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Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora’s User Scores Are Higher Than Any Recent ‘Far Cry’ Or ‘Assassin’s Creed’

Nydius

Gold Member
I just don't see how the "it's like any Ubisoft game" narrative works when the traversal is so different (and brilliant) and the combat is the exact opposite of Far Cry.

Guessing you never played Far Cry Primal. Combat is a worse version of that except with the occasional human assault rifle. Calling traversal brilliant is a gross exaggeration. You have walking/sprinting, flying, and horseback. Flying is mediocre as hell with the Ikran regularly getting in the way, and the horseback segments are a speed bump between flying.

If you enjoy sprinting for kilometers on end until you get your Ikran and then get to fly for kilometers on end, then yeah, traversal is "brilliant".

As for "like any Ubisoft game", how can you not understand it. It's the same tired ass formula they've been using for a decade. Wide open map littered with trash to gather, most of it meaningless, outposts to clear, endless busy work "assignment" quests, a convoluted loot and leveling system... same old Ubislop shit.
 
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Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Wonderful. I'm not into the Avatar franchise but this increases my hopes for Star Wars Outlaws (also from Massive) to actually be good.
 

Neilg

Member
It's a byproduct of marketing.
It's not been pushed very hard, so the only users buying and playing it already know they will like it - higher user score. If it had a $100m marketing budget pushing preorders, the user score would be around 5.
Ubisoft games are serviceable, even decent, and over hype is not kind to them.
 
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baphomet

Member
I just don't see how the "it's like any Ubisoft game" narrative works when the traversal is so different (and brilliant) and the combat is the exact opposite of Far Cry.
If this is Far Cry, then Rise of Nations is Age of Empires.

It doesn't seem like you've played Far Cry in awhile. It's literally Far Cry with an Avatar skin. Same skill tree, same crafting, same hunting, same liberating outposts, same traversal, and so on.

Aside from the bow, which is exactly like Far Cry, all the weapons feel worse.
 

sigmaZ

Member
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I've been playing it for a few days now, and I feel like it feels super generic, even more than Far Cry. The controls and everything are good. The flying aspect is awesome.The graphics are nice for the most part, but there's just no umph for me. Also the characters and voice acting are extremely annoying. I enjoyed Farcry 6 much more. Even though that was generic too, I found the gameplay a lot more addictive.
 

Denton

Member
As for "like any Ubisoft game", how can you not understand it. It's the same tired ass formula they've been using for a decade. Wide open map littered with trash to gather, most of it meaningless, outposts to clear, endless busy work "assignment" quests, a convoluted loot and leveling system... same old Ubislop shit.
It's funny, I actually somehow managed to get into it and have fun, but this post is still 100% on the money, the game is videogame equivalent of junkfood (and not the good kind) just like most other Ubisoft AAA games are. I just hate how creatively bankrupt Ubisoft has become in its design and writing, they use exactly one template for everything and reuse it over and over again. I have the same exact criticisms of this game that I had of many last AC games, FC games, Division games..
 

Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
The Avatar brand name is doing almost all the heavy lifting. Someone could dye dog shit blue, package it as "Avatar The Way of Water Genuine Na'vi Excrement" and Avatar fans would buy it up.

The game itself is a mediocre mess.
Speaking in general, i find it rather insulting that serviceable games at the minimum, which is what Avatar: FoP in the very least is, are downplayed with words like ''mediocre mess''. It isn't a mess.

It is, however, a product of Ubisoft, so it has a few things in common with other games. However, i have seen many people praise the exploration aspect and putting all the hints off. Because of the visual density, exploration really envokes a sense of being lost in the wild and i can see why that is the case.

If judged that way, Avatar would score higher. Which is what you see reflected in the user scores. You don't see this in the review scores since reviewers, especially Day 1 reviewers, have a limited amount of time to play the game. So they play it as it comes and then yes - It has a lot in common with Far Cry. The amount of comparisons made are too numerous to ignore.

I feel Avatar: FoP is a game that mostly opens up (heh) when you aren't doing it by the numbers. This wasn't possible with Primal or any other Far Cry game because well, the density was limited by older hardware. I feel that playing Avatar: FoP this way should be the preferred way, and i think Ubisoft should have emphasized that instead of the gunplay.

And i agree: Given the Avatar franchise is heavy on lore, FoP isn't really selling that. I feel an approach similar to the first Assassins Creed would be preferred - Telling the lore in a way it makes sense to the game. Because it is so clearly positioned as a Far Cry-esque title with a similar gameplay loop, there is a missed opportunity to highlight the background.

Having said that, visually its a treat and its impressive how Massive has made it look so close to the movies.
 
Guessing you never played Far Cry Primal. Combat is a worse version of that except with the occasional human assault rifle. Calling traversal brilliant is a gross exaggeration. You have walking/sprinting, flying, and horseback. Flying is mediocre as hell with the Ikran regularly getting in the way, and the horseback segments are a speed bump between flying.

If you enjoy sprinting for kilometers on end until you get your Ikran and then get to fly for kilometers on end, then yeah, traversal is "brilliant".

As for "like any Ubisoft game", how can you not understand it. It's the same tired ass formula they've been using for a decade. Wide open map littered with trash to gather, most of it meaningless, outposts to clear, endless busy work "assignment" quests, a convoluted loot and leveling system... same old Ubislop shit.

I find Avatar's weak points and ammo types more interesting than anything in Primal, the opponents are much smarter, more lerhal and more diverse and the movement and verticality are much superior. Combat against humans is like the Crysis 3 dam level but with competent enemies. Also the shotguns are fantastic.
It's actually refreshing to play a game where only a couple of bullets kill you and your enemies. The default difficulty feels like the high difficulty of Crysis 1 and stealth is obligatory. I haven't played Far Cry 6 but I doubt it had anything as monstrously overpowered as the average Avatar mech.

Traversal is brilliant because of the density of the environment, the variety of options and the incredible verticality. I don't know how high the floating mountains are but climbing them is terrifying. You have the giant vines acting like highways, the spore network, the plants that launch you up or across a distance, tree parkour of multiple flavours, the giant leafs that slow your fall or support your weight in water, plus the AssCreed style rock climbing and the skills that enhance your movement and control. There are so many things that feed into each other. Primal simply lacks all this.
I don't understand how the ikran gets in the way, you can even fly inches above the ground in the middle of the jungle. It even works well on mouse and keybord! Getting the ikran does not make ground traversal obsolete because the environment is so dense that reading it is a fun challenge and platforming is fun.

Again, if this is Far Cry, then Rise of Nations is Age of Empires. Same tired building armies and cities, gathering resources, advancing through ages...
 
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