Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s reviews are in, and the metascores are just about OK.
MetaCritic shows the game amassing a metascore of 74, described as mixed or average, based on 41 reviews on PC. OpenCritic has an OpenCritic Rating of Fair, with a Top Critic Average of 72 and 57 % of critics recommending the game.
Given that Ubisoft didn’t share that much about the game’s development, the consensus among reviewers turned out to be quite unsurprising. Gfinity’s review seems to sum it up best:
“A rinse-and-repeat of other Ubisoft titles, but still undeniably enjoyable thanks to gorgeous visuals and engaging story-telling.”
Gfinity gave it an 80, leaning on one of the more positive reviews. In contrast, IGN gave it a 70, stating:
“…its combat is pretty one-dimensional, its mission design is a bit on the repetitive side, and its environment is generally lacking in any major surprises beyond visual splendor, meaning that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a solid shooting adventure that’s more inside the box than truly out of this world.”
So the main takeaway from this, is that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a safe Ubisoft open world game at best, with many of the same familiar conventions many gamers are already used to, and in some cases, sick of.
Ubisoft Massive made a great recreation of Pandora for hardcore Avatar fans, and whether you will like the game or not leans very heavily on whether you are a huge Avatar fan.
Let’s dip back into a positive review so you can see that this is the clear consensus. Destructoid’s review, that gave it one of the highest scores at 90, said:
“If you walked away from Avatar wishing a world like Pandora actually existed out there, here you go. This is that world… This is the best version of Avatar yet.”
That’s likely more than enough for Avatar fans, but not necessarily the best news for Ubisoft. In what has turned out to be one of the greatest years for video game releases, one of Ubisoft’s own didn’t turn out at their best.
A few months earlier, Ubisoft released The Crew Motorfest, which itself received a MetaCritic of 76 on PlayStation 5. And of course, there was Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which came out with a MetaCritic of 77 on PlayStation 5.
So Ubisoft came out with an OK 2023, which isn’t too bad, but is disappointing for what this year has become. Regardless of the external issues the company faces, it still employs hundreds of developers around the world and is one of the big companies in the industry. We certainly hope Ubisoft resolves their issues in good faith in the coming year, and manages that turnaround that the industry really does need to see in 2024.
