The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Gameplay
At first the player is allowed to choose the appearance of the character from a set of pre-defined faces. On the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions, the player is able to choose a side – to fight for the Na'vi or for the RDA – each offering different gameplay, weapon set, skill set, and environment.
As a soldier, the player is equipped with firearms such as assault rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, and flamethrowers. The soldier generally has to eliminate the enemies, which are fast and resilient and usually charging towards the player, from afar. Playing as an Avatar limits the player to only one Avatar-issued machine gun and various primitive weapons such as bows, crossbows and melee weapons. The Avatar player usually has to charge the enemies since ranged weapon are either weak (the machine gun), have slow rate of fire (bows and crossbows), or have limited ammunition; the human enemies are generally weak and the basic foot soldiers can die after getting hit once with one strike of a club.
Story
Avatar: The Game is set in 2152, two years before the events of the film. The game starts out with a new signals specialist, named Able Ryder (who is either male or female, depending on the player's choice), arriving at Pandora, assigned to an area called Blue Lagoon, a large piece of jungle, fenced in to make sure no larger predators get inside. Their first mission is to save five marines from Viperwolves, with their CO suggesting they use a turret to help fend off the wolves. After saving the marines, Ryder must go help another Sig Spec, Dalton, who is afraid of the Viperwolves and trapped outside the fence.
Helping out at another base, Ryder is told to go fix the fences and animal repulsors, which are attracting creatures rather than keeping them away. After fixing the fences, Ryder is told to enter his avatar. Ryder's first mission in his avatar body is to get cell samples from certain non-hostile plants. After getting the samples, a Na'vi, Tan Jala, tells Ryder to kill his infected animals.
Development
Ubisoft developed Avatar: The Game in conjunction with director James Cameron as he filmed Avatar. While Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, and Stephen Lang reprised their voices for their characters, neither Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, or their characters (Jake Sully and Neytiri) appeared in the game. The game was developed as an adaptation of the movie of the same name, with an original storyline and similar features. The developers had carte blanche from the film, leading to it becoming non-canon after the singular film became a franchise and the need to make Ubisoft´s followup Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora strictly adhere to the canon.
Composer Chance Thomas was hired to write the music for Avatar: The Game.
Reception
On Metacritic, Avatar: The Game gained "mixed or average" reviews except for iOS version, which was met with "generally favorable" reviews.
Sales of the game had a slow start but eventually performed ahead of expectations selling 2.7 million units across all platforms. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot called the game a "positive contribution for the company" citing the increased sales due to the film's success and its launch on DVD.
