If you haven’t heard about Avatar, the 3D CGI extravaganza of a movie by James Cameron, well, you’ve been living under a rock, in which case, you don’t really read game reviews. Maybe you’re a bug, or an insect of some sort. As it is with all blockbuster movies, a game tie-in was released as well, and when Avatar The Game was unveiled at E3, it was James Cameron himself who unveiled it, saying that he was excited and proud of the game. Well, now it’s here, and does Cameron still have something to be excited and proud of when it comes to Avatar? He sure does, as long as it’s the movie.

From the get go, Avatar is a action game much like others, but it’s not exactly a game interpretation of the movie, rather, it’s a prequel to the film, and features an all new character, Ryder. It’s still set on Pandora, and is, for the most part, a third person shooter much like Mass Effect and Gears of War. Although, don’t expect the same comparison when it comes to gameplay. The story revolves around a fight between the Na’vi and the Humans, who seek a precious mineral on the planet. It’s then up to you to decide whether you’d help the humans get the mineral, or the Na’vi defend it against the humans. Despite the straightforward setup, the story is rather incoherent and has a number of gaps which prevent the player from truly immersing themselves into the game.

The gameplay consists of a lot of action, but that can either be hack n slash or a shooter, depending what side you chose to fight for. You’ll be required to make this decision about an hour into the game, and if you chose the humans, you’ll be loaded with guns and gear of all kind, and will basically shoot your way through the levels. On the other hand, if you chose the Na’vi, your combat will mostly revolve around melee attacks and combos. This adds lots of replayability to the game, as it essentially has two campaigns. The shooting works like you might expect from a generic third person shooter, while the combat as a Na’vi isn’t that great, with control issues and a camera that can’t follow the fast paced action. The game features unlocks, skill trees and a bunch of side quests, but these do not impact the game much, and since the story and characters are so weak to begin with, it’s rather hard to root and care for either of them. The game takes about 15 hours to complete, but a third into this, you’ll have experienced everything there is to experience, and from then on, it’ll just drag on as you don’t feel emotionally attached to the characters, nor the story.

Visually, the game looks great and renders a wonderful and immersive world of Pandora. It also features 3D, however, we weren’t able to test this particular feature, but according to those that have, it’s a great addition to the game. The visuals though, will never reach Crysis status, and most of the environment isn’t destructible either. The soundtrack is taken from the movie, and suits the game well, as one might expect. Overall, Avatar is a great idea, but has a flawed execution, mainly due to the cumbersome controls and camera issues, and the rather tedious gameplay. We’d wish some more polish to the game before it was released, but, as we all know, it has to coincide with the movie to maximum impact. Too bad.

The Good.
The world of Pandora is beautiful
Features two campaigns

The Bad:
Gameplay quickly gets repetitive
Bad controls
Frame rate issues
Awful story and characters

Overall score: 5/10