A movie, that was basically one big video game in the making, gone wrong.
What surprises me is that most people were expecting a good game. Attention and hype was so high about this and I even know people who actually traded in Call of Duty 4 just to get this game (boy, they sure were in for a disappointment). Surprisingly I didn't pay anything for this (thank god) this game was a loan from somebody who wanted to see my views on this (and here they are).
• Action is bland, repetitive and boring.
• Vehicles for both Navi and humans suck.
• Camera is annoying
• The game feels too long.
• Missions are terrible.
• Cutscenes are boring
The story begins with you main character Ryder. You can choose what he/she looks like, whether she can be black or white, Asian, or just butt ugly. The story isn't too special and is just the typical lame secondary story cliché about how the movie builds up. The games plot centers about a new recruit called Ryder being sent out to find a mole who is working with the Navi. After watching some horrendous cut scenes and killing a few of the native animals, you then find out the mole and given the choice to join the sides with the blue people or the dumb-ass marines. I sided with the blue people.
From closer inspection from starting this game, the thing that struck was the graphics. This is probably one of the ugliest games I've seen so far in a 360 game. Its average I'll give it that, but nothing too flashy to impress me. Character design is in the category of Wii or PS2 standard. Level design is probably were the game is best at, but even then it feels like you've already explored this area before hand.
Cutscenes are boring. The whole dialog of the game said is boring and the ugly animations and bad camera don't make it any appealing. The lip synch in cut-scenes is as accurate as a sock puppet.
Enemy (and Ally) AI isn't too clever went it comes to avatar too. Most enemies won't use strategic battle implements either and most of them would just freeze in place, allowing you to slaughter them or half the time wouldn't notice if you're shooting them in the face. Seriously, Doom has better AI, and all they do is stand in place and wait for some dumb marine to kill them.
Missions and side missions are incredibly simple and stupid. Most of them range from "go to this person, talk to them, and blow that up" "Go to point A to point B" or "go fetch a flower for this person". This drags out and makes the whole game play experience so boring that you slip into a coma. Often the missions are too far away from the start and unless you got a vehicle to ride, you are going to be walking a lot.
Camera angle is horrible and whether you decide to play as human or Navi, both seem to have a habit of hogging the left side of the screen. There are games out there that do sort of the same thing, but this just completely engulfs it, it's the glutinous of screen hogging. When you select navi for combat, the camera zooms too far away. This makes your main guy look too small and impossible to see what you are attacking.
Online multiplayer is terrible. Matches are typical with death match, team death match and king of the hill. Maps are too large and often will leave you wandering around trying to find the enemy.
The whole game has nothing to do with the film itself and if you are playing this for more depth about Pandora, just don't bother. Story isn't told well and is at times very boring (thanks to the cutscenes).
At the end of the day, the game is somewhat passable. The game had potential but when you come down to it, it's just not worth playing. Missions are terrible on both sides and the camera becomes an issue. AI is stupid, combat is dull and the script is terrible.