Okay so caveat first: It is just Far Cry wearing a Pandora mask. That’s it. I’d say it’s even slightly less than that because they had to thin some mechanics to make space to fit the theme a bit more.
But, that theme? It… it makes it work! Even the mechanics being watered down works, because making it fit the theme just ends up being more important. Yeah, you play this for playing on Pandora. But fuck does the game sell this well! Incredibly well. I found myself just stalking the jungle (or plains, or forest, of which the plains are the weakest but still incredibly beautiful) half the time, genuinely doing the grindathon entirely willingly, just because of the lush atmosphere the game presents and how it feels to be roaming in this alien nature.
Plus, I played Horizon Forbidden West right after this, and while I give HFW that it has much higher fidelity overall and is really pretty, the actual jungle and forest in particular are leaps and bounds above it in Avatar. You can notice the artists focused their entire effort on that, and even at daytime it looks amazing. Nighttime and they did the bioluminsensce we know from the movies incredibly well.
So erm… recommended? In a weird way? It’s really just Far Cry: Pandora, but it turns out that despite not expecting to, that’s kinda what I wanted? 😅
(Caveat though: I don’t think it’s worth €70. However given how much I liked it, €50 or so seems perfectly adequate.)