The Avatar brand name is doing almost all the heavy lifting. Someone could dye dog shit blue, package it as "Avatar The Way of Water Genuine Na'vi Excrement" and Avatar fans would buy it up.
The game itself is a mediocre mess.
Speaking in general, i find it rather insulting that
serviceable games at the minimum, which is what Avatar: FoP in the very least is, are downplayed with words like
''mediocre mess''. It isn't a mess.
It is, however, a product of Ubisoft, so it has a few things in common with other games. However, i have seen many people praise the
exploration aspect and putting all the hints off. Because of the visual density, exploration really envokes a sense of
being lost in the wild and i can see why that is the case.
If judged that way, Avatar would score higher. Which is what you see reflected in the user scores. You don't see this in the review scores since reviewers, especially Day 1 reviewers, have a limited amount of time to play the game. So they play it as it comes and then yes - It has a lot in common with Far Cry. The amount of comparisons made are too numerous to ignore.
I feel Avatar: FoP is a game that mostly opens up (heh) when
you aren't doing it by the numbers. This wasn't possible with Primal or any other Far Cry game because well, the density was limited by older hardware. I feel that playing Avatar: FoP this way should be the preferred way, and i think Ubisoft should have emphasized that instead of the gunplay.
And i agree: Given the Avatar franchise is heavy on lore, FoP isn't really selling that. I feel an approach similar to the first Assassins Creed would be preferred - Telling the lore in a way it makes sense to the game. Because it is so clearly positioned as a Far Cry-esque title with a similar gameplay loop, there is a missed opportunity to highlight the background.
Having said that, visually its a treat and its impressive how Massive has made it look so close to the movies.