Players Like Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora More Than Any Ubisoft Game In Ages

People seem to like Ubisoft’s recent adventure title Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora more than any Far Cry title in the last five or six years.

That is especially interesting because, as many reviews noted, Frontiers of Pandora essentially applies the longstanding Far Cry formula to the Avatar license. It technically is a Far Cry game in everything but name. Though the reviews were mixed at the time the embargo dropped, Metacritic user scores show that players have generally had a more favourable take.

As Forbes’ Paul Tassi points out, with a user score of 8.1, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora currently holds one of Ubi’s highest Metacritic user scores in yonks. The next highest user score across platforms is Far Cry 4 and Watch Dogs 2 sharing a 7.7, followed by Assassin’s Creed Mirage with a 7.4. That’s what makes this interesting, at least to me — Ubisoft hasn’t had a game with a user score in the 8’s for a very long time. Tassi’s list of major titles goes all the way back to Far Cry 4, and not one of them could get above that 7.7 score.

Part of this surprisingly positive user feedback seems to stem from a willingness to overlook gameplay flaws in favour of its stunning visuals. Even the famously particular Digital Foundry couldn’t contain their astonishment at the real-time visuals the team at Massive has produced on PC.

Elsewhere, what seems to be lifting Frontiers of Pandora‘s fortunes, at least on the basis of audience interest, is positive word of mouth. Despite Ubisoft keeping the game’s marketing push lowkey and giving it a lonely December release date, it seems the game is finding a home within its release window. Normally, when a game cops a quiet launch and middling critical reviews together, it means a fairly quick trip to the bargain bin. Not the case here, it seems.

Anyway, some Friday thoughts for you there. I just thought that was an interesting little data point.

You can read the Kotaku US impressions of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora here. Personally, I’m looking forward to giving it a lash over the holiday break.