Our Game of the Week is Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It’s a game I enjoyed much more than I was expecting to. But I’m also deeply aware that I’m not really the intended audience. James Cameron made this deeply felt fantasy world that people really adore – I’m not one of those people.
I had a sense throughout, though, that I was stepping on hallowed ground. I remember reading an article back when the first Avatar came out about how bummed out a bunch of people were once the film left cinemas. They were bereft because they wanted to be in that world permanently. They didn’t love Avatar the film so much as they loved Pandora the place: its foliage, its sense of pristine wildlife, its blend of the jungle and the deep sea.
This has made me think a little bit about 3D, a craze that the first Avatar was definitely caught up in. I went to the cinema and saw the film and wore the glasses and all that jazz, but a game like Frontiers of Pandora, which isn’t presented in 3D as far as I’m aware, is still a much more three-dimensional experience. For people who love Pandora, they can now climb inside it. You can follow paths that take you deeper into the world, deeper into the screen. You can look at all the nooks where nothing at all is really happening. You can just be in Pandora. That must be wonderful for the true fans.
