Here, for every successful element, there is something that spoils the impression.

The game is definitely worth a try for fans of the James Cameron universe. Just to get to know the Na’vi clans better, saddle a direhorse and gallop across the Great Plains, soar into the sky on an ikran and explore the Hallelujah Mountains, or hunt a thanator in the mysterious thickets of the Moth Forest. But if all this doesn’t make you feel something inside, then this is simply not your story.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora System Requirements

How to play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora for free on Steam via VpeSports

Always wanted to find yourself in the world of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, but the price in the store scared you off? I understand – I’ve been there myself. But there is a great way to play for free and without any gray schemes. Everything is legal and simple: you can get access to a shared account and go explore Pandora today.

The VpeSports website has a section with free steam account – all you need to do is register and go to the desired section. Among the games is Frontiers of Pandora, and this is a real gift from fate for everyone who has long wanted to play, but was not ready to pay. On the game page, you will find a button that will open detailed instructions. No headaches: just follow step by step – and in a couple of minutes you are already running through dense alien forests, flying on an ikra and fighting for Pandora, like a real Na’vi.

When you play, do not be lazy to leave a review. This is really important: both for other players and for you — the comment is moderated, and after that you receive a login from the account by email. Even if the review is not accepted the first time, no problem — you will just be told what to fix. Everything is friendly and without tediousness.

By the way, they also have an active Telegram channel with news, instructions and quick answers to any questions. If something does not work or you need to figure it out — they will always help here. And the site itself already has a full guide on launching Avatar and other games. So everything is real — the main thing is to start.