Avatar Frontiers of Pandora: Spoiler-Free Game Review

Now, imagine a brightly colored forest, with clear rivers glittering in the sunlight, imagine trees taller than a skyscraper with leaves swaying in the gentle breeze. Imagine caves that are never dark and glow with bioluminescent fungi, imagine mountains taller than the clouds and rocks that float in the clear sky. Imagine mighty animals shaking the ground with their heavy footsteps, stalking in the tall grass, brushing the limits of the atmosphere with their powerful wings.
Imagine yourself being a part of this world.

Sounds like a dream come true, doesn’t it? Well, until humanity learns how to leave our Solar System, the only way to get there is to play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

The game, published by Ubisoft and released on December 7, 2023, is part of the Avatar franchise, started in 2009 with the eponymous movie directed by James Cameron. The title, Frontiers of Pandora, refers to the new area introduced by the game itself, the western frontier of Pandora, where the franchise takes place.

While the setting shares many similarities with the locations fans are already familiar with (mainly the rainforest inhabited by the Omaticaya clan), it also reveals new biomes, greatly expands on the known lore of plants and wildlife and provides much more depth on the habits and traditions of the Na’vi, the humanoid species native to Pandora (or Eywa’eveng, as they call it). The exploration system in the game is fully immersive and extremely detailed: the map is immense, with three distinct and diverse regions included with the base game (and two more added with the two separate DLCs), packed with secret locations to explore, notes and collectibles to find - and enemy bases to destroy.

Whether you decide to roam through the land on foot as a lone wanderer, to gallop on a direhorse or to soar through the skies on an ikran, expect to marvel at the sights of the Western continent.

However, not even the two suns of Pandora can dispel the most resilient shadow: humanity.
Driven to explore space by greed and extreme need, the RDA—the main villain of the series—returns to the Western Frontier after sixteen years and resumes its plans of conquest.

You play as a young Na’vi, raised by the RDA as an ambassador meant to spread the humans’ way of life among the natives, then abandoned after the Battle of the Hallelujah Mountains, which marked the first significant victory for the rebellion. As the threat of humanity looms again over the moon, you don’t have a choice: you must join the Resistance and fight to save Pandora from those who want to suck it dry of its resources. It will not be easy, as gray concrete and cold metal is all you know: alongside the other children from your former clan, you must reconnect to your Na’vi roots while living up to the glorious memory of your ancestors. You must learn how to live in harmony with Eywa, the Great Mother, and how to help her heal and prosper, in spite of those who took your identity and your history away from you, and now want to take your home, too.

Luckily, you will not be alone in this fight: with the aid of the Resistance fighters—humans and Na’vi alike—you will learn to navigate the hostile environment, and with your background as a RDA student you will be able to turn the humans’ weapons and technology against them and help the other clans that inhabit the region, hopefully gaining new allies for the war ahead.

While the popularity of the game relies in no small part on the popularity of the franchise it stems from, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is on its own deserving of praise.
The storyline is well-crafted and captivating: the tragic past of the Sarentu children is a harsh commentary of the damages of colonization and the destruction of native communities to exploit the land they live in; the actions of the RDA through the Western Frontier, and the subsequent actions taken by the protagonist to stop them, is a critique to industrialization and the damage it causes to the environment (very efficiently represented in the game as the contrast between a vibrant world full of life and a gray, withering expanse of dead plants and animals, so explicit as to almost be horrifying).

However, it seems a bit rushed at times, as some of the main quests seem brief in comparison to—few—others.
It’s important to alternate between the main storyline and the many side quests available, not only for a better gameplay experience, but also because the side quests’ rewards include various types of armor, weapons and upgrades that will greatly increase the main character’s combat strength (the attribute quests are tied to) and make crushing AMP suits seem like child’s play.

Overall, this game is highly recommended to all those who want to leave their daily life behind for a few hours and, quite literally, head for “greener pastures”. Whether you are a desperate daydreamer, an avid adventurer, or you simply want to feel like you have the power to change the world for the better, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is for you.
I See you, Player.