Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora "From The Ashes" is the perfect movie companion!

I recently had the opportunity to travel to LA to visit the home of Lightstorm Entertainment, the production company of one James Cameron. You may have heard of him; he’s a pretty popular director. We were invited to preview the new expansion of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora called From the Ashes, the Massive/Ubisoft Avatar video game. While there, we got a tour of the museum inside of Lightstorm Entertainment, saw a few snippets of the movie Fire and Ash (coming to theaters December 19th), and had the opportunity to sit down with the new expansion for Frontiers of Pandora: From the Ashes! We want to thank Lightstorm, Massive Entertainment, and Ubisoft for the ability to have such a wonderful experience! Let’s discuss the future of Pandora!

First off, From the Ashes is meant to be played after seeing Fire and Ash. Thankfully, the expansion comes out the same day as the movie itself. After speaking with Mikhail Greuli (Art Director, Massive Entertainment), Ben Procter (RDA Production Designer, Lightstorm), and Dylan Cole (Na’vi Production Designer, Lightstorm), the expansion will be a perfect opportunity to take the excitement from the film and play through the changes to Pandora yourself. What changes you may ask? Well, fire and ash, of course.

The lush jungle and magical moments you had while playing the main story for Frontiers of Pandora as well as the DLC packs have witnessed the power of the combined forces of the Mangkwan people and the RDA. Locations you recognize from your previous time in Pandora are changed, showing the destruction caused by this evil. Thankfully, the team at Massive made sure that the expansion and base game are separate menu items, so if you get sad enough, you’re always able to jump back into Pandora pre-Fire and Ash movie release. 

One of the big things I learned during our experience at Lightstorm was that everything out there that is officially branded for the Avatar universe is canon within James Cameron’s films. The comic books, the games, the figures – all canon. With that said, one of the main heroes and main villains of From the Ashes actually gets expanded on in the comic books. You can read a lot about So’lek as well as the new RDA leader chosen by Miles Quaritch (one of the main antagonists of the films) to take over as he’s gone on to other things. You will bring the fight to Tyler Bukowski as a character you’ll know from the base game or the comic, So’lek. 

So’lek is your player character for From the Ashes allowing you to learn more about how he handles situations as a full warrior of the Na’vi. While The Sarentu from the base game was learning as the player learned about the Na’vi, So’lek’s life has been protecting these forests and these creatures. Of course, with that experience comes a whole new level of combat. This is where the new 3rd-person play-style comes into the game! 

This was a highly requested addition to Frontiers of Pandora. According to Omar Bouali, creative director, it was one of the main and most loudly requested additions as well from fans. The team took the time to make 3rd-person feel amazing. As someone who LOVES 3rd-person gameplay, this was everything I wanted and more. While it’s hard to believe, one of the biggest sentiments of myself and some of the others I spoke to after the event was that 3rd-person actually feels more immersive than first person. Something about seeing the scale of your Na’vi character versus the sizes of the doors and humans of the RDA is amazing to see. 3rd-person may take some time to fully figure out for those of us who have played the game in 1st-person so far, but once you get it, it’s magical. 

So’lek was the team’s way to showcase the power that 3rd-person can really showcase as his finishers and movement is so fluid and powerful that you FEEL like a hardened warrior who’s seen almost everything a warrior can at this stage in the franchise. However, the Sky People again show their ability to be the worst of the worst as they show So’lek horrors he’s never dreamed of before. Some of the things you’ll come across in your journey through war-torn Pandora will bring tears to your eyes. Thankfully, as I mentioned above, you can always go back to the base game and try out 3rd-person there if you need a breather. 

Another big change I’m excited by is the inclusion of Na’vi vs Na’vi combat. For really the first time in the Avatar-Verse we’ll be seeing Na’vi fight each other starting with Fire and Ash and burning into From the Ashes. From our preview, I was able to fight one during a boss-fight and one during a “survive the onslaught” vibe combat. They’re faster, stronger and bolder than the RDA, which leads to some difficult combat moments. There was a boss fight hinted at by the team during our interview, which I’ll leave you to watch for full context.

For our playtime, we had the chance to experience flying around as So’lek as well as running through two full missions. These were a good mixture of sneaking, active combat, platforming, and exploration. I’m very excited to see the full expansion and more of So’lek’s story. Along that, I got to play through the “Take Flight” questline in the main campaign to try the platforming in 3rd-person. It’s fluid, fun, and extremely immersive. I was impressed overall with the changes made to include 3rd-person as well as the preview missions for From the Ashes. It’ll be a fun December 19th going to see the movie and then coming back to play through the world.

We also had the chance to see some amazing things during our tour inside of Lightstorm Entertainment including original props and models for everything from Avatar to Titanic while also getting Alien and Terminator moments as well. Seeing these up-close and personal was an absolutely legendary experience built for any fan of cinema.

With Fire and Ash coming out December 19th, we got to see a few scenes from the film. These included seeing some Windriders and the Mangkwak scenes showcasing the new aesthetic they bring more thoroughly. The Windriders are simply breathtaking with the creatures and boats meant for air travel looking amazing. Meanwhile, while the Mangkwak people may not be on the side of our heroes, the red, grey, and black looks are iconic and will be hard to pass up when it comes to looks in-game and with cosplay. 

We want to thank the entire team who put together this event so we had a chance to talk about this expansion before launch. Be sure to check out Fire and Ash on December 19th and then come home and play From the Ashes right after!