Firstly, this game easily earns a 3 1/2 star rating, but obviously i cant do that.
i didnt want to degrade it to 3 as it honestly deserves better than that,
so i uprated it to 4 because its actually a decent game, unlike the usual mirriad of unfinished code that development houses tend to lump on the consumer in time for film release deadlines these days.
Lets talk a little about the game.
Visually, its beutifull! i have often found in the past, that jungle based games turn into various "oceans of green" and the landscapes get very "samey samey". Avatar was actually a pleasure to explore, a lot of thought and love went into the maps and landscapes.
Also, throughout various settlements, mining camps, and other projects across pandora gave an interesting insight into this intriguing reality whitch seems to be all the talk across the internet.
First, i played the Human campaign, this had a feel a lot like your typical FPS/RPG. a lot like mass effect or deadspace. Hardly origional, but easy to get to grips with.
Although the campaign was very linear, you didnt neccisarily have to do objectives in a set order, and didnt have to follow a set path, overall, it didnt feel as free as the hype promised.
The selection of weaponry and vehicles, as well as the varied skillset ment that you could do things "your way" in Avatar and in this respect, adds a certain level of Replay value that a generic shooter wouldnt provide, i did find myself feeling a bit overpowered at many points in the game, i didnt find many parts of the game all that challenging, and some "bosses" so to speak, were dissapointingly easy to kill, including the final showdown.
There were some nasty bugs in the game, however nothing gamebreaking. one in particular, you have to fight a certain tribal leader on top of a plateu, and i accidently knocked him off.. we were well outside each others firing range and i had to spend the next 30 mins taking the long way round to even find him as he was stuck in a normally un-enterable crevase in the terrain.
However, there are more than enough missions to make the human campaign long enough to still be entertaining without getting boring although the ending did seem a bit of an anti climax.
The Navi campaign did seem much harder than the human campaign, however, i didnt find it half as entertaining.
Again, i felt somewhat overpowered and devoid of any real strategic challenge, and the weapons, equipment, even the skills at my disposal just wern't as much fun..
It is worth noting however, that both sides do play a lot differently, its a lot more than just "swapping a gun for a sword" that many RPG's do with charachter types.
Also, the Navi campaign uses much more of the "continuous time delayed yet infinate spawning" of enemys in certain areas that i have come to hate in some games as i feel its a "coders cop-out" rather than a tactical development choice.
I did encounter a few more bugs in this campaign, some of them distresingly annoying. And the ending of the campaign was devoid of any final boss.. I get the impression that the navi campaign was rushed and was likely completed close to the end of the games development cycle.
Overall..
Avatar isnt the usual "run of the mill" Movie based game.
This is a cut above the average movie-game and is definately worth a look at its rather modest price tag.
The Strategic "tactical mini conquest game" is also an amusing break from the Real time action, and although a bonus, rather than a key gameplay element, is still implemented well.
I never bought this game, it was given to me as a present. It nearly never got installed due to the stigma of Movie-based games.
This ones actually more than a cash cow in the milking