War is upon us, and Ewa cries out in pain. Short of somehow growing a Na’vi neural braid and jamming it directly into the base of James Cameron’s skull, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is pretty much your best option for taking a virtual tour of the stunning alien moon of Pandora. This open-world shooter offers an expansive slice of the fantastic fictional universe to explore; however, hidden among all that beauty is a disappointing amount of bloat.
With copy-pasted enemy outposts and facilities, venturing off the main story path feels far less rewarding compared to recent landmark adventures like Elden Ring or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I still enjoyed the 25 hours I spent fending off a resource-hungry human invasion, but I wish the environment itself had given me more compelling reasons to fight for it beyond its surface-level splendor.
Set on an entirely new Western frontier continent, separate from the region where Jake Sully and his family have played out two-thirds of an apparently five-movie story arc, Frontiers of Pandora is a standalone adventure with only minor references to the films—and thankfully, not a single mention of “unobtainium” (at least, not that I can recall). In this story, some Avatar driver named Jake Sully went full-native and turned the Na’vi against us. That’s why you can’t trust any of them.
Even so, the overall story arc doesn’t stray far from the established series formula. Humanity’s Colonizing Resource Development Administration (RDA) is an oppressive force in the Western frontier, filled with numerous mining facilities. It’s up to us, playing as an unnamed Na’vi raised in captivity, to unite the three isolated Na’vi clans in the region and make a stand against invaders determined to do more damage to the natural habitat than actor Sam Worthington has done to the American accent.
Broadly speaking, I was happy to step into the role of the eco-warrior spearheading the uprising, but I can’t say I ever truly bonded with any character in Frontiers of Pandora. This may be because the countless Na’vi clan members I encountered were largely indistinguishable in appearance and had exotic-sounding names that easily mixed up in my middle-aged memory. I can barely keep track of my kids’ friends, let alone tell apart characters named Eetu and Eetua.
Furthermore, the two main antagonists, RDA businessman John Mercer and military head General Angela Harding, have minimal presence throughout the campaign. We mainly encounter them through sporadic video communications, as if there’s been an outbreak of cat-person COVID, and they’ve been left with no choice but to taunt us via Zoom. Neither is physically confronted during the story, leaving their fates undetermined by the time the credits roll, which felt underwhelming.
The Western frontier itself, however, is truly remarkable. Frontiers of Pandora offers genuinely breathtaking environments to explore, and thanks to the hyper-agility of your Na’vi character, it’s exhilarating to experience at speed. Whipping along the tops of twisted branches and through hollowed-out logs, huffing spores from special plants that temporarily boost your momentum, feels like a blue blur that would make Sonic the Hedgehog green with envy. The world feels alive, with flowers shyly retracting their stems as you pass and pods bursting with seeds when you approach.
This vibrant ecosystem is full of life, offering plenty to harvest and hunt for resources to prepare stat-boosting meals and craft mods for your Na’vi weapons and clothing. I enjoyed the tactile mechanics of harvesting flora, gripping with the right trigger and swiveling the left thumbstick to find the point of least resistance. It was satisfying to see fresh produce pop off the vine. While I didn’t dive deep into the hunting aspect, mainly killing animals in self-defense, I appreciated the design thoughtfulness; a clean kill with one arrow yields the best meat for cooking, while using a machine gun spoils it.
Frontiers of Pandora looks amazing up close, but arguably shines brightest when viewed from atop an Ikran soaring through the skies. Once I bonded with my winged steed about five hours into the story, I opted to travel by air whenever possible. Although piloting the Ikran doesn’t quite replicate the exhilarating sense of speed from the films, it’s still useful for taking out smaller RDA installations from above. Leaping off a cliff and having my Ikran swoop in to catch me is consistently thrilling.
Given that you’re mostly wearing a loincloth and a snarl, you’re quite vulnerable to the attacks from the human forces guarding RDA installations. Thankfully, you have both primitive Na’vi tools and advanced human weaponry at your disposal. The arsenal in Frontiers of Pandora seems limited compared to Far Cry 6 or Horizon Forbidden West, but it gets the job done. I relied on the Na’vi longbow for sniping ground troops, an assault rifle for shredding aircraft, and a surprisingly powerful shotgun for dismantling RDA mechs.
More powerful versions of each weapon class can be found throughout the world or earned from side quests, and equipping optimal gear boosts your combat level, much like in Destiny or The Division. Each mission and side quest is marked with a recommended combat level, but in my experience, it wasn’t too challenging to tackle missions underleveled, at least on the default difficulty setting.
Enemy AI tends to be dim-witted, and some abilities from the skill tree can be easily exploited. Once I gained the ability to punch through cockpit glass and yank mech pilots from their harnesses, I enjoyed sending them flying like Nickelback CDs mistakenly inserted into my car stereo. The final missions do raise the stakes and increase enemy numbers significantly, leading to some intense firefights. However, there were times when I couldn’t tell if I was being genuinely challenged or just cheated, as it felt like enemies had a supernatural awareness of my location or were shooting through cover.
Overall, the shooting mechanics are mostly solid but don’t evolve substantially throughout the story, and it never quite achieves the freeform gameplay of Far Cry at its best. HUD clutter has long been an issue in Ubisoft’s open-world games, but Frontiers of Pandora has taken a Marie Kondo-style approach to presentation. While it took time to adjust to not having my hand held, I found it ultimately improved the experience.
Navigation relies heavily on your Na’vi sense, which highlights interactive objects and the general direction of objectives but fades quickly once released, offering an unimpeded view of the surroundings. There were moments I missed having a mini-map, especially when searching for a weapons trader in one of the larger Na’vi camps, but I generally enjoyed the freedom of finding my own way rather than blindly following a set path.
I do wish there were better rewards for exploring off the beaten path, as the more I traversed Frontiers of Pandora‘s expanse, the more I stumbled upon the same RDA mining facilities, each requiring similar sabotage methods. Both main story missions and optional installations involve repetitive actions, and while it’s impressive to see polluted areas reclaimed by nature, the experience can feel a bit monotonous by the end.
I appreciate the strong environmental message that Frontiers of Pandora shares with James Cameron’s films, but this isn’t the kind of recycling I had in mind. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora features a stunning alien world to explore, countless enemy bases to destroy, and numerous Na’vi clan side quests to complete, along with a wealth of exotic flora and fauna to harvest and hunt. However, its combat is somewhat one-dimensional, its mission design tends toward repetition, and its environment lacks major surprises beyond its visual beauty. This means that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a solid shooting adventure that, while enjoyable, stays more inside the box than truly out of this world.