Avatar's Best Game Is A Perfect Prelude To The Next Film

It’s been a punchline for over a decade that there are no true fans of James Cameron’s Avatar franchise. Despite both films doing exceptionally well at the box office, the series always seems just outside of the general zeitgeist up until the moment it returns to theaters.

In an unexpected turn of events, the third time seems to be the charm for me. Weeks ahead of the upcoming movie, I find myself excited to return to Cameron’s sci-fi universe, largely thanks to Massive Entertainment’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. While the game’s recent (and substantial) update got me to try this underrated action game once again, I’ve been totally enraptured by its surprisingly heartfelt story of one’s journey to reconnect with their own culture.

Frontiers of Pandora flew under the radar when it was first released in 2023. It not only released relatively late in a year already packed with all-time great games, it also came a year after the second film broke box office records. I remember having plenty of positive things to say about it at the time. Its lavish open world, painstaking adherence to the source material, and decent combat showed just how much love and care went into making the definitive Avatar game. But releasing just days before a bunch of new games were announced at Geoff Keighley’s annual awards show did it no favors.

Fast forward two years, and Massive Entertainment’s habit of improving its games significantly long after launch made me curious enough to check back in. Last week, just weeks ahead of the upcoming Avatar: Fire And Ash tie-in expansion, the developer released the game’s most significant update yet. It adds both a New Game+ mode for returning players, and the option to play in a third-person perspective. They’re both nice touches, particularly the latter, as it widens the appeal of the game to even more players.

Starting a fresh save file during a much quieter year, I was immediately able to better appreciate everything it does extremely well. Frontiers of Pandora certainly follows the patented Ubisoft formula of putting the player in a staggeringly large open world co-inhabited by bad guys in high-security outposts. But it also understands how to change things up just enough to make it distinctly Avatar.

There’s a surprising amount of downtime in Frontiers of Pandora. After the hour-long introduction that gets players acquainted with how the Na’vi navigate and survive on this naturalistic planet, you’re introduced to the many factions you’ll work alongside in the eternal fight against the villainous Resources Development Administration (RDA).

It’s here that you realize that this fight won’t just require you to use violence. You’ll be working to undo the environmental damage the RDA has inflicted on the world. You’re freeing captive animals. You’re reestablishing connections with friendly research outposts. You’re foraging and hunting. You’re learning how to cook meals that provide different health benefits. Even the simple act of running from point A to point B is extremely fun in the early going, thanks to the game’s in-depth parkour system that keeps your eyes peeled for flora that provide speed boosts and clambering opportunities in forests, tundras, and swamps you’re galloping through. It all adds lore-appropriate variety to the game’s many side activities and quests.

One of my favorite side quests so far had nothing to do with the central resistance against the RDA. At the camp of a neighboring Na’vi Hometree, a sweet, elderly cook asked me to go deep into the wild in search of two rare ingredients grown in specific biomes in our region. Upon his request, I found myself foraging for mushrooms and fruit, learning about new vegetation and flora. The players' discoveries are documented in the robust in-game glossary, which adds Star Wars-levels of context, meaning, and background to the planet where this saga takes place. Frontiers of Pandora has given me a new appreciation for how well thought-out this world is in a way the films simply can’t.

Which brings me to my biggest takeaway on this second playthrough. Frontiers of Pandora tells an all-original story that resonates with me deeply. You play as a Na’vi raised within an RDA-funded program called TAP. It’s an open secret that the RDA kidnapped you and your colleagues from your native tribes when you were just babies. It’s the cause of a permanent rift between your cohort and the RDA throughout your teenage years, especially as the militaristic powers that be continuously suppress your native culture and traditions in the program’s teachings.

As the events of the first film play out, the RDA terminates the TAP program and orders the execution of the young participants within it. But, with the intervention of the human teachers who helped raise you, you all manage to escape the facility with your lives and end up joining the ongoing resistance sparked by film protagonist Jake Sully halfway across the planet.

This setup is more than a narrative excuse to make your created character a stranger to their home planet. It drives the main theme of the entire game. You discover that the Na’vi clan you belonged to was wiped out in the 19 years you were in captivity, making you the last of your kind.

The story of Frontiers of Pandora is one I found deeply relatable. I spent the first 8 years of my childhood regularly visiting my mom’s native country of Trinidad and Tobago. These trips were critical to maintaining a connection to not only my family who lived out there, but staying in touch with a major part of my cultural identity. For whatever reason, however, my annual visits stopped in 2001. So over time, that connection dimmed.

When I finally made time to visit the country in 2016, I was ashamed of the disconnect I had cultivated by putting off my visit for so long. I had family that I hadn’t seen in years. So much had changed with them and in the country. Whatever credibility I had with my own culture felt like it had evaporated in the extended period of time I spent away from it.

Similarly, the lead characters in Frontiers of Pandora find themselves reconnecting with their own people. You can practically feel their guilt for all that has happened while they were away, and how little they know of their own culture. But much like my experience returning to my family overseas after 15 years, it takes several Na’vi villages to remind the prodigal sons and daughters of TAP that it's never too late to embrace who they are.

That side quest that had me collecting ingredients culminated with me preparing a traditional Na’vi dish that my character was unfamiliar with. As my character describes how scrumptious and oddly familiar this dish is, the elderly cook shares a tender moment with the player, reminding them that their connection to the Na’vi people goes beyond the years that they missed. He also reveals that this recipe is one he learned from someone who belonged to our now extinct tribe long ago.

It’s a heartfelt moment that I didn’t expect from a licensed movie game, and an example of how Frontiers of Pandora bucks expectations at every turn.

With the next Avatar film around the corner, now’s as good a time as ever to revisit this two-year-old action game. It’s not only endeared me to this mostly generic sci-fi world in a way I didn’t think was possible, but it’s also provided me several emotional and poignant moments that cut deep to the personal experiences that I (and I’m sure many others) have had. If you’re looking for a big open-world game to immerse yourself in this holiday season, don’t sleep on Frontiers of Pandora. There’s a surprising amount of heart and soul to this often overlooked adventure that is well worth experiencing for yourself.