New game by Ubisoft, hot on the heals of the movie release. How does it rate as an online role playing game? Predictably, like most games that have oodles of cash chucked at them this is little more than a marketing cash cow for the game company to ride the wave of enthusiasm for sci-fi following the success of the blockbuster film. Did I expect any different…perhaps… given the title ‘avatar’.. and the central them of occupying and acting as another creature from another world… I thought perhaps this PC game might might try to develop the genre in terms of RPG. In many ways the game is quite constricting in terms of what role one can play, Commander Falco or Tan Jala and so forth. Creatures include Viper Wolf and Thanator, vehicles such as the Samson or Banshee. Naturally the game looks great, how could it not based on ten years of film art development, and utilizing all the awesome skills of Weta digital and Peter Jacksons film companies leading design team. All Ubisoft had to do was implement the art and ADD some core game-play originality…but in this they failed horribly. Most disappointment is the lack of use of nature as anything other than disappearing foliage.
In years to come Avatar will be remebered as the ‘Star Wars’ of this decade, revolutionising the film industy…but the pc game or RPG, weather online game MMORPG or whatever…this Avatar game will not be rembered at all. If I was James Cameron planning my two sequels.. I would get a new game company, or at least insist upon some original thinkers at the game company being brought onboard to develop and revolutionise what a RPG game can really be about. Head hunting the likes of film set and game play designer Philip Thomas from Weta Digital, best known for his work on the Matrix sequels and ‘The Lord of the Rings’, might inspire some groundbreaking development in both console and pc games.
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