James Cameron's Avatar: The Game

Avatar is a solid game based upon James Cameron’s Movie. There are downsides, but the game triumphs over its obvious drawbacks with a good mixture of genres in its gameplay.

Avatar: The Game hasn’t managed to avoid the movie-tie-in curse. Gameplay is repetitive and uninspired. Controls are lacking and the story isn’t deep enough. Audiovisually, the game definitely looks good, but graphics alone don’t make a game interesting. Avatar: The Game is a missed opportunity that could offer a nice little diversion for those who are waiting for the movie.

It’s a rare luxury that not many films have, and if you, like I did, feel compelled to play the game after seeing the film then I can happily tell you that I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with what is on offer.

Avatar does look awesome (even better, I'm told, when you're playing in Stereoscopic 3D) but there's so little fun here that your money is better spent elsewhere.

I recommend this one only for fans of the movie—and only after the price is cut in half.

The game's saving grace is that Pandora is a beautiful world to explore, and the graphics are of a higher quality than the gameplay. The design work is attractive particularly the vehicles.

While you can easily drone through this game a second time due to the two distinct factions, lots of annoying flaws crop up that make it difficult to warrant a second playthrough.

To conclude; James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game is one of the better movie-to-game tie-ins. The amount of replayability and closeness to the film, outweigh the slight repetitiveness and short-lived online play to rate the title as a one to consider.

James Cameron's AVATAR is a surprisingly good video game for a game which derives from a film. Visit Pandora and be a part of the battle between Humans and the Na'vi.

James Cameron’s new Avatar movie may revolutionize the movie industry with new 3D effects, but the game leaves a little bit to be desired.

If this game is any indication as to the quality of the movie, then it's safe to say that this is one trip to the theater that you do not need to take.

The effort was there, unlike other companies that buy movie properties, but the execution wasn't exact.

Quietly competent to the very end, Avatar's certainly not the disaster you may have feared, but it can feel patronising, pompous and a little unnecessary. [Jan 2010, p.84]

Pandora could well lend itself to a great film, and would lend itself fabulously well to a good third-person action game. Unfortunately, despite providing two third-person action games here for the price of one, both of them are dull and forgettable.

Avatar is a standard product which doesn't excel and doesn't fail in anything. Technically good but flat as for the gameplay, the game consists in moving on the map from one marker to the other, exploring and fighting. Interesting for Cameron's movie fanboys, one of the many shooters for the rest of the people.

A very uninspired and boring adaptation of this Christmas blockbuster.

A redundant action game, saved form hell by the wide locations and the multiplayer options. Surely, not a great tie-in.

I really enjoyed the combat especially on the Na’vi side. The multiplayer was cool with its well designed levels and various modes.

In the end however, these extra layers can’t fix the subpar combat and disappointing storyline at the game’s core, leaving Avatar a lackluster, though not entirely unpleasant, experience. While forgiving sci-fi fans might still appreciate this intergalactic romp, the average gamer is left with an easy choice: this game is a rental at best.

In the end, Avatar: The Game joins a long list of misguided movie-turned-video games.

Like the movie, AVATAR is an ambitious game, mixing elements from varying genres with the ultimate goal of delivering a one-of-a-kind experience. Sadly, the game fails to find its own identity, barely managing to keep up interest and landing just north of the boring line. On the bright side, compared to other movie videogame adaptations like Wanted: Weapons of Fate or X-Men Origins: Wolverine, James Cameron’s AVATAR: The Videogame isn’t too shabby.

There’s no shortage of ambition here, but the game is too simple and repetitive to really consider it fun. The game wants to be an RPG sometimes, but it always results in dumb, simple action without any tactic. Avatar is a misses opportunity.

It’s a fairly run of the mill third-person shooter, with some less than enthralling multiplayer, and an impressive visual package.

The storyline takes a back seat to the action - shame the action is so generic. [Christmas 2009, p.66]

Any initial pleasure avatar offers is steadily eroded by gnawing repetition. [Issue#91, p.116]

James Cameron's Avatar: The Game is graphically stunning… if seen in 3D. Otherwise its graphics are just very good, like most next-gen games nowadays… Other than that, its gameplay is affected by quite a few gameplay shortcomings – including a very annoying camera. Just another tie-in.

It's not a bad game, and portions of it are competent, if not quite remarkable. But Avatar wears thin quickly, and the story is too fragile to compensate for the deficiencies.

The basic gameplay of Avatar is so fundamentally flawed that even those few bright spots would only set you up for disappointment. Because, despite the guiding hand of Cameron, Avatar is ultimately just another big-name movie game that doesn't fulfill its early promise.

Somewhere, there's a decent game hiding camouflaged in the canopies. When dinging levels leaves you feeling blue, even a Navi eco-terrorist will run for greener pastures.

Avatar: The Game is a title of tradeoffs. It has the base concepts to be more than it ended up being and yet it is still manages to provide a decent gaming experience. That it has a strong movie tie-in is certain to spark interest in this title.

If someone asked me if I would buy this game I would have to say no but I would rent it as it is worth playing. It is just not worth the $60 price of admission.

