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The long-awaited Avatar: The Game, based on the motion picture from James Cameron, the director of such films as Titanic, Aliens and The Terminator hit the shelves this December amid a media flurry and public expectations rarely seen for a non-franchised video game. Avatar, the movie, seemed to be a perfect fit for a video game cross over, but the fact is Avatar, the game, has a difficult road to travel in order to live up to the expectations that have been building for months. And that’s exactly the problem with this game. With so much expected out of Avatar: The Game, it’s nearly impossible to live up to hype.

The game centers around the alien moon, Pandora, and the battle over control of unobtanium, a mineral more valuable than anything else in the universe. But rather than follow the movie storyline, UbiSoft has given us a glimpse into Pandora’s past. Though absolutely beautiful, Pandora sports a poisonous atmosphere and is the home to giant carnivorous plants and an alien race, called the Na’vi. The paramilitary RDA utilizes Avatars, a genetic hybrid between humans and Na’vi, to counter the hostile locals. And so the battle for contol of the unobtanium begins.

A third-person shooter/melee fighter with RPG elements mixed in, the game definitely attempts to mirror the strengths of the movie: spectacular graphics featuring rich, lush jungles. and the visuals surrounding Pandora are simply amazing. In fact, during the first hour of playing the game, you will be left with a feeling of awe at just how great the world of Pandora looks, especially in HD. But then reality sets in! You soon discover that these fantastic graphics do nothing more than attempt to hide poor game mechanics. This is surely not what we have come to expect from UbiSoft. It’s not as much that the game isn’t fun to play but rather that it feels so stiff and awkward that there’s no thrill of the fight. The camera mechanics are simply terrible, especially during melee, leaving you completely disoriented. It seems as though all the work went into making Pandora look great to hide the fact that the rest of the game is so mediocre, at best.

Some of this poor development could be overlooked if the game was really fun. But once again Avatar fails to impress. The quests are basic, requiring little to no skill. You basically go somewhere to shoot something or someone, then return. It quickly becomes boring. Reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed 1, also from UbiSoft, the quest design for Avatar, unlike AC 1, just doesn’t provide for much fun, regardless whether you play as the RDA or for the Na’vi. Even the RPG elements leave little to be enjoyed. The only real choices you have are to pick your favorite weapons and skills at the very beginning of game and nothing more. The leveling system is just as basic with new armor, weapons, and skills earned as you gain XP. However it is all instantly applied and leaves no room for individual customization.

Avatar: The Game is not a video game that you will want to play for long. While the world of Pandora is simply spectacular, the game is average, at best. After the first hour of gameplay, the only fun to be had is exploring and marveling at the graphics of the alien moon of Pandora. This one is a huge disappointment, and for a big budget game is about as generic as they come. And while the game tries to offer up distractions to hide it’s many faults, ultimately it fails, giving us what is sure the be the biggest video game flop of the year.

Available on: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, PC, PSP, DS

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