Summary
When it was first announced back in 2017, many people were skeptical as to whether developers Massive Entertainment could pull off an open-world game set in the universe of the belovedAvatarmovie franchise. However, many players have been blown away by just how good the game has turned out to be, from the story to the combat, all the way tothe phenomenal graphics, it’s an extremely polished experience that manages to do so many things right within its open world.
The open-world genremight be extremely popular nowadays, but there have been more than a few occasions where a game’s setting can seem bland, boring, or far too big for its own good. However,Frontiers of Pandoraexcels at keeping the player engaged from start to finish, and there are a few ways that it achieves this.
1Variety Of Collectibles
There’s A Plethora Of Interesting Collectibles To Uncover Across The Western Frontier
Collectibles and secretsare very common in open-world titles, but they can feel like little more than a chore when there are hundreds, or even thousands of the same one to collect. Luckily, rather than having one single collectible that players will need to hunt down to fully complete the game, there are several different ones to seek out inFrontiers of Pandora, and they can be pretty tricky to find.
The Windswept Kites are the easiest to collect since there are only nine of them, but the real challenge comes with trying to uncover some of the rarer items like the Aeolian Wind Flutes, along with the audio logs that can be found lying around the Western Frontier. The variation of collectibles inFrontiers of Pandoraprovides a nice extra challenge for completionists to dig into alongside the main story.
2Impactful Skills
The Skills In This Game Are More Than Just Simple Stat Buffs
Considering that the player is going to be spending a lot of time exploring their environments in an open-world game, there needs to be at leastsome switch-up to how the game is played. This not only applies to finding new ways to traverse the environment but also to having new abilities to try out during combat encounters. Otherwise, the game can become stale extremely quickly.
Frontiers of Pandorafeaturesfive fully-fledged skill trees, along with Ancestor Skills to boot, and while a handful only provide simple stat boosts, most of the skills that can be acquired provide game-changing abilities. Whether it’s being able to double jump, dashing through the air, fishing while riding through the sky, or simply being completely silent while crouched, all these skills keep the experience fresh while also allowing the player to create a build exactly to their liking.
3Fun Traversal
Traversing The World Of Pandora Is So Much Fun Thanks To The Exciting Mounts
It’s good for an open world to be massive in scale, but this can become more of a determent if there’s no fun method of traversing the environment.Frontiers of Pandoraprovides players witha large selection of mountsthat they can hop on to soar across the skies of the Western Frontier as they admire the beautiful landscape from up high. Additionally, the RDA can also send aircraft to try and shoot down the Na’vi while they’re airborne, resulting in some pretty exciting and intense aerial battles when traveling between missions.
While there is a Fast Travel system in this game, it comes at the cost of energy, which therefore encourages players to become truly immersed in the world by exploring it with their trusty mount. The world inFrontiers of Pandorais large, but venturing through it is always an absolute blast, both on foot and atop a mighty Ikran.
4Enemy Variety
Whether It’s The Humans Or Wildlife, There’s Tons Of Enemies For Players To Take On
Pandora might be the homeworld ofthe Na’vi, but the land is still packed full of hostile humans and creatures, which they must fend off if they want to survive. The primary enemies of the game are the RDA, a human organization who are taking over the Western Frontier for their selfish gains, but when battling them in the RDA outposts and bases, players will need to prepare to take on a multitude of different enemy archetypes.
Alongside regular infantry are also armored soldiers who cannot be stealth killed without a specific skill, which helps to add some challenge and variety to the stealth sections. Then there’s the mechs, giant behemoths that can be truly terrifying when firing off their arsenal of devastating weapons. Pair this with some incrediblyunique hostile creatures, such as the menacingly large Hammerheads, and there’s plenty of enemy variety to keep players on their toes throughout an entire playthrough.
5Unique Environments
Players Can Stumble Upon Some Beautiful Environments During Their Journey
Once players spawn into the Western Frontier, they’ll be dropped into a lush rainforest environment full of colorful plants and giant waterfalls, but the world has so many other unique locales that can be discovered. Dimly lit swamps, misty cliffsides, and industrialized areas that have been taken over by the RDA are just a few examples of the kinds of wonderful environments that can be explored throughout this game.
Fans of the movies might be most familiar with the bright and scenic aesthetic of the world, but Massive Entertainment went above and beyond to ensure that there were plenty of unique and visually captivating environments for players to stumble upon during their time in Pandora.
6Rewarding Exploration
Traveling Off The Beaten Path Is Incredibly Rewarding
The worst thing an open-world game can do is waste the player’s time. Before games likeBreath of the WildandRed Dead Redemption 2, there were many titles in the genre that left vast open spaces in their game worlds that could look graphically impressive, but since they had nothing there to actually do or see, it would lose the players' interest. Thankfully, the concept of rewarding a player for their exploration has become a core part of the open-world gameplay loop, andFrontiers of Pandoraexcels on this front.
Alongsidethe many side queststhat can be found, there are also many regular Na’vi and human NPCs scattered around the map who will reward the player with special resources and information when spoken to. Of course, there’s also the wildlife, which varies depending on the player’s location, encouraging them to venture out of their comfort zone to see what rare creatures they can hunt out in the wild. Combine this with the multitude of hidden secrets and weapons found throughout the Western Frontier, and it results ina very rewarding experiencethat never punishes the player for straying far from the beaten path.
