Preview: Avatar PS5 Is Transformed in Third-Person, Expanded in From the Ashes DLC

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - From the Ashes is a bigger deal than we initially thought.

The third paid DLC for Massive Entertainment’s 2023 movie tie-in offers up a 25-hour campaign, a new region, and the highly requested third-person mode.

But what really struck us was a greater sense of what was described as “brand synergy”.

That’s what Lightstorm Entertainment’s executive vice president of multimedia development, Joshua Izzo, said when we flew out to Lightstorm’s HQ in LA. There, we got a sneak peek at James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar: Fire And Ash, which was about as visually mindblowing as you’d expect, as well as some hands-on time with this new DLC.

The standalone pack, which will cost £21.99/$32,99, focuses on the previous side character So’Lek, as he tries to take down the villainous Na’Vi Ash clan – the big bads in the upcoming film.

It’s clear that Ubisoft and Disney are aiming for a more cohesive brand experience, so players will be able to take on the Ash Clan in-game the very same day that Fire and Ash drops in cinemas, on December 19th.

In addition, mentions of specific characters, events, and even the supposed presence of full clans from the new movie make this DLC feel like a much bigger event. It’s not quite winks and nods anymore; it’s now a cog in the Pandora machine. As Avatar fans, we loved this sense of narrative cohesion.

However, lore and movie tie-ins aside, the thing we were most amped to try was the long-requested third-person mode. Available now as a free update, this third-person mode can be played in the main game, on top of From The Ashes.

Simply put, third-person reinvents the game. Massive Entertainment has gone above and beyond to implement a third-person mode that feels cinematic, immersive, and most importantly, it doesn't feel like a tack-on.

Combat is incredibly sharp, especially with its unique kill animations that let you take out RDA mechs in style. And since you can also play the base game in third-person, too, you can finally check out your customisable Na'Vi attire, which was previously only noticeable in third-person flying.

It's not entirely cohesive, however, as some interactions, like soothing a direhorse, will thrust you back into first-person. And if you play the base game again, you'll transition to its first-person cutscenes with a brief black screen, shattering some immersion. There are still some reminders that this was a first-person game first.

From The Ashes solves some of these issues with far more immersive third-person cutscenes, however, which are a noted improvement over the base campaign.

But the main thing is traversal, combat, and the immersion factor are all top-tier with the new third-person mode, and if you don't like it, you can switch back to first-person whenever you please.

That leads us into the story of From The Ashes. We enjoyed moments of Frontier’s campaign, but this is a definite leg up that we think Avatar fans are really going to dig.

It’s got those typical hallmarks – bad humans trying to pillage Pandora of its resources – but So’Lek is a much more compelling protagonist, and the story actually sets up three big bad Na’Vi that must be taken down, giving the whole thing a bit more direction.

With the new perspective and new style of cutscene, From The Ashes has much more cinematic appeal, and we often felt the urge to stop and gawk at the expansive vistas.

The Kinglor Forest, an area from the base game, is now scarred, as broken branches and tire-treaded dirt tracks replace the once vibrant woodlands. Ubisoft says that the map will steadily evolve across the From The Ashes campaign.

A surprising new addition in From The Ashes is boss fights, which were strangely absent from Frontiers. During our session – roughly 90 minutes early on in the DLC – we fought giant creatures and even other Na’Vi.

While a big deal was made out of this by the Massive Entertainment developers, boss fights were a bit of a letdown. We can’t speak for all of them, of course, but those we did fight were rather rinse and repeat, with abnormally strong bullet (and arrow) sponge enemies.

The biggest letdown was the Ash clan enemies. We hoped that these would be introduced to the regular roster of enemies, but they seem to be exclusively reserved for boss types. If nothing else, it feels like a missed opportunity.

There are other attempts to spice up the combat, however. So’Lek comes with his own set of skills to unlock, which aid him in battle, and he is also equipped with a sort of berserk mode.

This allows So’Lek to massively increase damage output and defence for a short time, which can be great fun as you tear through armoured RDA mechs. There are also new mech variants and a sort of robot dog to shake things up a little more.

In conjunction with the third-person mode, we still really enjoyed enemy encounters as we jumped around, weaving in and out of stealth, and switching through the arsenal of weaponry at hand.

The big “but” of this preview is that the whole thing was played on PC, so the jury is still out on how this will pan out on PS5. We did use a DualSense controller, so we can say that the haptics are still as excellent as they are in the base game.

While we never had any performance or visual issues on PS5 before (outside of a sketchy PS5 Pro update), we’ll need to wait for the full release to check back on performance.

Avatar Frontiers of Pandora - From The Ashes is a sneakily ambitious DLC. It’s got an expansive campaign that feels more tied to the wider world than ever before, with meaningful changes to combat, albeit missed opportunities with its Na’Vi enemies.

The icing on the cake is the third-person mode, which for us just massively improves the experience — we wouldn’t play the game any other way now.

There are a lot of ifs and buts to address with the full release, like how the narrative unfolds, how it runs on PS5, and there’s even a whole new area in the DLC that we didn’t get to see.

But, as it stands, From the Ashes is an exciting next step in an ever-expanding and evolving sci-fi world that's a delight to explore on PS5, and the new third-person mode is the perfect excuse to check out the base game, if you haven’t already.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - From the Ashes drops on PS5 on December 19th, and the third-person update is available now. Will you be checking them out? Let us know in the comments below.