Avatar: From the Ashes DLC review - Na'vi fantasy fantastically fulfilled

Game adaptations or tie-ins with popular movies, and vice versa, have a history of not translating very well with only a handful truly ever standing out.

However those exceptions include Fallout, The Last of Us, GoldenEye 007, 2004's Spider-Man 2 game - and Ubisoft's Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora when it released in 2023.

A lot of people love to hate on the Avatar franchise but I'm someone that will happily stick their head above the parapet and say I really enjoy the movies and I had a great time playing through Frontiers of Pandora when it first released.

WHY NOT READ: I've seen Avatar: Fire and Ash and you need to know these three things before watching

Offering a standalone story, this open-world action adventure game put players in the shoes of the Na'vi on Pandora with confidence and although it wasn't without its faults, it largely delivered.

Now, to coincide with the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash comes From the Ashes, the latest paid DLC for Frontiers of Pandora.

And it brilliantly builds on the foundations laid out by Frontiers of Pandora to make you feel like a proper badass Na'vi mercenary.

A PS5 code was provided by the publisher for this review and I played through From the Ashes on a base PS5.

From the Ashes is the latest DLC for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and is designed to tie in with the third movie, called Fire and Ash / Ubisoft

This review is spoiler free - to get the most out of From the Ashes, I'd highly recommend playing through Frontiers of Pandora and watching Fire and Ash before playing the DLC although it's not essential - there is a handy recap of the events of Frontiers of Pandora right at the start.

From the Ashes picks up following the events from the third movie and a year after the game.

Instead of playing as your own created character, this time you play as So'lek, the legendary mercenary who just can't seem to escape the action. You can choose to import your own character from the base game though as they act as an NPC here.

So'lek starts with all his powers and skills before losing them and has to work his way up again. It doesn't take long before you're getting that sense of being an unstoppable mercenary again which is crucial.

Without spoiling anything you wouldn't know, the story is pretty good as you take on the RDA (the humans) and the Ash clan, a powerful and deadly Na'vi tribe. The latter provide some brilliant battles throughout.

Like the base game, it's in the presentation and the gameplay where From the Ashes stands out.

The Ash clan and new RDA enemies provide some thrilling battles / Ubisoft

While the world of Pandora is vibrant and colourful in Frontiers of Pandora, as the Ash clan and RDA are hellbent on torching everything they can, there is a different kind of beauty in the world this time around.

It's a lot more grey and desolate than the base game but the details and intricacies within that are exceptional. Existing areas have been burned to a crisp and there's a whole new area to explore in The Ravines.

It sometimes makes you miss the natural beauty of Pandora and that's precisely the point. When you reach those areas of vibrancy it feels all the more spectacular and you learn to not take it for granted.

As with the base game, there is minimal HUD and no minimap that really add to the immersion and you use Na'vi senses to explore and navigate the open world while also marking enemies. You can find resources as you explore to make ammo and cook stat boosting meals. More weapons and ammo types unlock as you progress.

Third-person perspective is something Ubisoft added into Frontiers of Pandora shortly before this DLC released and it really shines through in From the Ashes, especially in combat when you're being surrounded and need to work out the best way to move forward, and you can toggle between that and first-person at the push of a button.

Third-person can feel a bit floaty at times and some of the movements and animation might seem a little off but it's no mean feat adding in this perspective to a game that was wholly designed to be played in first-person. Overall, it's pretty successful.

With the performance, while resolution and frame-rates are largely stable, there is the odd pop-in but this was very few and far between.

However are some bugs here and there.

More frequently than I expected, I took out enemies only for them to be tearing through the floor and spinning around in front of me. There was also a moment where I defeated a boss early on and the game took five seconds or so before letting me continue, taking its sweet old time to process what had just happened before letting me off the leash again.

These were fairly minor moments but they did break that sense of immersion this game captures so well.

Pandora is still a thrill to explore and navigate around / Ubisoft

The gameplay is pretty much identical to Frontiers of Pandora with a few new shiny tools.

The big one is that So'lek has warrior sense which unlocks quite early on - you press L3 and R3 to activate it and it's pretty much like a limited time fury mode where you can deal significantly more damage and take a lot less. It basically lets you become a tank without much in the way of consequence. There are new skills and abilities for So'lek to unlock too.

As with Frontiers of Pandora, you complete quests and objectives to progress the main story and to earn rewards that unlock more skills, abilities and more.

There is an element of the Ubisoft / Far Cry formula here as with the base game, where you can take out outposts to make more heavily fortified areas a bit more straightforward or you can dive into it head first. There are a handful of other side quests too and the gameplay loop is pretty straightforward.

But when it's set in the world of Pandora and you're playing as a Na'vi, there's still a good time and a great deal of satisfaction to be had here. Especially when flying around on your Banshee.

Ubisoft said From the Ashes has a total of around 20 hours of fresh new content and that's about right.

Gameplay is largely similar to the base game with a handful of new additions and abilities / Ubisoft

Overall, From the Ashes adds a great reason to dive back into Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and fantastically fulfils that Na'vi fantasy even further.

The story is decent without being outstanding but the new RDA and Ash clan foes are menacing and add some great new battles into the DLC.

The world may be a bit more grey and lifeless than the vibrant colours we've come accustomed to in Pandora but this DLC is still absolutely stunning in its own way. The details are excellent and it makes you appreciate the areas that have not been torched even more, which is exactly the point.

There are a few bugs here and there that break you out of the immersion but I've really enjoyed my time with From the Ashes.

As a huge fan of Avatar generally, both with the movies and the games, I really enjoyed jumping back into Frontiers of Pandora with this successful DLC that ties into the third movie. It's a worthy addition to the game.

8/10

Elsewhere from indy100:

• I've seen Avatar: Fire and Ash and you need to know these three things before watching
• indy100's top 10 games of 2025 - and no, Expedition 33 is not our Game of the Year

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