Overall, it’s certainly not a bad game, but leaves far too many things to be desired.

Fancy whiz-bang 3D effects wouldn't do much to rescue the clunky, mundane action here anyway.

The gameplay feels like it needs more work. Loose controls, bad melee combat, weak mission design, and a wonky camera dull the experience.

Avatar ultimately falls down as a game. It's just not that interesting, compelling or fun.

It does little to endorse Ubisoft's claim that it's been in development for years, as underneath the admittedly high-detail visuals it's a pretty rudimentary thing. It's a long way better than bilge like the Quantum of Solace, but it's certainly got no sense of a landmark pop-cultural moment, in the way we're repeatedly told the film will.

Avatar: The Game is ambitious enough, but ambition alone doesn’t make a good game, something James Cameron doesn’t seem to realize. With wonky gameplay mechanics, a boring story and an overall lack of polish, this game is just another film crossover gone wrong.

It’s a good purchase if you loathe intricacy, enjoy reliving foreign policy quandries in sci-fi guise and are eager to get to grips with Cameron’s universe, but the Next Big Thing it most certainly is not.

If you play this game with low expectations, you'll be impressed but if you're expectations are any higher than that, prepare for disappointment.

Quotation forthcoming.

James Cameron's Avatar revealed to be enjoyable even without the attached movie license, offering us good visuals and gameplay; it isn't perfect, mainly due to the repetitive missions design and some control problems, but if you're looking for a sci-fi action game to play after the holidays big hits, this is your best bet.

Avatar feels like a lost opportunity. While the jungle and background scenery of the Pandora world are lush and vibrant, it feels like most of the game's budget was put into this one aspect of the title.

Two campaigns, one of which is really not what you might expect from a AAA game, some multiplayer modes and all too samey missions aren't enough to bring this game up to the hype's level surrounding the incoming Cameron's film. A bit too rough around the edges for those who are not waiting for the movie in awe.

Nitpicks are plenty, but so are the surprisingly fun aspects — whichever side of planetary strip-mining you fall on.

Stands alone from the film, proud and awkward.

James Cameron's Avatar: The Game had everything it needed to be a great game, but a poor execution leaves us with a bloated fetch quest.

It works fine, but the out-of-place mini-game feels like an XBLA title they tossed into the mix here rather than charging for it on its own.

Completists might get a kick out of collecting every last item and Pandorapedia article, but everyone else might find themselves getting very bored, very quickly. Still, as far as movie titles go, you could certainly do a lot worse.

Avatar – The Game seems to have all the building blocks in place to provide gamers with a decent movie licence for once, and the first few minutes of play may trick you into thinking that’s exactly what you’ve got. Sadly though some blatantly obvious design flaws shine through and spoil what’s on offer in the game.

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game is a title strictly bound to the movie. It will hardly charm for its gameplay, but those who will love the movie and its world will probably find something good in it.

Ubisoft Montreal has crafted one of the better licensed efforts we’ve seen in a while, but a weak story, poor pacing and a few minor gameplay flaws keep Avatar from competing with the likes of far superior, recent third-person efforts such as Assassin’s Creed II and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Read all the unlockable notes in Avatar: The Game (they call it the Pandorapedia), and you’ll be up to speed on all the movie’s lore, lingo, and backstory. The downside, of course, is that after crawling through Pandora’s deadly jungles and culling its wildlife one bullet at a time, the movie may feel anticlimactic: Been there, killed that.

Avatar achieves something unusual: a movie-based game which is not disgusting. It is actually an interesting and very compelling title, offering a good third-persona action proposal which excels in its atmosphere.

”Avatar: The Game” isn’t one of those rare fantastic tie-ins, but is by no means as haphazard as “Enter the Matrix” or as detached as “Lost: Via Domus.” It’s ultimately an average game due to a fairly solid, cookie cutter campaign and impressive audio/visual presentation.

While the presentation is great and the combat generally enjoyable, the missions leave a lot to be desired - and there's little of the sense of wonder that the movie promises. Had the two campaigns been packed with superbly entertaining moments, the missions been more diverse in their structure, and the "vehicles" been more fun to man, then yes, Avatar the Game might have reached the heights its source material looks set to achieve.

The location adds a little excitement but considering Ubisoft had a good couple of years of behind the scenes access we were expecting more than a 3rd person shooter involving a space marine.

James Cameron may be a cinematic mastermind, but it's clear that the team who created Avatar: The Game doesn't share his creative genius.

It has a number of undemanding, unwieldy and confusing design choices that make the experience incredibly forgettable. Fun for an hour. [Issue#54, p.82]

Despite its decent presentation and simplistic gameplay mechanics, Avatar is as shallow as the kid’s end of a Hobbit’s swimming pool. Whilst there is nothing overly wrong with the gameplay mechanics per se, after you’ve spent 8 hours going back and forth planting explosives or collecting objects for your mission objective, you’ll be ready to use Avatar as a coaster.

Weak action, poorly executed characters, and an odd plot. [Feb 2010, p.92]