[HEADING=1]
I love my DSi. Since I got it, together with Brain Training, I never got bored between 2-hour travels towards granny and her cookies ever again. Of course, having only one 'game' won't keep me entertained forever. So on my birthday(which is actually a loooooong time ago) I recieved a box with the title proudly sprouting:
You'll find out the real thing soon enough.
The game starts off with a brief prologue about a small RDA aircraft loosing cargo after a crash with the local flying wildlife. We then pan out and in again to meet our protagonist, the Na'vi Nok. His dream is to find out as much as he can about the (in)famous 'Sky People', who only just arrived on Pandora.
And thus begins a tale of walking around whacking things with a stick.
To aid you in your quest, you recieve a handful of items that, to some, may sound familiar; A pointy stick, a slingshot, a bow-and-arrow and a few others that are required to solve certain puzzles, ranging from time based, to button pressing to simply jumping on the right platform.
In the beginning, you don't pose much of a threat and risk frustration by constant death, so the game provides you with shops that can sell you more health, strength, speed or defense. You buy these with so-called Essence-seeds, small blue orbs that you can find. How do you find them? Simple! Kill enemies, cut down plants and crack open seedcontainers.
...Hmm, haven't I heard a certain someone saying in the movie that "everything is connected on Pandora"?
Indeed, instead of explaining why exactly we have to stab the nearest Tapirus for loot, we happily scuttle on jabbing your trusty War Staff into animals we claim are connected with us.
If you leave that odd point aside, James Cameron's Avatar for the DS can be versatile in it's gameplay at times, having to use 2 weapons for one succesful action for example.
On other times, this versatility can be quite a chore.
Some enemies, especially later on, are huge, bulky monsters that require a certain action 3 or 4 times. The problem is, your inventory system containing the weapons isn't that quick in switching them, so you will get angry at the missed opportunity of chipping away another small portion of the enemy's health because you couldn't whack him fast enough after knocking him out with an arrow.
The whole game is centered around the mechanic of tapping the stylus on the touchscreen. It's how you move around, talk with fellow Na'vi, stab animals and humans alike, push or pull obstacles away, pretty much everything.
The first problem that I noticed is that more or less the entire game part happens on the lower screen, resulting in me getting pain in my neck from looking down after playing for 2 hours.
The second problem I found were the graphics; I know, some people would say a DSi isn't an HD console, but what bugged me is how everything looks like it's from the polygonic age. To top that, it also has it's fair share of loading screens, while still giving quite pixel-like quality in graphics. Where is that processing power needed for, good music?
Actually, scrap that. There is some different music per map and/or level, but they only consist of 10 second loops, only shortly interrupted when finding Lores, Knowledge or when a great event occurs.
Sound effects are also not the best thing you've heard. You'll hear the occasional "Yah" or "Ow" from your character, some animals squeel, buzz or growl and the machines make mechanical noises and bleep, and of course the humans make angry noises when seeing you, getting hit or when they die. However, every enemy only has a handful of sound effects it emits, tempting me to just avoid killing any bad guys until it really is needed.
Collectibles? Let's just say you'll be busy for hours trying to find them all through totems and random drops. So if you're into grinding, grind away!
Pros:
- Okay story.
- Versatile in gameplay at times.
- Keeping it simple with only a handful of tools.
- Good for 2 days of constant playing when just wanting to finish the game.
Cons:
- Slow progress with story.
- Lacking versatility to be interesting 'til the end.
- Tools seem to be copied from Zelda, apart from a monkey.
- Not so connected with nature.
- Anyone feeling retro?
- Not always clear on how to beat a boss.
- It's a prequel so it lacks replay value.
P.S. Interested in other reviews I did? Here's one:
Red Baron (for PS2)
Segadroid's Retrospect Review of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (for Nintendo DS)
[/HEADING]Warning, this review contains small spoilers.
