Our Verdict
Avatar Legends: Nation-states Collide is a poorly completed, cash-grabby, generic 4x sport with little or no to provide from the huge international of the Avatar collection. Grindy idle gameplay and aspect quests overshadow any try at authentic storytelling.
As an avid Avatar: The Ultimate Airbender fan, 2025 is a large 12 months for me. It’s the display’s twentieth anniversary, we’re ready on a 2nd season of the Netflix collection, and Nickelodeon simply greenlit a brand spanking new collection set within the ATLA universe. Avatar enthusiasts simply stay profitable, so I used to be extremely excited to get the risk to check Avatar Legends: Nation-states Collide early.
By hook or by crook, in spite of absolutely the wealth of supply subject matter and worldbuilding that the creators have established all the way through the collection’ twenty-year historical past, Avatar video games all the time appear to flop. Arguably, the most productive implementation we’ve noticed of the Gaang is in video games like Fortnite, so I do know I wasn’t on my own in hoping that Avatar Legends: Nation-states Collide would destroy this development.
Nation-states Collide is a 4x technique sport, which admittedly isn’t my go-to style, however I used to be keen to offer it a shot due to the Avatar theming and the promise of Father Glowworm’s first visible look. The hole cutscene had me hooked and keen to be informed extra concerning the Shattered Skulls and the hazards of the spirit international, however sadly, even attending to play as my favourite edgy firebender, Zuko, hasn’t stopped me from becoming bored.
Writer Tilting Level advised me that Nation-states Collide options “immersive gameplay, enticing narrative, and shocking visuals,” and I’ve to mention that I disagree. At the beginning, the gameplay is beautiful generic, particularly with regards to 4x video games. I spend maximum of my time tapping on little icons to gather fabrics or improve constructions, and I’m no longer even positive what the aim of my stronghold is within the higher narrative.
With out the obscure Avatar subject matters and components, this sport may just cross as another generic cellular technique name. Combating cultists is repetitive and dull, and not using a participant enter but even so opting for who to ship out, which is wild bearing in mind the sheer range of fight types within the Avatar universe. If I have been to make an ATLA sport, I would possibly even go for turn-based fight relatively than idle ways suits.
Then there’s the narrative component. Except for the promising opening cutscene, Nation-states Collide’s tale is hard to practice and turns out to behave as a thinly veiled automobile for the usual ‘make your town larger and take down higher enemies’ conquest sport loop, which feels specifically misplaced right through peacetime between the countries. Such a lot of ATLA’s authentic message is staunchly anti-war that it truly baffles me why builders insist on making fight and expansion-driven Avatar video games.
I perceive the need to peer superior heroes like Aang, Korra, and Kyoshi struggle side-by-side, but it surely makes working out the time frame and surroundings truly complicated – arguably extra so when you’re an invested fan than when you’re an informal viewer. What do you imply child Aang and Zuko are running with middle-aged Bumi Jr and Tenzin? The cute, deep, and incorrect characters from the Avatar universe come throughout as poorly written and one be aware, and the Shattered Skulls really feel like a placeholder, faceless horde of enemies.
Finally, the visuals are not at all shocking. The characters’ 3-d fashions appear to be they’re reused property from different failed Avatar video games, the answer is crunchy, and the isometric viewpoint rings a bell in my memory of Fb-era farming video games. I are aware of it’s harsh, but it surely’s true! What ties all of those problems in combination is that we by no means see anything else going down. We’re merely advised via conversation that one thing has came about, which is a cardinal sin of film and videogame storytelling.
It could be irresponsible of me to not no less than contact on Nation-states Collide’s in-game store. As a 4x technique sport, you spend a large number of time looking ahead to issues to occur, whether or not that’s analysis, exploration, or growth. It’s 2025, other folks’s endurance is at an rock bottom, and firms love to milk that. There are such a lot of other microtransactions on this sport and so they all really feel extremely predatory. Sure, the main target market of Avatar content material at the present time is adults who grew up looking at the display, but it surely’s basically nonetheless a children’ franchise, so promoting this many microtransactions within the sport is borderline unhealthy.
Total, Avatar Legends: Nation-states Collide is an enormous let-down on all fronts. I’m no sport developer, however I truly don’t know the way corporations persistently fumble the ball when making an enticing Avatar sport that isn’t stuffed with microtransactions or system defects. After all, when you like 4x video games and Avatar, this could be proper up your alley as an informal idle sport to play all the way through the day, however I’m no longer positive there’s anything else that Tilting Level may just upload to reel me again in.
In the event you’re searching for a top-of-the-range 4x revel in, take a look at our lists of the highest cellular technique video games and ways video games subsequent. We’ve additionally cataloged the highest anime video games, appearing that beautiful animated TV displays can reach greatness within the gaming sphere.
