The Avatar: The Game (Xbox 360, 2009)

Avatar, a movie about an alien moon called Pandora and the battle over its riches. It's a game that I had high hopes for and though it does its best to play to the movie's strengths -- featuring a lush jungle world and 3D visuals – Avatar: The Game ultimately suffers from unpolished and thin gameplay elements.
Avatar: The Game takes place on the same moon as its movie counterpart but rather than retelling Cameron's tale, it offers a prequel story and an introduction to Pandora's past. The reason for all of the commotion? Pandora is the only known place to harvest unobtanium, a mineral worth whatever it takes to get it. Unfortunately, Pandora has a toxic atmosphere and is the home to some hostile locals, including giant carnivorous plants and the Na'vi, an alien race that stands roughly 10 feet tall. The RDA, a military for hire, has countered with Avatars, a genetic hybrid between humans and Na'vi. And so the war begins in earnest.
Very little of this is actually explained directly to the player. Instead, you're thrust into the role of Abel Ryder, a new RDA recruit with an Avatar to control – never you mind what an Avatar is or why they exist. Soon after, you're forced to choose to fight either for the Na'vi as a full-time Avatar or for the RDA. The game wastes no time getting right down to brass tacks, but in doing so glosses over what should have been its chance to lay down the groundwork for any motivation it might have offered the player. Instead, it sets up a series of generic quests and little bits of story about the search for some special rocks that you'll have just about no investment in.
If you decide to fight for the RDA, Avatar: The Game plays as a third-person shooter, offering plenty of guns and war machines to take down the flora and fauna. Fight for the Na'vi and you'll instead wield primitive though effective clubs, staffs and knives. Limited ranged combat is in store for the Na'vi fighter as well through a machine gun and a bow and arrows, but the majority of the action is up close and personal. Though both sides have similar special powers to call upon, this setup makes for two drastically different experiences.
You can choose to fight for the Na'vi, or for the RDA as pictured here.
Both branches of the game last between four and six hours – more if you take on all of the side tasks – but each tell their own story and deliver their own style of gaming. Will you play a straight action game with limited platforming as you fight for the natives? Or will you tackle a third-person shooter and lay waste to everything in sight using guns and flamethrowers? Or will you wind up playing both sides to double your game time? It's a nice concept and the two sides of the Avatar: The Game coin are different enough to make each feel distinct. Neither, however, plays well enough to make it a standout.
There's nothing disastrous here, and the RDA shooter side of things performs well enough to be occasionally enjoyable. The quest design, including both the main and side tasks, is about as generic as they come. Go here, collect this, plant these bombs, or kill this and then return to me. It's mindless, you shoot stuff and it explodes. It works, though it could handle a lot better and the enemy AI isn't up to snuff. During one big boss battle at the end, my foe jumped off of a cliff and then ran across a field and hid in a corner. Searching for him wasn't very fun.
Overall I did enjoy this game but it did drag on at times.

The game play is a pretty basic shooter. Game flows nicely. The graphics are well done even if the story line is somewhat predictable and lacking in imagination.

The sad part is that there seems to be no pride of workmanship. Avatar was an incredible and complex movie. The attention to detail was excellent down to the smallest item. However the game sadly lacks that pride of a job well done. I am surprised that Ubisoft actually released it in its current form.

The Na'vi can't even speak their own language. Titles and Names are pronounced in such a mangled way that I would compare it to a 1st year student learning a new language. It is so bad its almost an insult to James Cameron and Paul Frommer who created a beautiful lyric language. If they had taken just that little more time to try and stay true to the Movie this game would go up considerably in my opinion.

The tech in Avatar was so far ahead of its time, and some of that could have been included in the game. It would have been a nice addition to the Avatar "world" if the developers had just paid attention to the details. As it is, anyone who enjoyed the movie will be as disappointed as I was.

Excellent Product at a great item price. James Cameron's Avatar: The Game is the official videogame based on the highly anticipated film James Cameron's Avatar. The videogame will take you deep into the heart of Pandora, an alien planet that is beyond imagination. Gamers will encounter the Na'vi, Pandora's indigenous people and discover other life forms the likes of which have never been seen in the world of video games before. When conflict erupts between the RDA Corporation, a space-faring consortium in search of valuable resources, and the Na'vi, gamers will find themselves thrust into a fight for the heart of a planet and the fate of a civilization.

Game had beautiful graphics and is suitable for almost anyone to play. It does have a teen rating, but my 8 year old loves the game and spends hours playing it as do other members of my household in their teens. Fans of the movie will love this game.

It was the first game for our new Xbox 360. It was a present for my husband. But it turns out he has to fight myself and the grand children for a turn to play it. The grafics are great. Lots of action! Running, shouting and flying.
Since the grand children are in their teens, they are doing better then us.
Foster's of Michigan