James Cameron's Avatar: The Game is a video game adaptation of James Cameron's film of the same name. The title is developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft, Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox.
Gameplay
The game is predominantly a third person shooter, taking place in and around the Pandoran rainforest. There are various vehicles for the RDA to use, as well as animals for the Na'vi to ride. While most gameplay takes place in this fashion, there is also a conquest minigame in a cut down, civilization-esque style. There are two major storylines, dependant on player choices. On the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, the player can also earn trophies and achievements for completing various tasks.
Story
James Cameron's Avatar: The Game takes place two years prior to the events in the movie. In the game, players take the role of Lance Corporal Able Ryder, a SecOps signal specialist who arrives on the distant world Pandora, hand-picked to take part in the Avatar Program. Ryder learns to pilot his own avatar, a hybrid of human DNA and that of Pandora's indigenous species, the Na'vi. As Ryder ventures further into the Pandoran jungle, he learns more about its many creatures of Pandora, the Na'vi, and their struggle with the Corporation to save Pandora. At the flashpoint of this conflict, Ryder must decide where his true allegiance lies: with either the RDA, or the Na'vi.
Characters
Humans
- Able Ryder, an RDA grunt brought from Earth to join the Avatar Program, and to track down a sacred site on Pandora. He or she is the main protagonist of the game.
- Commander Falco, is a navy officer and the Head of Security for the RDA. He sees the Na'vi as nothing more than a threat to the mining operation on Pandora, a threat that must be wiped clean if the RDA objectives are to be achieved. He is the main antagonist of the game, even if the player allies with the RDA.
- Kendra Midori, is your main contact for the RDA. She believes in the RDA cause and reluctantly understands that war may be unavoidable between the Na'vi and the RDA. She also has romantic (if the player is a male) feelings for Ryder if he sided with the RDA.
- Victor Monroe, is a scientist who respects Ryder, but is uncomfortable with Falco.
- Dr. René Harper, is head of the RDA's Avatar Program. Through all his years on Pandora, Harper has formed a close bond with many of the Na'vi. He understands their way of life and he sees the destructive nature of the RDA mining operations. He soon turns out to be a mole for the Na'vi, and attempts to convince the player to join them.
- Grace Augustine, is the very first person seen in the game. Grace is part of the Avatar Program. She assigns Ryder to Dr. Harper, and appears only three times throughout the entire game - her first appearance is at the very beginning of the game, the second is after choosing the RDA's side, when one can hear her message from Hell's Gate control room, and the last at the very end of the game if sided with the RDA.
- Trudy Chacon, is your personal chopper pilot throughout much of the game when fighting for the RDA.
- Colonel Quaritch, is the commanding SecOps officer similar to the movie. He only appears near the end of game (if the player sides with the RDA), taking over from Commander Falco. He eventually goes on to lead SecOps troops to ultimate victory, provided the player remains allied with the RDA.
- Winslow, is the African-Australian SecOps commander on the field.
- Batista, is an elite explosives specialist of the RDA. Despite his extensive experience, he holds an almost cocky and laid-back attitude with Ryder.
Na'vi
- Amanti, is a leader of the Tipani clan in Torukä Na'rìng. Though peaceful in nature, she has been wary of the RDA since they constructed a large complex in the center of the clan's hunting grounds.
- Beyda'amo, is a Na'vi warrior who believes there is no room for peace with the RDA. He believes that the humans must be eliminated– simple as that and doubts Ryder's talents, but came to respect him near the end of the game.
- Tan Jala, is a Na'vi warrior who wants peace with the RDA. He believes in dialogue with an open palm, not a fist and makes friends with Able Ryder.
- Marali, is Bayda'amo's mate, and she shares his belief that the RDA presence represents a real danger to Pandora and its inhabitants, but unlike her mate she holds no dislike with the humans and seems to trust Ryder.
- Swawta, is a young Na'vi warrior who makes friends with Able Ryder, if he joins the Na'vi faction.
- Tsahìk Sänume, is the matriarch of the Tipani clan. She believes Able Ryder can help the Na'vi to stop the RDA assault.
Plot
Ryder arrives at Hell's Gate after landing on Pandora, and meets Commander Karl Falco. Falco explains that a mole is relaying information to the local Na'vi clan, the Tipani.
Blue Lagoon
Ryder is then sent to the Blue Lagoon where he aids soldiers trapped by viperwolves. After rescuing one named Dalton, Ryder volunteers to complete the soldier's signalling work. Connecting to his avatar, Ryder reports to Dr. Harper and aids him by collecting cell samples. After a few other minor tasks, Ryder is ordered by Falco to follow a Na'vi called Tan Jala, as it is believed he would be meeting the mole- who turns out to be none other than Dr. Harper himself.
