It seems silly to me to pay attention to scores. I just look at pros and cons in the review when making decisions about whether to give something a try. I also read reviews from multiple sources, including “regular folks.”
I guess with such a terrible track record around games based on larger media properties, it might not be surprising if that new (reportedly decent, if by the numbers) Avatar game isn’t selling gangbusters.
Yeah I’m playing that right now, and I’m honestly massively impressed.
It is utterly boring and rote, in a lot of ways. It’s a 95% Far Cry (as in, it’s slightly weaker than Far Cry mechanically, which I didn’t think was even possible) in the world of Pandora. Some of Far Cry’s mechanics like the camps didn’t translate as well as the devs thought they would, plus the enemy AI is just bullshit, but luckily the game is easy overall as your longbow is extremely OP.
But, on the flipside, fucking hell does this game sell “Pandora”. More so than the movies, even the first one for the time it came out. Walking through and flying over the jungle is breathtakingly beautiful, and it’s not just the texture/model designers that deserve a bonus payout: The actual jungle design is superb, too. And the level + sounds designers also created individual setpieces (like the trip up the rookery) that create the perfect feeling in that moment and are really memorable.
It’s in a lot of ways extremely well done. It’s also by Ubisoft and is a Far Cry reskin, which sadly massively limits how good it can be overall. I wish they had let the designers run wild and create their own thing. But it’s still an impressive game and far better than I thought it’d be, even if it’s all show.
The one game that doesn’t deserve to be on this list is Crime Boss: Rockay City. It may not be great but it has some decent mechanics and you can feel that the devs really poured their heart into a game that was extremely ambitious for such a small studio.
And Skull Island: Rise of Kong deserves at least a honorable mention. The only reason it’s not in the list is that not enough professional reviewers bothered with the title. The Metascore of 23 would earn it first place.
Kong and TWD not being on the list kind of shows the problem with Metacritic overall, a lot of people have reviewed those games but there is no numerical score so it’s not here.
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