James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Collector's Edition

Abysmal game tie-ins inevitably follow the release of any blockbuster action film. At best they're mediocre affairs, rushed out the door to tap into the movie's marketing budget, like this year's Terminator Salvation, Transformers, and Watchmen. So, you're probably not expecting much from James Cameron's Avatar: The Game. And you'd be making the right assumption -- the game looks pretty in spots, but the pacing and nonsensical plot hamper any sense of forward momentum.

The game's foundation sounds surprisingly solid; you get a third-person shooter with varied weapons and skills, all set in an open-world. At least it seems like an open world. You only have one objective to complete at a time, and the only thing you can do in-between missions is shoot at roving gangs of enemies. That leaves you with wide swaths of repetitious jungle to trudge through as you make your way from point to point. And you'll walk a lot. The game has warp points and vehicles to help you get around, but they're few and far between. So, while it might look wide and inviting, Avatar is a very linear experience.The story focuses on the Pandoran war between Humans and the indigenous alien Na'vi. I can't begin to condense the convoluted plot behind this project, though you might describe it as Ferngully: The Last Rain forest in space with guns (as you play through the game you unlock pages upon pages of backstory, fictional science explanations, and profiles that taught me more than I actually want to know about the Avatar universe). But you are given one big choice that makes Avatar stand out from other, standard movie adaptations: you get to choose which group you side with. Human and Na'vi each have a mostly different set of race specific attributes and weapons as well as a separate seven- to eight-hour storyline. You're still traversing the game's maps collecting crystals and hitting switches, but you at least see new sights and run into different characters.

To gain new weapons, abilities, and armor, the game uses an experience system. Killing bad guys and completing quests net you points for upgrading equipment, but the rewards are all pre-set. You might want to bulk up your armor, or get a better assault rifle, but the game doesn't give you that choice. You can gain extra experience by completing sub-objectives (like exploring every inch of a map, or killing an inordinate number of a specific enemy on each map), but I ignored those completely, focused only on the main game, and still managed to max out my XP and gain every weapon/ability several chapters before the final rounds of fighting.

The game's multiplayer modes feel stuck on just to add another bullet-point to the back of the box, but one interesting addition comes from the game's Conquest mode. From any warp point you can engage in a simple, addictive minigame for bonuses to your health and attack. Conquest divides the moon up into a grid, and you fight for control of each panel by buying extra units (the more experience you earn, the more credits you have to spend on units) and overpowering your opponent's forces. It doesn't involve any strategy whatsoever -- the larger army wins every time -- and it's too simplistic to stay engaging for long, but it's a nifty, small addition.

Overall, Avatar's not a bad-looking or playing game -- it's just very average. You may have the whole planet to explore, but your primary objectives boil down to "go to a point, push a button and or kill some guys, then go back to the start." The framework's in place -- a wide array of weapons, big enemies to take down -- but Avatar just doesn't put them in an interesting setting.

There's not much to write about this as it is kind of a rate it yourself game. For each and everyone of us we all like different sets and layouts of games. Personally I like weird and wonderful adventurous games were the player chooses where they want to go at any time (which James Cameron's avatar lets you do.

As most of you have probably already looked at photos to see what your getting before you buy it. The texture and effort that they've put into the game to look as much as the movie as they could is just amazing. Plus there will be creatures and machines to control (grounded or fly). Also the choice to play as humans or the Na'vi is a good thought for those players who always like to play the game a second time and change the story a bit.

I hope you all will take this game into consideration I no I have.

The game is great! the collectors boxed edition scores 10/10 for us. The figure that comes with it is the same size as the other large figures available through Mighty Ape so it fits in well with our Avatar collection.

Again I would like to take this opportunity to praise Mighty Ape for their outstanding services! Over night courier - great packaging - exceptional customer service... as always a delight!

Good game. liked looking around at the interesting environments. It had a good plot (not the same as the movie) and I think I could play this one a couple more times before I get bored, it has replayability :-)

This game is quite good. The problem with this game though is that you run from place to place doing almost the exact same things. i luv this game becuase after you finish u can explore the hole map and planet. but the reson i dnt give it a 5 is because the campaign is boring. The idea of conquest mode is a fantastic idea! Very very original. but it needs to stick with the story line. All and all i think the conquest mode was a fantastic idea but the gameplay itself is lousy.