New Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Details Revealed

Likely one of the biggest reveals that happened earlier this month at E3 2021 came with Ubisoft finally showing off its long-awaited Avatar project. The game, which is formally titled Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, was unveiled in a new trailer at Ubisoft's Forward presentation, but outside of a 2022 release window, not much else was said about the title. Luckily, that has now changed as those at Ubisoft have now shared some additional details about the forthcoming next-gen project.

In a new video that was released today, some of the developers behind Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora revealed a few more tidbits about the game. Perhaps the most notable thing that was touched on in relation to the project dealt with its game engine. In order to best create the world of Pandora for the video game medium, Ubisoft says that it had to drastically upgrade its Snowdrop engine which it has used over the years. Because of the Snowdrop engine being reworked for next-gen, Avatar is now able to build out incredibly detailed environments that can contain numerous items at a single time.

While creating realistic-looking vegetation on Pandora is one key thing that Snowdrop allows for, Ubisoft also said that the engine also lets the studio create vast skylines as well. Much like the film franchise that Frontiers of Pandora is based on, players will spend quite a bit of time flying through the air to get around within the game.

Ubisoft also said that Snowdrop allows for AI routines to be drastically more detailed than normal. For instance, AI characters that may appear in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will all react to the environments that they find themselves in. This means that depending on the time of day, weather patterns, or other anomalies that might be around them, their patterns will change and adjust depending on the situation.

All in all, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora at the very least looks as though it will be impressive on the technical side. While we have yet to see gameplay, that footage will surely arrive in the coming months as the game is set to launch next year on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC platforms.