The Burning Earth is an average action-adventure that Avatar fans and even non-fans can enjoy
The game basically follows most of the major plot points of Book Two: Earth of the series, where Aang begins to learn how to Earthbend and help defend the Earth Nation. The game plays out in its story mode by splitting levels into chapters. There are also some mini-games that let you replay boss battles you've played, and an arena mode where you can duke it out against the computer or another player with most of the main characters. Speaking of characters, Jet, Zuko, Toph, Momo, and Uncle Iroh are now playable characters along with the main characters Aang, Sokka, and Katara, and throughout the story you will always have two characters to work with. The second player can be a CPU, or for the first time in an Avatar game, be controlled by a friend for some co-op play. In fact, this game is a lot more enjoyable when played with a friend.
Burning Earth includes all the basic ingredients of an adventure game, fighting, platforming, some light stealth, and some light puzzle-solving. The fighting is fairly straightforward, and you unlock new combos and stronger ranged attacks as you progress. The different characters all basically play the same in melee combat, although of course the animations for each character are different based on what they use to fight. All of them share the same combos, so it doesn't matter if you are playing as Jet or as Toph, if you can remember one character's combos, you've memorized them all. This is probably only depressing to players who want a little more challenge in their games and the avid Avatar fans, because Avatar fans know that the fight styles of the four elements are based on very different Martial Arts forms, which means you might expect at least some variation in how to perform combos. However, each playable character has their own ranged attack that does slightly different things. While simple, the fighting can be pretty fun because of the nice and unique fight animations, and it becomes even more fun with a friend when you use combined tactics to stun and then damage opponents. It was a blast having a friend freeze enemies with Sokka then pounding on them with Aang. The game also includes flying levels, where one player flies Appa while the other shoots projectiles at enemies that try to attack you while you are flying to the end of the stage. These controls are mediocre at best for flying, because it can get very hard to do some precision flying, especially since parts of the levels involve flying through tunnels while avoiding falling debris. The stealth parts are fairly simple; staying out of sight of the guards by watching their movement patterns is basically all you need to do to succeed in them. The puzzles should be a breeze for most players, and sometimes you encounter puzzles that involve wiimote motions. These sometimes work well, and sometimes don't. The instructions onscreen don't always help too much: for example for one puzzle you must hold the wiimote vertically for a few seconds, than point it at the screen and hold it there for a few seconds. However, the instructions don't make it fully clear that you have to hold it at both positions. But overall, the motion controls do a fair job. Like many action-adventure games, each level ends in a boss battle. Basically, almost all the boss battles involve pounding on a main enemy from the series until all his health is gone. Although they are repetitive, they at least pose a greater challenge then the enemies in the levels. Luckily, what do work pretty well are the camera angles during the platforming, as we never had problems in navigating the terrain. In the stealth parts they angles they give you are good enough to give you the lay of the map and let you see the nearby guards clearly, although it would've been nicer if the camera was rotatable for even at least just this section. All of this is fine and dandy, but the linear structure in the way they are presented is kind of annoying. The game pushes you along in such a linear fashion that you can't even jump down some staircases as shortcuts, and there are some invisible walls that break the feel of the game. However, if you do just stick to playing the game they shouldn't become too much of a hindrance. Probably one of my biggest complaints is that Avatar: The Burning Earth is an amazingly short game. You can easily breeze through it in a day of play.
Avatar: The Burning Earth uses mainly 3D models and some 2D backdrops, and they are able to represent the show's characters pretty well. The characters move pretty smoothly when not hindered by invisible walls, and although basic are still easy on the eyes. The soundtrack keeps the mood of the game correct, although some of the sound effects and voice acting clips are a little undone, and could've been better. The game's presentation is inconsistent, as some elements feel like they were just put together while some elements are neatly designed. The main menu is very nice, however the items section in the pause menu seems utterly useless, since you can see all the useable items you have on the game screen itself and it is impossible to lose any quest items you might've gotten before getting them to their objective. What is also confusing is that the character's lips in in-engine cut scenes don't move when they talk. The game features pre-rendered cut scenes mainly between important segments or chapters that do have lip-syncing , and it feels and looks very weird when the game all of a sudden switches back into the game engine where no lip-syncing occurs at all. Something small like adding light lip-syncing to the game engine seems like something that could've been accomplished if time was put into it. Speaking of weird, the game sometimes stops and freezes for no apparent reason; in fact it happened three times while we were playing through the story mode, which is pretty bad considering how short the game is.
As for longevity, the game includes "secrets," notes that you find while playing through the story mode that unlock various items to look at. These might keep some players playing a little longer, although unless you're an avatar fan (or like good-looking concept art) you probably won't feel too inclined to find all of the secrets. The previously mentioned Arena Mode mini-game is also pretty fun and the computer puts up a good fight in it. The 8 playable characters are all in it, although there is only one arena to fight in and the presentation in the minigame is kind of poor and doesn't feel like much work was put into it.
This game is a good adventure game, but may be too short and easy for some and the strict linearity might ward some gamers off. Avatar fans should definitely pick up this game as it is a good improvement from the last, and even non-viewers might find a little fun in the game if they can get past the game's weaknesses.