"Plenty To Marvel At" - Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Hands-On Preview

screenrant.com:

represents a major attempt to bring the world of Pandora to life in a video game, a task made difficult by the high bar that James Cameron's films have set in rendering a planet full of life and detail. Developed by Massive Entertainment, is publisher Ubisoft's second foray into the franchise, following up on 2009's Screen Rant participated in a hands-on preview that showcased several key aspects of gameplay and exploration from across multiple story missions in the new title.

The preview eased into things with the low-stakes task of gathering resources to bring back to the clan, which contextualized some basic mechanics while holding off on high-intensity action. In tune with the films' focus on flora and fauna, makes gathering a slightly more involved process than in most open-world games. Picking out the right plants or resources requires traveling to an appropriate biome and scanning the environment for the target, while harvesting a plant uses a haptic feedback system on controllers to indicate the proper angle for a yank.

Related: Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora — Story, Gameplay & Release Date

This push for player involvement and initiative blossoms into life with 's approach to navigation, which eschews markers on-screen in favor of a focus on actually finding the way to a destination. Quest prompts might offer a biome and a landmark to look for rather than a GPS coordinate — in the example of one preview quest, a rock pillar covered in willow trees served as the destination to keep in sight. More traditional settings for gathering and navigation are also available, as the advanced methods can take a bit of adjustment, but it's ultimately a much more rewarding and immersive approach.

Any game would be remiss not to