Harper shows Ryder the burnt remains of the Na'vi Reservation, revealing the target of the signal Ryder locked for Dalton.Falco and two SecOps troopers arrive in a Samson transport ship and order Harper to surrender. Harper tries to angrily persuade Ryder to join him and the Na'vi, whilst Falco orders him to shoot Harper.
The remainder of the game depends on the player's choice in this standoff.
Na'vi Storyline
If you choose to help Dr. Harper and join the Na'vi, you open fire at the RDA troops and injure Commander Falco, then escape with Harper to Iknimaya. René Harper then leads an attack to capture the avatar link beds of Ryder and himself commenting that if he is not successful, they are finished. Meanwhile, Ryder begins to earn the trust of Beyda'amo, whom distrusts Ryder immensely as he despises traitors. After completing a number of small missions, Ryder is tasked with completing Iknimaya so that he may use a mountain banshee in combat. Soon after, a Dragon assault ship is sent to kill both Ryder and Dr. Harper. Ryder destroys the Dragon by crippling the engines. The Dragon then nearly crashes into the link beds of both Ryder and Dr. Harper. Then three more dragons appear and bombard the camp, destroying the link beds. In an effort to save the two, the Tipani clan Tsahìk, Sänume attempts to transfer the consciousness of both Ryder and Harper, wielding success for Ryder but Harper succumbing to his wounds. Ryder, now no longer a human, is told that Vitraya Ramunong, the dormant Well of Souls, needs to be found as Commander Falco seeks it to control the Na'vi population. This can only be done by finding unobtanium shards that can be used with special willow trees to generate a harmonic which in turn aides in locating the long forgotten site.
Ryder is sent to Swotulu to find the first three (3) unobtanium shards and the harmonic with the aid of Lungoray. Lungoray cannot be found initially but through completing missions for his student, Unipey, Lungoray is found. After capturing the three shards and beginning to activate the willow tree, Lungoray is killed and Tan Jala, present at the time tells Ryder to capture the harmonic, despite the fact Ryder knows nothing of how to capture a harmonic. However, Ryder collects the harmonic and travels back to Hometree, bringing the Na'vi closer to finding the dormant Well of Souls. At this point, the Tsahìk suggests that Ryder is the First Voice, the one who is needed to activate the dormant Well of Souls. Ryder plays down this suggestion but the Tsahìk comments that he has succeeded where many Na'vi have failed. Ryder travels to other locations such as Toruk Na'ring, where he successfully captures the harmonic and assists destroying the RDA forces which were retreating from the area additionally travelling to Va'era Ramunong, clearing areas of RDA military and re-establishing the Na'vi majority in the area as well as collecting another harmonic and establishing a more exact estimate regarding the location of the dormant Well of Souls. Throughout these regions, Beyda'amo grows increasingly impatient with Ryder despite Ryder's best efforts at assisting the Na'vi.
Upon traveling to Kxanìa Taw and attempting to collect the first shard, the RDA destroy it. Despite this Ryder continues to assist the local Na'vi population but when attempting to collect the second shard, it is destroyed again by the RDA. Beyda'amo, growing increasingly impatient and aggressive towards Ryder, orders him to assist with the attack on the main local RDA base to capture the last of the three unobtanium shards. Upon invading the base and breaking through to the willow tree previously blocked off by RDA fences, Ryder tells Beyda'amo about the lack of the first two unobtanium shards. Beyda'amo responds aggressively, threatening to attack. Ryder stuns Beyda'amo by activating the willow tree without the shards, confirming he is Ni'awve Mokri, the First Voice.
After traveling to another few locations, Ryder arrives on Tantalus and after a brief mission a great leonopteryx aides Ryder to get to the dormant Well of Souls. A cut scene begins with Commander Falco approaching the still dormant Well of Souls in a Dragon assault ship. However, just as Falco prepares to fire on Ryder, the Well of Souls activates and acts as an EMP against the Dragon, sending it and Falco to their doom. Ryder then meets with Tan Jala and the game ends with Ryder saying that more humans will come and fades to black.
