The licensed game isn't dead by a long shot, but some of the practices associated with licensed games have certainly changed. A good example of this pertains to releasing a full game day and date with the associated movie. Depending on the license in question, you could get away with releasing DLC for an existing game to tie in with a movie's launch and call it a day. That's certainly the case with "Avatar: Fire and Ash," which doesn't have a full game backing up the theatrical release. Instead, the released game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, gets a new piece of DLC subtitled From The Ashes that acts as a relative tie-in for the movie. The good news is that the DLC benefits from Ubisoft's usual treatment of its titles post-launch, so what you're getting is a more fully realized and improved experience over the base game.

The DLC is immediately accessible from the game's main menu. There's no need to progress through any part of the game before it's accessible, and you don't even need to touch the main campaign before playing this part. However, expect lots of major spoilers before playing this, since the DLC takes place a year after the events of the main game. The introduction serves as a recap for the events of that campaign, which was released roughly two years ago. Those who played a decent amount of the main game can import their version of the protagonist, Tamtey. You'll do so without any upgrades or gear in tow, but that isn't an issue since you won't be playing as Tamtey.

You now play the role of So'lek, a Na'vi warrior who lost his clan a long time ago and is also known as the "dog tag warrior" for his relentless quest for revenge on the RDA soldiers who changed his life forever. His guidance to the rescued children of TAP, along with one final raid against an RDA base has given him hope of a more peaceful life and a strengthening of his loose affiliation with the Sarentu and Aranahe clans. That hope is brief, as the Wind Traders bring news of huge plumes of smoke from the Kinglor forest. This eventually leads to an investigation of the area by So'lek and Tamtey, which then leads to a trap set by both the RDA and the Mangkwan, a rebellious clan of Na'vi that have sided with the humans on the basis of pure destruction. After being left for dead, So'lek awakens to a devastated forest and members of the various clans scattered in the chaos. His mission is to reunite everyone and push back on the invading forces.

Like the base game, the story doesn't interfere with the events of the movies. Parts of the film may be referenced, and this does take place around the time of the third movie, but it doesn't spoil the film. Some people may prefer the story in the game because you're finally dealing with a main character that is completely in tune with Na'vi culture, rather than someone adopting it like in the movies or someone refamiliarizing themselves with it, like in the base game and its prior DLC expansions.

With this just being DLC rather than a full-fledged game, the main elements of the gameplay loop remain the same as before. You have a knife as your main melee weapon, but it doesn't compare to your main arsenal, which is comprised of various bows, a machine gun, and a shotgun with different grenade types. The world remains open, and while the new biome requires you to go on foot or ride a direhorse, you'll likely stick with your ikrat as your main means of travel, since you have that ability very early on in the game. Attacking bases as a means of weakening enemy forces still exists, but compared to before, those missions are really side activities rather than mandatory.

The game doesn't just add some new missions and call it a day. There are several changes and improvements to the base game formula to make the overall experience in the DLC feel different. The most notable is the addition of a third-person viewpoint, which was often requested by fans and implemented in a recent patch prior to the release of the DLC. You're given this viewpoint by default in the DLC, and while it means being able to see more of the environment, the viewpoint emphasizes you actually playing as a Na'vi. You'd feel this before when fighting against or interacting with other humans, but there's something different about seeing your character don different pieces of equipment or different cosmetics. The viewpoint also temporarily shakes off the Far Cry vibes of the base game. The only knock is that the game doesn't provide a third-person viewpoint for the swimming sections; those are still done from a first-person viewpoint. By contrast, there's also no first-person viewpoint when you're riding a direhorse or ikrat. Otherwise, you can freely toggle between either viewpoint when on foot.

Finishing moves are a brand-new thing, and they provide the game with a significant amount of fun regardless of play style. You can take down anyone if you play with stealth by marking them first and then sneaking up from behind until the prompt appears for a finishing move. If you're more of an aggressive player, you can still take down anyone with a finishing move if you whittle down their health to half and see a slash appear on-screen to tell you that the finishing move is ready. The moves are cool, and some moves look especially brutal. You have to turn off your brain a bit because some moves look like they disable a machine and shouldn't kill the pilot. The finisher appears at the health halfway mark, which is generous compared to other titles, so it means that the action is faster. As a bonus, you can perform finishing moves on airborne enemies, and it's nice to see that some of the finishers actively involve your ikrat.

The Mangkwan clan spices up the combat, but that applies more to the boss fights than anything else. Going up against the sniper Zari, for example, is a tense experience and shows that the lack of such encounters in the base game was perhaps a mistake. Other encounters with normal Mangkwan are fine enough, but they feel too similar to one another, since just about all of those Na'vi carry machine guns and act tougher than the RDA mechs when it comes to how many shots they can absorb before falling.

All of these changes create an experience that's more streamlined than the base game, but there are also some smaller updates. The emphasis on action and story-based missions keeps things flowing at a good pace, especially since there aren't a lot of lengthy cut scenes or interactions with locals. Minigames, such as having to pick fruit at the right moment, are removed. Only half of the items you find need to be manually picked up; the other half is obtained automatically. Calling for animals is also easier, since you can jump on them in motion instead of waiting for them to stop in a clearing before they can be mounted. The campaign tracks at roughly 10 hours of playtime, which is half of the main campaign in the base game, but the breezier pace makes the experience feel even shorter. If you're the type who wants to wring out every last minute from a purchase, then you'll be happy to know that the runtime is actually doubled if you go after every base in the open world.

For the most part, the presentation remains the same as before, which is a positive since the base game looked and sounded good, even by today's standards. The game sounds excellent with some great voice acting all around, and the music sounds as good as what you'd find in the films. The characters look great, but there are moments when the lip sync is broken and voices are heard but mouths don't move. Those moments are few and far between, though. The starkest change in presentation is the fact that you'll spend the bulk of your time in the burned-out and ravaged parts of Pandora rather than the lush forests in the main game. Those who lived through the games of the Xbox 360/PS3 era might be wincing at the thought of having to go through worlds of gray and brown again, but the colors convey the direness of the situation.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - From The Ashes is a pleasant surprise, especially for those who didn't care too much about the base game when it was originally released. The different perspective alone makes this feel less like Far Cry, even though the actions haven't changed too much. The lack of fluff makes the game feel more focused, and the game remains exciting thanks to the addition of more formidable boss fights and finishing moves. Nothing will convince non-fans to give this game a shot, but if you had a passing interest in the Avatar franchise, this DLC is a pretty good showcase of what a good Avatar game can be like.

Score: 7.5/10