I love my DSi. Since I got it, together with Brain Training, I never got bored between 2-hour travels towards granny and her cookies ever again. Of course, having only one 'game' won't keep me entertained forever. So on my birthday(which is actually a loooooong time ago) I recieved a box with the title proudly sprouting:
[HEADING=2]James Cameron's AVATAR: THE GAME[/HEADING]
Well, this is gonna be weeks of entertainment, right? If the movie was great, then this has to be great as well, right?
This will be the most graphical image you will see in this game.
You'll find out the real thing soon enough.
[HEADING=3]Getting down to business...[/HEADING]
The game starts off with a brief prologue about a small RDA aircraft loosing cargo after a crash with the local flying wildlife. We then pan out and in again to meet our protagonist, the Na'vi Nok. His dream is to find out as much as he can about the (in)famous 'Sky People', who only just arrived on Pandora.
And thus begins a tale of walking around whacking things with a stick.
To aid you in your quest, you recieve a handful of items that, to some, may sound familiar; A pointy stick, a slingshot, a bow-and-arrow and a few others that are required to solve certain puzzles, ranging from time based, to button pressing to simply jumping on the right platform.
In the beginning, you don't pose much of a threat and risk frustration by constant death, so the game provides you with shops that can sell you more health, strength, speed or defense. You buy these with so-called Essence-seeds, small blue orbs that you can find. How do you find them? Simple! Kill enemies, cut down plants and crack open seedcontainers.
...Hmm, haven't I heard a certain someone saying in the movie that "everything is connected on Pandora"?
Indeed, instead of explaining why exactly we have to stab the nearest Tapirus for loot, we happily scuttle on jabbing your trusty War Staff into animals we claim are connected with us.
If you leave that odd point aside, James Cameron's Avatar for the DS can be versatile in it's gameplay at times, having to use 2 weapons for one succesful action for example.
On other times, this versatility can be quite a chore.
Some enemies, especially later on, are huge, bulky monsters that require a certain action 3 or 4 times. The problem is, your inventory system containing the weapons isn't that quick in switching them, so you will get angry at the missed opportunity of chipping away another small portion of the enemy's health because you couldn't whack him fast enough after knocking him out with an arrow.
This also brings me to the point of playing the game on the DS.
You wanna know why the AMP's yellow? So the hell would I.
The whole game is centered around the mechanic of tapping the stylus on the touchscreen. It's how you move around, talk with fellow Na'vi, stab animals and humans alike, push or pull obstacles away, pretty much everything.
The first problem that I noticed is that more or less the entire game part happens on the lower screen, resulting in me getting pain in my neck from looking down after playing for 2 hours.
The second problem I found were the graphics; I know, some people would say a DSi isn't an HD console, but what bugged me is how everything looks like it's from the polygonic age. To top that, it also has it's fair share of loading screens, while still giving quite pixel-like quality in graphics. Where is that processing power needed for, good music?
Actually, scrap that. There is some different music per map and/or level, but they only consist of 10 second loops, only shortly interrupted when finding Lores, Knowledge or when a great event occurs.
Sound effects are also not the best thing you've heard. You'll hear the occasional "Yah" or "Ow" from your character, some animals squeel, buzz or growl and the machines make mechanical noises and bleep, and of course the humans make angry noises when seeing you, getting hit or when they die. However, every enemy only has a handful of sound effects it emits, tempting me to just avoid killing any bad guys until it really is needed.
Collectibles? Let's just say you'll be busy for hours trying to find them all through totems and random drops. So if you're into grinding, grind away!
"I suppose those machine guns on the drill weren't useless after all, Steve!"
[HEADING=3]So, what's the verdict?[/HEADING]
Pros:
- Okay story.
- Versatile in gameplay at times.
- Keeping it simple with only a handful of tools.
- Good for 2 days of constant playing when just wanting to finish the game.
Cons:
- Slow progress with story.
- Lacking versatility to be interesting 'til the end.
- Tools seem to be copied from Zelda, apart from a monkey.
- Not so connected with nature.
- Anyone feeling retro?
- Not always clear on how to beat a boss.
- It's a prequel so it lacks replay value.
[HEADING=3]This was Segadroid's review. End of line.[/HEADING]
P.S. Interested in other reviews I did? Here's one:
Red Baron (for PS2)