Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Release Date Announced, First Gameplay Revealed
Ubisoft has shared the first real look at Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, a first-person adventure game where players take on the role of a Na’vi trained by the RDA. Ubisoft’s Avatar game will be released on December 7, 2023.
Along with a new trailer that finally shares details about Avatar’s story, Ubisoft shared a gameplay breakdown that gives insight into Frontier of Pandora’s world. The first-person shooter will star a Na’vi who was taken and raised by the RDA and trained to fight against her own people.
After the RDA leaves Pandora, the unnamed Na’vi rediscovers her homeworld and reconnects with her Na’vi heritage, learning Na’vi weapons and survival skills, and honing them for when the RDA inevitably returns to Pandora.
The gameplay is reminiscent of Ubisoft’s other open-world shooter, Far Cry, where players must venture out into Pandora and take down RDA strongholds scattered across the planet. Players are able to use a mix of Na’vi weapons like bows and staffs, and RDA weapons like machine guns and rocket launchers.
Players will also need to hunt animals to cook meals that will keep the Na’vi going in their fight against the RDA, and commune with Eywa to gain new abilities and improve their Na’vi skills. It will also be possible to bond and name an ikran, giving you an aerial mount for traversing Pandora, and skill trees will improve movement, your ability to ride mounts, and more.
According to Ubisoft, the long-awaited adaptation will include single-player and two-player co-op, and is designed to “maximize new-gen consoles.”
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is considered canon to Avatar: Way of Water, and Ubisoft Massive is working with James Cameron’s team to fully realize an interactive version of the western frontier, but the game will star a brand-new character and it’s unclear if we’ll encounter Jake or Neytiri in the game. But we’ll have more details as we approach Frontiers of Pandora’s December 7 release date.
You can find the full list of everything announced at Ubisoft Forward right here.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.