James Cameron's Avatar: The Game

"Avatar" marks the return of director James Cameron to the big screen world, after the overwhelming success of "Titanic" for twelve years. The new film draws attention by using a series of innovative techniques of special effects to create an alien world in great detail and support for 3D display, which returned to fashion and reheat the market player.

The new game from Ubisoft based on the film was promoted with the same pomp, complete with a presentation of Cameron in a company event during the last E3. The director proved to be thrilled by the work of designers in creating new elements to the universe of "Avatar" and gave free rein to the studios of Ubisoft Montreal to develop an original adventure.

To the Point
War between two worlds


"James Cameron's Avatar: The Game" was released two weeks before the world premiere of the film. So, can you imagine the game to work as a great introduction to the universe of Cameron and have more time to explain details and subtleties of the mythology. Big mistake.

The game presents the User Ryder hero, a soldier who was frozen for five years in suspended animation to get to the planet Pandora, the only place where you found a rare type of mineral is of interest to earthlings. The place is covered by a vast and exotic vegetation, inhabited by bizarre creatures and humanoids blue defended by three meters high called na'vi.

It is more or less what the game takes the trouble to explain. The rest must be found in the movie or the free text in the options menu. There is a consistent narrative and few clues are given during the missions. Thus, the theory that these are the avatars of the title is not displayed and that leads to fish right away is that Ryder is one of the few able to have his mind transferred to the hybrid species of human and na'vis.

With elements of both races, the use of just dividing Ryder avatar and the player is placed in a dilemma: to continue to serve the human troops or rebel to defend the territory of na'vi. If the first option is chosen, the game focuses on the scheme shot in the third person as "Gears of War" or similar if the second draw more attention, the game turns to a style of fight with weapons that vaguely titles such as "Dynasty Warriors".
Details of the multiplayer mode


It is certainly an interesting decision to divide the mechanics according to the choices of the player, but in practice it is very important. Both aspects of function rather generic, which is aggravated by the lack of a narrative that makes the actions rewarding or create emotional attachments. The ability to search for side missions, add experience points to buy new abilities and the provision of various weapons and vehicles (or animals, for na'vi) certainly make the action more complex, but not more exciting.

Is a multiplayer mode with similar characteristics and provides some common procedures such as Deathmatch, King of the Hill or Capture the Flag. The connection was satisfactory during the tests, but the difficulty in finding players pointed out that there is not much in it to hold.

3D Effect

Like the movie, the game also gained notoriety for bringing support for new 3D technologies for domestic use. Unfortunately televisions capable of reproducing this effect are still rare in Brazil (and in much of the world) and is priced very high. The PC takes advantage of this side, because monitors compatible and special glasses like 3D Vision nVidia are easily found on the market and lower investment demand.
Skills in the body of an alien


The technology certainly puts more life into action, but it is easy to see that there is still much to be explored. The volume of the scene elements, for example, is well thought and what we are impressing the effects of enemy gunfire, and the weapons of guy, like the flamethrower and the shock wave. The use of vehicles and mounts also becomes more dramatic and interesting thanks to a greater sense of speed.

The effect, unfortunately, does not miracle and the game continues to suffer from their fundamental problems. Activation of 3D, it is worth noting, weighs a lot and requires much more computer use. On the islands the performance is also far from ideal, with several moments of slowness caused by excessive on-screen elements such as leaves, trees and quarries. Some textures are also incredibly poor and many details seem to burst, no life, what is wrong in a production of this size. The audio shares the same irregularity and rarely stands out.
CONSIDERATIONS
"James Cameron's Avatar: The Game" is a more recent film adaptation of which suffers from a lack of boldness and polishing. The narrative does not present the facts straight and launches the player in a warm adventure, with moments and mechanical generic. The 3D effect is interesting, but also restricted to one iota of consumers, there is a fragrance and can not save the title of their basic problems.