During the recent Ubisoft Forward event, the company finally gave gamers their first look at the upcoming game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Among the reveals was the game's protagonist and gameplay footage mixed in with cinematics. The story of the main character in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora appears to be one that parallels another major character from the franchise.
The main character of the Avatar films is Jake Sully played by Sam Worthington. In the first film, he's a paraplegic soldier who enters into the body of a vat-grown alien creature through a neural link that allows him to explore the world. After learning the ways of the natives, the Na'vi, he ultimately betrays the company that had been working for and helped drive them off the world. The story of the protagonist in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora tells a similar tale but in a kind of reverse fashion.
The Long Road to Ubisoft's Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
The road to the upcoming Ubisoft game has been an incredibly long one and full of bumps. It was originally revealed that The Division developer was working on an Avatar game all the way back in 2017. The publisher and developer were slow to release info on the planned game and were very secretive about it during its production. That game would eventually take the form of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
As time went on, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was the subject of leaks and many different rumors. It was delayed numerous times and was reported to be in a rather rough shape as of mid-2022. In addition, there was speculation that the game might end up the victim of whatever internal issues that were plaguing Ubisoft throughout that year. Now, however, it seems that the company is finally ready to put the game out in the wild.
How Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's Main Character's Story Parallels Jake's While Being Its Reverse
During the Ubisoft Forward event, the company finally revealed gameplay footage for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. One of the game's biggest reveals was that players would take control of Na'vi who was kidnapped as a child by the film's human antagonists. After the events of the first film, the unnamed protagonist eventually finds her way into Pandora where she must learn to survive and the ways of her people that were lost to her. Oddly enough, it is a story that seems to be both a parallel to Jake's story and a reverse.
There have been arguments that the Avatar sequels need better stories, but the basic narrative foundations seem to work. As mentioned above, Jake Sully's arc in the films is that of a man who abandons their native world and society in favor of their adoptive one. The main character of this upcoming game is the opposite of that. In the game, she is taken in by humans, raised by them, and learns their ways. Unlike, Jake, however, she seems to decide that her adoptive culture, the culture of humans, is wrong and opts to fight against it. It's a cool reversal of Jake's situation, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the game itself.
In the end, it's hard to say whether the upcoming game will be any good. Ubisoft was trusted with a Star Wars game due to their work on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, but a lot seems to have changed in the company since that deal was made. The game is currently due for release later this year and fans will be able to see if the Assassin's Creed publisher will be able to make the best use of the property. For the time being at least, the game's protagonist has a few interesting parallels to Jake's journey while having a story that is also the reverse of his.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is set to release December 7, 2023 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
