Avatar is set to become a box office smash, but does the game capture the same magic as the movie. If you read anything before this then you know the answer to that question. While Avatar has some fun moments the game will quickly become boring and repetitive. It may be a revolutionary movie but it is not a revolutionary movie game, or even a decent one at that.

You play as Ryder, the newest member of the Avatar program. Your objective is to root out a mole in the program who is giving tactical information to the Na’vi, the blue guys. Once you find the mole you must choose either to remain with the humans and kill the mole or join the mole and in turn the Na’Vi. At that point the story loses any and all enjoyment and you begin constant fetch quests and take part in boring set piece battles.

The game looks great visually, and that’s about all you’ll say looks great.

No matter your choice you get stuck with poorly controlled vehicles/animals and bad shooting mechanics. The Na’Vi animals are tolerable but the flyers could control a lot better, while all of the human vehicles move the camera like they are driving or walking through an earthquake. The shooting is alright at a distance but once things get closer forget it. This not only makes the single player bad, but it make the sub par multiplayer even less fun to play.

Progression lies in boring fetch quests and not much else. You will come across some set piece battles but none of them are difficult or satisfying. They can act as a decent distraction between quests, but eventually you’ll have to head back out on your scavenger hunt so you can find something that some one else will eventually do something cool with that you can’t do.

It’s gonna be a bumpy ride, but not for the reasons you think.

The game’s visuals are easily its strongest aspect and the most likely thing to make you think that Avatar could be a good game. Like they say however, looks can be deceiving. The environments look good and characters do as well though their expressions are a bit off looking sometimes. The sound effects are good and the voice acting is above average and is probably some of the best I’ve heard from a movie game. That’s not to say all characters are good, but most will leave you satisfied.

Overall Avatar does not deliver on any aspect and become a culmination of crap. With more time they could have had a great game on their hands that could do for movie games what the movies does for movies. Instead we are left with a good looking shell that hides everything mediocre beneath it.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.