2023 had a lot of great games, but one game got overlooked and in my opinion, was highly underrated. 2023 saw the releases of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3, and a number of other awesome games. There was no shortage of stuff to play, and for that reason, a lot of games got buried. That tends to happen, though, but the great thing about gaming is that sales and word of mouth can cause a game to re-emerge long after its initial release. Some games are just late bloomers and there’s a little bit of hope that Ubisoft may benefit from that this month.
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Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora launched back in December 2023 and its arrival was a bit soft. It was the sixth best selling game of December 2023 in the United States and completely disappeared from the sales charts by March 2024. Over on Metacritic, the game holds a middling score of 72, which isn’t terribly impressive. Personally speaking, I gave Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora a glowing review and praised it for sustaining the environmental themes from the films while infusing it with some top-tier and explosive action. I’ve always felt it was supremely underrated and admittedly, it probably would’ve benefited more from releasing around a film like Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022, but I was disappointed so many passed on it. However, it’s about to get a second chance.
Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora just got a massive new update today, tied to the imminent theatrical release of Avatar: Fire and Ash. It comes ahead of the release of a new expansion known as From the Ashes, which will feature a new story that puts you up against the Ash People who are the antagonists of the upcoming film. The new update, however, is completely free and adds two big changes: New Game+ mode and a third-person option.
Some people were put off when this game was revealed to be a first-person game, as they felt it made more sense to explore a world like this in third-person. Now, you have the option to play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora in third-person. You can freely switch between these two perspectives and Ubisoft has put in a lot of effort to create new animations and refined controls/the camera to make third-person viable. There are even some really cool finishing moves that you can now see in third-person thanks to this update.
A lot of extra work is required to make a mode like this, as it completely changes how the game is played. Ex-Rockstar Games employee and YouTuber Mike York recently talked about how adding the first-person mode to Grand Theft Auto V created all kinds of unique bugs and took a lot of additional testing and refinement in order to get it to work. The process was likely a bit different for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, as the game is playable in co-op so another person can see your character in action and therefore some animations certainly exist. But allowing you to see it yourself can still create a lot of work.
If you have played Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the New Game+ update also makes it worth playing. You can carry over all of your skills and upgrades to a new version of the game, making you a powerhouse that can blaze through the RCA scum. The new From the Ashes DLC will also be a treat for anyone who is experienced with the game and looking forward to the new movie.
I really have a lot of love for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora as it’s not only a great way to immerse yourself in the lush and vivid world of Pandora, but it also has some great gunplay. You tower over most enemies, given the size of the Na’vi, and you can jump and slide around while shooting giant machine guns. Not only that, but you have a kick ass bow and arrow that can pierce and explode your foes. It’s a blast to play, especially with a co-op partner.
I highly recommend taking advantage of this new update and checking out Frontiers of Pandora if you haven’t, especially if there’s a sale around the release of the new film. Not only is the new content exciting, but you also benefit from the two years of other updates that have improved the game since launch and there’s other DLCs you can buy if you enjoy the game.
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