Open-world games have been around, arguably, since the 1980s, with games like the original Legend of Zelda throwing players into a world and letting them explore it at their own pace. Over the last few decades, open-world games have evolved quite a bit and taken on many different forms, and this is especially true for games that released in the mid-late 2000s, when a new, grand, and immersive type of open-world game started to become all the rage. Since then, open-world games have remained a common staple of the gaming landscape, with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora being just the latest in an increasingly long line of AAA open-world action/adventures.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is an open-world game through and through. Though parts of the world are kept hidden until players progress through the main story, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora gives players free rein over a pretty vast section of the world very early on, and from there, they're allowed to complete a wealth of side missions and activities. But while Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's open-world is impressive, it isn't without its criticisms, most of which revolve around it embracing the classic Ubisoft open-world formula.

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Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Makes a Great Case for a First-Person Assassin's Creed Game

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora features a novel parkour system, and it makes a pretty good case for a first-person entry in the Assassin's Creed series.

How Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Shakes Up The Ubisoft Open-World Formula

The Ubisoft Open-World Formula Explained

Though Ubisoft had been making large-scale open-world games for a while at that point, it was 2012's Far Cry 3 that really cemented the developer/publisher's open-world formula. In Far Cry 3, players are tasked with gradually clearing away enemy camps, hunting for resources, crafting better gear and weapons, and taking on a range of side quests. This general gameplay loop was heavily praised at the time, but Ubisoft's reluctance to deviate from this formula at all has made it a bit of a controversial topic in recent years.

While taking down enemy bases and constantly leveling up and earning new loot can still be exciting, long-time Ubisoft fans know full-well that they've already played this same type of game countless times before. Whether it's Far Cry, Ghost Recon, or Assassin's Creed, this same Ubisoft formula is present in practically all of its open-world games, and many fans are getting tired of it.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Puts Some Unique Spins on Ubisoft's Formula

So, naturally, when Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was first revealed and looked very similar to a Far Cry game, many fans felt a tad disappointed. But while it's true that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is yet another Ubisoft open-world game, it doesn't mean that its developers haven't managed to put a few unique spins on the same old formula.

One of the biggest and best spins Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora puts on the Ubisoft open-world formula is an emphasis on parkour. In an attempt to capture the athleticism of the Na'vi shown in James Cameron's movies, Ubisoft has implemented a simple but effective parkour system into Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, giving players immediate access to a supercharged jump and letting them scale freely up vines, trees, and most other parts of Pandora's lush environment. When further parkour skills are unlocked, players can get quite the flow of momentum going, which isn't often found in an open-world Ubisoft game.

Another unique spin that Avatar puts on the Ubisoft formula is a heavy emphasis on player-led exploration. The vast majority of Ubisoft open-world games are heavily criticized for their overreliance on constant waypoints and objective markers. While Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora still has these, they tend to just give players a general area to search, requiring the player to instead pay attention to the environment itself and the compass directions to find their target or objective.

Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora

Developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is an open-world game set within James Cameron's popular Avatar universe. The title highlights a new region of Pandora called the Western Frontier.

Platform(s)

PC , PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Released

December 7, 2023

Developer(s)

Massive Entertainment

Publisher(s)

Ubisoft

Genre(s)

Action-Adventure