Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Reviews Show Big Difference Between Critics and Gamers

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is being well-received by fans.

By Cade Onder

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is being received by fans quite differently from critics. The Avatar IP is one of the biggest franchises in all of entertainment, despite the fact it's only made up of two movies, a small number of comics, and most recently, a video game. It's pretty light compared to Marvel, Star Wars, and other big IPs, but it has dominated the box office and cemented itself as a monumental piece of pop culture. Avatar took a significant amount of time off between the first and second movies, allowing for a thirteen year gap with no Avatar media in between. Now, here we are a decade and a half later, and Avatar seems to be trying to position itself as a regular mainstay in our culture with movies every few years, games, and more.

This month, Ubisoft released the long-awaited Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The game has been in the works for years and Ubisoft has been pretty hush-hush about it up until this year when it began to show off gameplay. The immediate instinct was to compare it to Ubisoft's FPS franchise, Far Cry, and while that isn't totally invalid, it is pretty different. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora also closed out a massive year for gaming, possibly one of the biggest ever, and it doesn't appear to be dominating the sales charts in the same way the movies clean up at the box office. It was met with a decent reception from critics, but hardly anything that would push anyone to go buy it if they were on the fence. Nevertheless, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is being well-received by players. The game is currently sitting at an 8.1 user score on Metacritic, which is a big jump from the 72 average it received from critics. In fact, this user score is better than some other major Ubisoft releases like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Far Cry 6.

ComicBook.com's review seems to align more with the users, however. We gave Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora a 4 out of 5 and noted that despite an unengaging story, the world, gunplay, and overall themes of environmentalism really shine and make it one of the better shooters of 2023: "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora successfully immerses players into James Cameron's multi-billion dollar franchise. It's easily one of the most beautiful sci-fi worlds I have ever had the pleasure of exploring and ensures that when it's threatened, you'll feel the desire to protect it. On top of that, it's possibly one of the best single player FPS games I've played in awhile with how dynamic and active the combat is. Every combat encounter is a joy thanks to the engaging movement, and feels like it rewards creativity by utilizing all of the different tools allotted to you."

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