PAX 09: Avatar Hands-On
We open Pandora's box.
September 7, 2009 - The appearance of Avatar on the show floor at PAX was not necessarily a surprise. Ubisoft is starting to really increase the visibility of the game. However, the sight of a controller dangling beneath one of the screens was unexpected. This project has been wrapped up tighter than a drum for so long it was a surprise to see Ubisoft just casually let it loose.
The Avatar videogame does not take place during the timeframe of the movie. Instead, Ubi rewinds the clock to a series of events before the Avatar program you see in the movie trailer is put into full swing. You are a soldier in the service of the RDA (Resources Development Administration), a military-industrial outfit that does not seem to be entirely on the up-and-up. The fact that you are pushing into the peaceful homeworld of the Na'vi, called Pandora, to wrest control of a precious element already sets you up as the bad guy. Expect at some point for the script to be appropriately flipped, because not many people play a videogame to get to an unhappy ending. (Actually, if you want a spoiler, keep reading. You get to pick which faction you align with at some point in the game, Na'vi or RDA.)
The demo begins with you piloting a lander called a Samson that looks like it shares more than a few strands of DNA with the Hunter-Killers of the Terminator universe. You must reach a landing zone on Pandora, but the skies are thick with both lush vegetation and floating rocks. The Samson is armed with enough missiles to turn this paradise into a parking lot, so to access the LZ, let fly with a volley of missiles and clear a path through this otherworldly canyon. As scenery is reduced to rubble, you bank Effort Points, which are used as an in-game currency to load up with new gear and techniques.
Once the Samson is safely parked in the LZ, you hop out and must rejoin your squadron. The team is already in the middle of a mission, but has been beset by some of the unfriendly wildlife, such as viper wolves. As you catch up to the team, you must blast through the wolves and a few other menaces, including bulbous pods that release poisons. Each successful kill (or harvest) results in EP. However, you must also collect cell samples from many of your fallen targets for RDA.
Sadly, this scene was not in the PAX demo.
This part of the demo plays out much like a regular third-person shooter with bits of Gears of War here and Lost Planet there, but no cover system. You sweep through the jungle, blasting almost anything that rustles the leaves near your team. If you you'd rather not wait for those telltale signs of an incoming viper wolf, you can switch to a flamethrower and just light up the jungle. The fire effects of the jungle burning around you are very impressive, especially when night falls over Pandora and the jungle turns into a Technicolor dream show thanks to the bioluminescence is every living thing. Your wanton destruction cast against the peaceful glow of creation is quite a contrast.
After carving through several packs of viper wolves, the team finally stumbles upon something truly threatening: a hammerhead. This monstrous beast is one-part brontosaurus and one-part hammerhead shark. It's huge, fast, and entirely unhappy to see you. If the hammerhead clips you while charging, you are tossed aside like a ball of crumpled paper. Since it was impossible to die in the demo, the hammerhead's finally knees buckled under a hot volley of grenades and machinegun rounds. Victory is yours, but at the price of seeing a graceful creature sink to the ground.
As mentioned, the game – as represented in this safe demo – feels cut from the same cloth as many other third-person shooters. You do not have any crazy superpowers, but your soldier feels like a tank with arms. Biceps bulge as you unload a fresh clip into a viper wolf. The collection stuff is actually surprising because while yes, you would expect these soldiers to be paid to gather up samples from the field, it just seems like such a traditional videogame mechanic. The fact that the film Avatar has been positioned as an entirely new experience makes the appearance of so many videogame conventions feel misplaced.
However, this is just a first hands-on demo in an area of the game that has been cordoned off so as not to cause any embarrassing crashes and the difficulty has been tweaked so you do not see your soldier bleed out because you happened to miss a viper wolf while your ears are being blown out by entirely too much show floor noise. The demo also does not give any hint at the second half of the game, which is explained above in the little spoiler alert. But, while the demo does keep many cards close to its chest, it does not disappoint in appearance. Avatar looks like a very attractive game thanks in no small part to the inviting primordial scenery of Pandora. I'd love to play the game in 3D, which will be an option on specific televisions when the game releases later this year, just before the debut of the film.
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