RDA Storyline
Note: This storyline conflicts with that of the established continuity.[1]
If you choose to side with the RDA, you follow Falco's orders and open fire on Dr. Harper. He is soon forced against a cliff edge, and before Harper leaps off the cliff, he shoots Ryder's avatar with a Na'vi bow, subsequently killing the avatar. Ryder's human body is unharmed and is soon awakened, then taken aboard a Samson for a flight back to Hell's Gate. While Ryder and Kendra Midori are heading back to Hell's Gate, the Samson is attacked by mountain banshees and forced down on an area known as Needle Hills. As the pilot is badly wounded and Kendra tends to his wounds, Ryder heads alone to a nearby RDA mining center to obtain a Scorpion gunship. After destroying several banshee nests to clear the airspace and rescuing Kendra (the pilot succumbed to his wounds and died), Ryder receives the order to collect unobtanium shards to obtain harmonics from unobtanium willow trees to find the dormant Well of Souls; his first destination is at Needle Hills where, after killing many Na'vi and helping the RDA to secure the whole Needle Hills area, he ultimately finds the three shards needed, and thus finds a waypoint that'll help lead the RDA to the dormant Well of Souls.
Arriving back at Hell's Gate, Ryder gives the unobtanium shards to Dr. Victor Monroe, who then gives them to his scientists for installation into the Emulator, which will allow the RDA to control Eywa, the planetary "hive mind" of Pandora. Commander Falco then orders Ryder to several other areas to obtain more unobtanium shards: the FEBA (Forward Edge of the Battle Area), Grave's Bog, and the Hanging Gardens (named after the rapidly growing plant life which overtook an earlier RDA Base). Through these missions, Trudy Chacon is tasked as his personal Samson pilot after the death of the previous pilot.
After several trips and more shard collection, Ryder has collected enough shards for RDA scientists to pinpoint the exact location of the dormant Well of Souls. During this time, Ryder helps the RDA establish firm control over many contested areas, such as the FEBA, which holds the dubious distinction of being the area responsible for the most RDA casualties. Ryder also kills many Na'vi leaders, such as Beyda'amo, the ferocious leader of the Tipani clan in the FEBA; Tan Jala, the most cunning and charismatic of the Tipani in Grave's Bog; and finally Dr. Harper, and his two traitorous colleagues in the Hanging Gardens. However, when Ryder arrives back at Hell's Gate for the final missions, he discovers from Kendra that Commander Falco has gone rogue, killed Dr. Monroe, stolen the Emulator, and is headed for the dormant Well of Souls himself. Ryder knows that configuring the Emulator requires an expert hand, and that Falco's eager tampering could result in the destruction of Pandora and the death of all living things on it. Thus, while Kendra contacts RDA High Command to notify them of Falco's desertion, Ryder heads to the Plains of Goliath, an area close to the dormant Well of Souls, where RDA and Na'vi forces are waging the final battle.
When Ryder arrives at the Plains of Goliath, he is contacted by Colonel Quaritch, who orders him to eliminate the three nearby Na'vi leaders who are rallying their forces against the RDA offensive. The first leader, Swawta, attempts to persuade Ryder to join the Na'vi, which Ryder then "politely" declines by killing Swawta. After killing Swawta, Ryder is shuttled back to Central Command and is ordered to kill another leader, a ferocious Thanator rider, Hukato. After doing so, Ryder kills one more leader and is given a Dragon Assault Ship for his trek to Tantalus across the Hallelujah Mountains, where the Well of Souls is located.
Arriving on Tantalus, Ryder is greeted by Operations Specialist (Ops-Spec) Welles at a local RDA base. He orders Ryder to help clear the local area surrounding the Well of Souls so it is safe to journey there, and so RDA forces can force the "blues" out of the vital area. Ryder is then ordered to obtain heavy demolition charges from "Boom Boom" Batista in order to blast open a large rock wall that Na'vi forces are sheltering behind, as it serves as a natural defensive fortification for the Na'vi, and hazardously heavy electro-magnetic storms are preventing RDA gunships from simply flying over the rock wall and bombing them. After several intense battles with heavy Na'vi casualties, RDA ground reinforcements arrive and buy Ryder enough time to install the demo-charges and trigger them from a safe distance. Once the rock wall comes crumbling down, RDA Scorpion gunships fly in and bomb the Na'vi forces to oblivion, which eliminates the last major Na'vi stronghold in Tantalus. Ryder soon encounters Ops-Spec Welles again, standing beside an AMP suit amidst numerous Na'vi corpses in the smoldering ruins of a village. Welles excitedly tells Ryder that the area is now secure and that the RDA can "take it to the blues". His military objectives completed, Ryder then boards the Dragon for a final confrontation with a rogue Falco.
As Ryder disembarks from the Dragon and comes upon the Well of Souls, he shouts that Falco is insane and that the Emulator will kill everyone on Pandora if improperly handled. Falco simply shrugs off this warning and opens fire, forcing Ryder to kill him. As Ryder begins to configure the Emulator for it's activation, Na'vi-mounted banshees attempt to attack Ryder. However, Ryder completes the Emulator's activation protocols and it immediately activates, severing the Na'vi from Eywa. The attacking banshees then violently force off their Na'vi riders and flee, causing the Na'vi to fall to their doom.
