OXCGN’s Avatar Demo Impressions: Surprise Hit Of Christmas?

By AXIS of Reality

©2009 Alex Baldwin

By now all the confusion should be cleared up – James Cameron’s Avatar is not related to the animated TV show. The movie based on the cartoon will be named The Last Airbender and comes out in 2010. You will not see a bald little kid throwing fire around when the Avatar movie is released on December 18.

Instead, James Cameron’s Avatar follows the invasion of humans onto the lush, tropical jungle planet of Pandora to mine a valuable resource. The only problem is, the planet’s 9 foot tall, blue-skinned natives (the Na’vi) aren’t too thrilled at being forced off their land. Hence we get to see lots of flashy epic battles as the two sides clash.

But what about the game? If you’re a jaded cynic like me you’ll have had zero expectations of the movie tie-in. The jerky, low-quality trailer on the Assassin’s Creed 2 disc did nothing to change my opinion.

So some bright spark at Ubisoft has released a demo on PC, and a good thing they did too. This could be one of the surprise hits of Christmas. All screenshots in this preview were taken directly from the demo (click images for larger shot).

• James Cameron’s: Avatar The Game Multiplayer aspects

Much like many of the other successful film or comic game conversions, the Avatar game doesn’t simply force the player through a carbon copy of the movie’s events. Instead of being stuck in the shoes of the film’s protagonist the demo starts with the player as just another army grunt piloting a dropship through the incredible floating rock formations.

It is immediately obvious this isn’t your usual cash cow game. The world is packed with detail and is simply gorgeous. Hitting the fire button the ship shot off a missile that broke apart the huge rocks, clearing a path into the forest you would have seen in the movie’s trailers.

Quickly landing the ship and jumping out to a third-person view of the character (no loading screen in sight), the first thing that struck me was how closely the game’s visuals match that of the film’s. The art of the jungle is just plain beautiful. Contrasting with grey colour palates of Gears of War and Killzone 2, the forests of Pandora are teeming with colour and life. A massive variety of planets grow from both the ground and trees, all moving and swaying in the wind while the larger plants are pushed aside as you stride through.

It was pretty quickly that I had to shut my jaw and dive into combat. Those picturesque plants have a nasty habit of trying to kill anything that gets close; from spitting toxic gunk to shooting exploding pods, this forest is out of get you.

Shooting mechanics felt very similar to Lost Planet, from the 180 degree instant spin to the camera angles. It was chunky and satisfying, with running and gunning feeling smooth and fluid. The weapons are complemented by a variety of skills that can be unlocked by levelling up (yes, there’s some RPG overtones creeping in) such as a sonic repellant for animals or active camouflage. The left trigger is used for dodging Gears of War-style which added another layer of strategy to the fights.

Speaking of animals, they are the second type of opponents after plants. Each has their own AI pattern so different species will react differently to your approach. A large rhinoceros-type mini-boss took to charging me, while some flying insects hovered around waiting for me to turn my back. To help you work out how best to take them on, scoping in on a creature displays some simplified stats that can clue you in on whether you really want to run up and disturb them or sneak around some other way.

Which brings me neatly to another excellent design choice by the development team. While most movie-based games and even regular shooters tend to push the player down linear paths, Avatar: The Game features numerous twisting and intersecting paths through the forest that can be explored at will. Not confident you can get past the Na’vi archers hiding on an overhead tree branch? There’s always another way or vehicle that could help you out.

Scattered around the forest are some of the land vehicles the humans have brought with them including a jeep buggy and a heavily-armed buggy with missiles. Unfortunately at this stage the vehicles lack the fun and physics feedback of some other games such as Halo’s Warthog but they serve their purpose. Much better is the bipedal mech seen in the film trailer, which draws even more similarities to Lost Planet and can rip through most enemies with ease.

Something that surprised me as I played was the shift to night. From the lush leaves and colours of the day, at night glowing spots of light cover the foliage and small glowing seeds drift through the air. It’s just awesome to watch, and show a game that has had love and care reaped upon it like few other tie-in games I’ve played.

As for the Na’vi, fighting them is the highlight. Towering above you they use both ranged archery and close staff-based melee attacks that can quickly overwhelm you if you stop moving. The enemy attacks and dedicated dodging button both encourage continuous weaving and moving during combat, a far cry from the stop-and-shoot cover based gameplay of most modern shooters.

But being a demo of course, the experience end just as you’re heading into an epic battle that left me wanting much more. The promise of 16 player online should provide Avatar with some serious longevity is it flows as well as the singleplayer combat.

Avatar: The Game for 360, PS3 and PC is looking to be something very special, not just for a tie-in but for any game in general as it is released in the next few days. For those lucky few of you with 3D-capable displays or systems, you’ll be able to play the game in stereoscopic 3D which should be even more immersive. The demo contains a list of the 3D types supported in the options menu, but all 3 of the major platforms for the game support it.

Look for the game launching on December 3, along with a collector’s edition including a figurine for $129.95 RRP. The PC demo (1.59gb) is available for download now.

©2009 Alex Baldwin