Later this year we can once again explore the fascinating world of Avatar, this time in the form of a game called Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The release is getting closer and so developer Massive Entertainment is releasing more and more information about the game. In an interview with IGN, director Ditte Deenfeldt spoke about the perspective of his game.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora uses a first-person perspective, but the question has been asked several times whether a third-person perspective would not have been better here. However, Deenfeldt doesn’t think so:
“We want you to get up close to nature, which is kind of the main character to some degree in the game, and the very best way of doing that is being in first-person. We want you to feel immersed and feel like you’re really on Pandora.”
However, when you float through the air, the game does change to a third-person perspective, again because this perspective (in those situations) ensures that you are more absorbed by the world around you. Drew Recchner explains:
“We decided to use the third-person camera for the Ikran and the Direhorse because of the framing it provides on the world. We really liked that [field of view] change. You can see a lot of the tree branches, the leaves and all of those things from the wings in the third person that you wouldn’t really be able to see if you were in the first person. And the same thing when you cut through the waterfalls with your wings, you get to see that part of the [Ikran] get wet, and you see the water runoff. Those kinds of details, I think, would be really difficult to see [in first-person].”
Whether you’re a fan of the perspectives in question or not, we’ll have to accept that these are simply the team’s creative choices. If we can believe them, it will improve immersion.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will be released on December 7, read more in our preview.
Tags: Avatar Frontiers Pandora developer talks games perspective