At last, Ryder receives a radio transmission from Colonel Quaritch, who says that Na'vi all across Pandora have lost control of their war animals, and are retreating en-masse from every defensive position. Quaritch then congratulates Ryder for greatly helping RDA forces to win the day, and tells him that, "Your Dragon better be spotless when you get back". But before Ryder can leave, he is contacted by Dr. Grace Augustine, who tells him that the war isn't over and that Eywa is planning something; she also says that more humans are arriving on Pandora, and the RDA will have to be more vigilant than ever. With Dr. Grace Augustine's closing lines, the game ends as Ryder stands before the now active Well of Souls, with the Emulator pulsing in the background.
RDA playthrough, choosing to side with Na'vi at request of Swawta
When choosing to side with the Na'vi when given the choice by Swawta during the final stages of the game, the game continues much as like choosing to side with the Na'vi at the initial stages of the game. Exceptions include the absence of a great leonopteryx to take the player to the Well of Souls and the player in his human form, not avatar.
Glitch (CONFIRMED): At the final cutscene where Ryder and Tan Jala comment on the future when playing as the Na'vi; The same scene occurs when sided with the Na'vi at Swawta's request despite the fact Tan Jala was killed by Ryder during an encounter at Grave's Bog.
Cast
- Stephen Lang - Miles Quaritch
- Giovanni Ribisi - Parker Selfridge
- Michelle Rodriguez - Trudy Chacon
- Sigourney Weaver - Grace Augustine
- Chris Edgerly - Able Ryder (male)
- Audrey Wasilwski - Able Ryder (female)
- Susan Blakeslee - Amanti
- Emerson Brooks - Beyda'amo
- Kimberly Brooks - Kendra Midori
- Jon Curry - Major Sean Wallen
- Paul Eiding - Commander Karl Falco
- Parisa Fakhri - Unipey
- Keith Ferguson - Dalton
- Kyle Hebert - Rai'uk
- David Kaye - Swawta, Winslow
- Marcella Lentz-Pope - Kyuna
- David Lodge - Dr. Jerome Epstein
- Mona Marshall - Rai'uk's Mother
- Nolan North - Commander Conrad Olson
- Ron Orbach - Dr. René Harper
- David Anthony Pizzuto - Na'vi Warrior
- Bumper Robinson - Batista
- Tara Sands - Commander Fulson
- André Sogliuzzo - Tan Jala
- Catherine Taber - Sylwanin
- Josh Robert Thompson - Hukato
- Gary Anthony Williams - Dr. Victor Monroe
- Jane Windsor - Sänume
- Wally Wingert - Dr. Anson Langley
Na'vi voices provided by Kimberly Brooks, Kat Cressida, Robin Atkin Downes, Parisa Fakhri, Keith Ferguson, Gavin Hammon, Marcella Lentz-Pope, Mona Marshall, Enn Reitel, Keith Silverstein, Roger Craig Smith, André Sogliuzzo, Catherine Taber, and Josh Robert Thompson
RDA voices provided by Gregg Berger, Kimberly Brooks, Robin Atkin Downes, Parisa Fakhri, Keith Ferguson, Peter Giles, Anna Graves, James Horan, Neil Kaplan, David Kaye, David Lodge, Liam O'Brien, Ron Orbach, Peter Renaday, Bumper Robinson, Tara Sands, André Sogliuzzo, April Stewart, Josh Robert Thompson, James Urbaniak, and Wally Wingert
Crew
- Wes Gleason - Voice Director
Critical Reception
The game was released on the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and for Microsoft Windows PC. These three versions are all similar and have a metacritic rating hovering in the low 60's. With the normal expectations for movie tie-in games being generally poor, it has surprisingly fared much better than most other licensed games, since it is not bound to the movie's plot. Common criticisms for the game included generic, repetitive gameplay, poor mission design and the unfair advantage given to the RDA because of their superior firepower and their exclusive use of devastating vehicles like AMP suits. However, aspects like lush jungle environments and RPG elements were given some praise.
The PC version uses the Tagès DRM protection; each copy can be used for three activations. These activations replenish after 30 days and can be re-used. [2]
References
- ↑ There are two endings to the RDA storyline, neither of which maintain continuity- one with the RDA assuming control over all life on Pandora, and one involving Tan Jala returning from the dead inexplicably.
- ↑ http://www.unigamesity.com/about-avatar-the-games-pc-activation/
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