Avatar: The Game (First Thoughts)
At first this game has plenty of potential. The designers went with the idea that you play as a space marine in the Naboo Pandora universe similar to the movie but without the romance. The third-person perspective isn't half bad and it could have been a fun shoot-em-up. Unfortunately, the game becomes more about being in an Avatar body than a space marine body.
This would have been acceptable... if being an Avatar didn't completely suck. The magic powers of an Avatar are fine but the never-ending string of deaths becomes a bit monotonous. Furthermore, you get to ride some kind of flippy-floppy dragon thing... but if you dismount the dragon goes MIA. Making matters worse is that finding a new dragon is practically impossible. I had to spend 10 minutes roaming through the jungle (which is gorgeously crafted) looking for a mount... which I never found. I just quit and restarted my game.
Adding to my frustration was a stupid mission that required me to destroy a flying gunship. This time I did find a flippy-floppy and tried to fly him to the gunship. Unfortunately, flippy-floppies can't land on gunships. Neither can then land on jungle platforms directly adjacent to gunships. Instead, I had to land a level below so that I could climb the MAGIC climbing vine to the jungle platform adjacent to the gunship. This is plain stupid. If you create a flying mount in your game... accept the fact that players will expect to use it to get to the highest ground possible.
Finally, the game has major collision detection issues. Even at the start of the game, my character floated over the ground. It didn't look like I was walking through a 3D world and neither did the enemies I was fighting (VIPERWOLVES!!!!).
Despite the shitiness of this game, Avatar is an interesting universe and I think moviegoers have some interesting surprises in store. Too bad this game is as bad and empty as the majority of movie adaptations/tie-ins out there.
Chillin'
I've learned to never trust a game which must be released to coincide with a movie.
When Bioshock 2 was delayed a few months, I got even more pumped - that means they're serious about doing it right, and weren't going to release an inferior product just to cash in on Christmas.