Talk of a game based in the sci-fi universe of James Cameron's Avatar has swirled around for years, and even after it got green-lit, not much has materialized. The Ubisoft-published title has been in development for a long time, burdened with delay after delay and noy a single glimpse for the public in all that time.
With the sequels for the 2009 movie planned to be coming in the next couple of years, there is no better time than now to finally pull the curtain back on Ubi's project on Pandora.
HEADING BACK TO PANDORA
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has been revealed as a part of Ubisoft's E3 Ubisoft Forward presentation.
The reveal trailer featured what looked to be pieces of gameplay stitched together with in-engine footage of Pandora and the alien life that calls it home.
The Massive Entertainment-developed project is using Ubi's Snowdrop Engine and was given a generic release year of 2022 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
The full trailer can be seen below:
BEYOND AVATAR
Taking a look at this reveal trailer, gamers learn a few things.
The game has been described by developers as open-world. Judging from the brief glimpse of gameplay in this tease, that open-world is going to be experienced in first-person. To put it in laymen's terms, Frontiers of Pandora looks to be Far Cry (another Ubisoft property) on a lush alien planet. While there are sure to be differences between Far Cry and this, it is hard not to draw a parallel.
Something else that has fans excited is the fact that your main character is not human. When whispers of an Avatar game first started to surface online years ago, many were hesitant of the idea simply because it was assumed players would be taking control of a human on Pandora. Based on the trailer, those worries should subside.
For those that don't love Cameron's sci-fi epic, there is still a reason to be thrilled by this news. Earlier this year it was revealed that this team at Massive was going to be working on an open-world Star Wars adventure, using this same technology to build that game.
Not only does this trailer tease what Frontiers of Pandora is going to look like, but it could also serve as a bit of a testbed for what their Star Wars adventure will be.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is set to release in 2022 on next-gen consoles, Google Stadia, and PC.