The human and Na'vi characters play differently enough to give the game some real replay value. Both sides have their own unique benefits and weaknesses, the most obvious being camouflage. Humans seem to blend into the background almost too well, making it difficult to spot them without watching where the bullets are flying from when playing as Na'vi. To balance this, the planet acts aggressively toward them at all times, with ferocious animals and killer plants a constant threat. The Na'vi's huge frame and blue skin makes them easy to spot, but they rarely have to worry about the planet's inhabitants turning on them unless provoked. The skill sets for the two races are completely different from each other, with the more powerful and interesting of them going to the Na'vi; like 'swarm', where the planet attacks nearby humans. Each skill has its own recharge time restricting its use, with the more powerful ones taking longest to return. The system seems to work well enough to prevent you from simply spamming the powerhouse abilities to blast through the game. Both human and Na'vi have the same control issues.
Both characters seem to lunge forward where you only want to take a step, leading to far too many falls from ledges; resulting in aggravating losses of health or death. The floaty jumping does not help matters either. The shooter aspect of the game has no aim-assist or lock-on feature, making the more frantic battles a challenge, given how many bullets most enemies can handle. Na'vi are a little easier to play with in this regard, since the melee weaponry is more helpful in a mass of enemies than your bow and arrows. Both sides have their own mounts, with the animal mounts of the Na'vi handling poorly. The Ikron flying beats are the biggest offenders, ruining what could have been the coolest portion of the game. The mechanical 'mounts' of the humans fare much better, with easier to wrangle control schemes. Both sides can utilize the game's teleportation sites to move quickly throughout the game's expansive levels. The sites also double as your access to the odd Risk-inspired Conquest mini-game. Gamers turn experience into activity points to build up armies and defenses, as you move your forces across the planet in an effort to take it over.
It works fine, but the out-of-place mini-game feels like an XBLA title they tossed into the mix here rather than charging for it on its own. There is some Live multiplayer to jump into, but the options are limited to two maps per mode and a non-existent player base. The five modes are exactly what you expect, with team death match, capture & hold, and capture the flag modes failing to offer anything new to multiplayer gaming. Given all else there has been released over the last few months and the control issues with the game, it is hard to fault the gamers. Aside from the ordinary modes, the biggest issue with the online play is the lack of a 'quick play all' mode, which would put you directly in an active game. Instead, the game forces you to choose one of the ten options and leaves you hoping that a game is currently running; which is an issue with the limited player base. If the insane amount of studio boasting in the television commercials is to be believed, James Cameron’s Avatar is the future of movies. Unfortunately the same statement is not true when it comes to the Xbox 360 game. Still there are plenty of shining moments in Avatar.
