Eurogamer Expo: Avatar Hands-on

Posted on 02. Nov, 2009 by Chris Evans in Eurogamer Expo 2009, Featured, Hands-on impressions, PS3, Xbox 360

With every big film release comes the inevitable game tie-in, and few films come bigger than Avatar, the multi-million dollar sci-fi epic from the mind of James Cameron, 15 years from inception to release.  Far from a cash-in though, Ubisoft were told by the film’s prolific writer and director to “feel free to do their very best work and not think of this as a movie-based game”.  Much like Enter the Matrix, the Avatar game is intended to run alongside the film, telling another story within the same world but crossing paths at major events.

The single-level demo at EuroGamer Expo casts you as a human marine, attacking the lush, forested planet of Pandora, fighting against various alien creatures, including the Na’vi, the indigenous humanoid inhabitants.  The level begins with you in control of a hover ship, flying high in the jungle canopy, using missiles to destroy rock formations and clear a path for your comrades.  Once you reach a landing point you take to the planet on foot, progressing through a fairly linear series of ‘corridors’ through the jungle with a squad of other soldiers.  Playing from a third-person perspective, you are first attacked by fast, wolf-like creatures that can quickly swarm around you, meaning your best strategy is to simply run backwards, picking them off one by one, using the left trigger to dodge to one side when they get too close.

Soon, you reach a checkpoint where you can climb into a large mechanised suit, like those seen in the film trailers.  This allows you to quickly progress past the next groups of enemies, until a cut-scene shows a huge horned creature charge at you, destroying the suit and knocking you away.  You then find yourself in a circular arena in the jungle, where you have to once again dodge the creature’s charges, gunning it down while its back is turned.  After this encounter you continue on foot, this time fighting the more skilled Na’vi, who shoot arrows at you from a distance and attack with spears up close.  Finally, you make your way out onto an open plane, where a group of Na’vi mounted on the back of horse-like creatures charge at you, the demo ending seconds before contact.

While the visuals are impressive so far, especially in 3D (which I will talk about more in-depth soon), Ubisoft don’t seem to have done anything particularly impressive or original with the gameplay, or so it seems from this demo.  The environments may be beautifully rich and lush, but everything so far is painfully linear.  The splitting and converging paths, all leading to the same location, remind me somewhat of the planet exploration in Mass Effect, only on a smaller, tighter scale.  I imagine the game will eventually allow you to play as an Avatar, the part human, part Na’vi protagonists of the film, allowing you to fight the battle from both sides, and there are bound to be more vehicle based levels.  Hopefully this will add some variety to what so far seems a fairly run of the mill third person shooter.