Like the film itself, Avatar boasts some impressive tech that takes a fair amount of investment to see in its full glory. On the film side, the movie company is footing most of the bill. Unfortunately, Ubisoft is not about to deliver a 120hz capable HD television set with each game. If you already have a television capable of utilizing the 3D capabilities of Ubisoft's adaptation of James Cameron's Avatar, the game is a no-brainer. For the vast majority of the world that does not, this is not quite the video game adaptation that bucks the trend of shoddy movie-to-game tie-ins. The game place on the same lush forest planet found in the film, called Pandora. Rather than playing as Sam Worthington's character from the film, you select from a set of male and female characters to play as a newly landed recruit, eager to hop into their Avatar to help find the mole working for the native Na'vi tribe. The game was developed as a companion piece to the film, rather than mirroring the plot of the film. It is hard to tell how far separated the two are, since the instant you uncover the mole you must choose between the human RDA forces or the Na'vi; which seems to mimic the plot of the film.
The choice gives the game a completely separate campaign to play through, with a smart save point set aside for an easy return when you are ready to embark on the other side of the war. The choice happens around the hour mark of the game, which feels rushed without much background information to base your decision on. The basic conflict seems very much in line with what Cameron has shown of the film, with the aggressive RDA attempting to uncover an energy source as the Na'vi attempt to defend their planet. Sadly, most of the early story details feel rushed or completely skipped, leaving you with scraps of details as to what is actually happening on the planet. There is a Pandorapedia with some information on the characters in the game and the planet's extraordinary wildlife and fauna, but the game would be better off explaining more outside of the text-based wiki. The planet itself is the star of the game, constantly delivering on the premise of Pandora being a deadly, dangerous, and beautiful planet. The verticality of the areas is amazing, though it often renders the flat mini-map useless and lead to some frustration in levels where you must scale the landscape.
The voice-work is great if you can look past the American-Indian vibe of the Na'vi's broken English, which will do nothing to calm rumors of the film being a Dances With Wolves rip. Despite having a separate conductor from the film, the rousing score is among the best in gaming this year. The game is a hybrid of third-person shooter and rpg genres, with experience earned with each kill and completed quest. The quests are the most important aspect of the game, with nearly all of them resulting in enough experience to reach the next set of rewards. Rather than leveling up, the game rewards each new experience level with a set of weapons, skills, and armor to use. With the rewards all pre-set, it feels like the game wastes the rpg elements. Both stories are linear, with only a few exploration-based side-quests to pull in extra experience. The amount of time it takes to complete them in relation to the limited experience rewarded lends the side-quests to completists only. Exploration rewards most often with 'cell samples', which convert into the game's version of lives, called 'recover'; allowing you to continue on right where you died rather than at the last checkpoint.
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