James Cameron's Avatar: The Video Game Preview

by Travis Moses
July 24, 2009 00:00 AM PST

Avatar is in 3D, and you won't believe your eyes.

James Cameron's Avatar is more than a game; it's a 3D experience. The goal is to match the vision of the movie, Ubisoft representatives have explained. Though you don't have to play the game in 3D (there's an option to turn it on or off), it looks so good you may want to invest in a 3D-capable television for when the game comes out this fall. Either way the game looks stunning. The planet of Pandora is a tropical haven of exotic plants that glow at night and is home to colorful dinosaur-like creatures. In 3D, everything pops with "Depth of Field" effects that appear as though you're looking into the world as well as "Out of Field" effects where things, such as hanging vines and charging beasts, come out of the screen at you.

Fight or flight? In our demo of Avatar, sometimes it was better to run than stay and fight.

Call To Arms

After the buzz of the 3D effects settle in, your attention will go to the game's pilotable mech walkers. While battling on the surface of Pandora, there looks to be a handful of different vehicles you'll be able to drive into the heart of the Na'vi, Pandora's ten foot tall humanoid inhabitants. The walkers are inspired by the powerloaders from Aliens, but are equipped with heavy firepower and make quick work of the powerful Na'vi hunters.

You're also going to be upgrading your soldier with new armor and weapons as you progress through the game. The Na'vi are huge, native hunters that find your presence on Pandora very unwelcome. We got to see some of the new armor, but the weaponry was limited to what looked like a standard assault rifle. We're not sure how the upgrade system will work exactly, but each enemy killed nets you experience points that you can spend to upgrade your character every few levels or so.

Skills are another important part of your arsenal, and they go beyond the passive skills you might see in an RPG game. Instead, skills allow you to do things like cloak yourself, Predator style, in order to sneak around enemies. You can also choose to repulse nearby enemies to create some breathing room. These are the only skills we witnessed, but the final version of Avatar will include more.