Ubisoft typically showcases an admirably varied slate at its E3 (or E3-adjacent) summer gaming showcases, and the 2023 show was no different. After all, people interested in Just Dance may not be into The Crew's racing action, or participating in Skull and Bones’ pirate beta. However, Ubisoft Forward was bookended by two tentpoles titles, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws, that share a hook: a spin on Ubisoft's popular open-world environments.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws are both expansive games, developed primarily by Ubisoft’s studio Massive Entertainment. They take two beloved sci-fi film franchises, both currently owned by Disney, and turn them into the familiar open-world experiences that Ubisoft has relied on for many years. The developers try their hardest to evoke the specific sights and sounds of those distinct, alien worlds to make the games feel unique.
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3.5 GoodAvatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Similarities aside, the gameplay demos made it clear these titles will be quite different from each other. In fact, Avatar film director James Cameron appeared on the show to explain how Frontiers of Pandora sits alongside the rest of the Avatar mythos.
You play as a Na’vi—kidnapped and trained by humans—who must rebel and rejoin their people to save the planet. With its lush natural landscapes, combination of tribal weapons with modern first-person firearms, and gameplay segments where you raid enemy camps, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora looked much like Ubisoft’s own Far Cry games. Except you can also ride alien birds.
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Star Wars Outlaws
Star Wars games are certainly nothing new. After all, we got the excellent Jedi Survivor earlier this year. Star Wars Outlaws mixes things up by not just offering an open-world galaxy to explore; it makes that open world an underworld.
Set between Episodes V and VI, you play as scoundrel Kay Vess, a person who does anything and everything she needs to do to survive and thrive. Sometimes that means sneaking up on guards; other times that means blasting first and never asking questions.
The gameplay demo featured a tense showdown with an imperial officer, as well as a seamless sequence where Kay rides a speeder bike, hops in her ship, and flies into space to head to another planet. The Jedi and their lightsabers weren't on display, and that's okay. A Han Solo simulator sounds like a pretty sweet proposition. If you want to be reductive, we've seen open world third-person shooting in Ubisoft games ranging from The Division to Watch Dogs. But it hits different when you hear that trademark laser fire and hang out with your surly droid companion.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora releases December 7, while Star Wars Outlaws drops sometime in 2024. Both upcoming releases will be available on PC and next-gen consoles.
For more on Summer Game Fest, read our takes on Microsoft’s somewhat reassuring Xbox conference, as well as the first look at Mortal Kombat 1’s bloody, high-flying gameplay.
