Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora The Sky Breaker DLC Review

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora released its first story expansion in Sky Breaker. The story expansion takes us to the previously inaccessible Western Frontier in the land of the Upper Plains. There are some notable quality-of-life improvements for both gameplay and performance options in the story expansion. But when you boil it down, Sky Breaker stays on course to the base game. 

Developer & Publisher // Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft

Platforms //  PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

MSRP & Release Date // $14.99, Jul. 16, 2024

Reviewed On // Xbox Series X

To the Western Frontier

Sky Breaker sets up a straightforward premise. Shortly after defeating the RDA in the base game, the different tribes invite you to the Upper Plains in the Western Frontier to participate in the Great Games. As the name suggests, it’s a friendly competition that pits different tribes against one another, where tribal and personal pride are at stake. 

Soon after the Great Games are underway, your character ends up at an abandoned RDA outpost. As you dive deeper into the facility, you come across a group of RDA mechs as they are planning to expand their presence to the Upper Plains. Surprisingly, the way the game set up the RDA’s return was actually well done. The atmosphere was tense, and the payoff of seeing RDA mechs was striking. Though that’s where the narrative excitement ends.

Bland Antagonists

The rest of the game’s narrative feels like a mini-version of the base game. There are new RDA leaderships introduced, such as Colonel Amanda Harding. But since their personalities are only expressed through voice-overs, it is quite barebone and one-dimensional. Especially since all the antagonists are in mech suits. There are a lot of returning cast members such as Teylan, who was an important figure during the base game’s story. The familiar cast continued its strong performance pedigree.

The new story expansion is quite packed with new missions. Just playing the main storyline and some side content easily took my playthrough to around 12 hours. The pacing was overall well done, though towards the last couple of missions, I was ready for the credits to roll. 

Sky Breaker Brings in Some New Features 

Sky Breaker introduces a slew of new features that slightly add to its base offerings. This includes a new gear tier of Legendary, new enemy variants in the AMP Defender mech, and revamped skill trees. While all the new features seem incremental, they do help add to the already-packed experience.

The AMP Defender wields a large shield and has a menacing turret that will shred you to bits. No doubt the mech is quite challenging if you’re careless. While the other more nimble AMP suits can easily flank you, but are less of a threat to deal with. All in all the new enemy variants are solid additions to the beefy RDA roster.

Skill Tree and New Gear Tier

The revamped skill tree is more akin to an end-game skill tree. Once you reach level 20, you have three options available to increase your damage output, your health, or your energy levels. The more you invest in each stat boost, the more expensive each upgrade becomes. However, by the end, your gear score is more important to your build. 

The new legendary tier gear is a great way to upgrade your gear score. The side missions I did complete were ones that provided legendary gear. However, the color used for legendary gear is light blue and difficult to distinguish in the gear menu since it has a predominately dark blue UI. 

Same Old Biomes

Though the game still looks absolutely stunning, the Western Frontier doesn’t really add much when it comes to biome diversity. Yes, you still get to see the impressive Zakura packs roaming around. However, I felt it was a missed opportunity that Sky Breaker didn’t try to create a unique biome to distinguish itself from the base game.  

Great Improvements in Graphical Modes

Revisiting Avatar permitted another chance to test any new graphical/performance options since reviewing the game in December. To my surprise, a 40 FPS Quality mode was added. I must say, it was the absolute sweet spot. The 40 FPS mode still felt smooth, with a noticeable upgrade in texture quality and resolution. 

It was so good, that I completed my entire 12-hour playthrough of Sky Breaker in this mode. There were dips here and there, most prevalent when attacking an RDA base while flying on an ikran. But for 90% of the time, the Quality 40 FPS mode held up well. 

Doesn’t Play Nice with Quick Resume

Having tested the game on the Xbox Series X, I thought the game would take advantage of the Quick Resume feature. However, I learned quickly it didn’t play nice with the feature. Every time I tried to Quick Resume the game, the screen would freeze. This led me to have to quit out of the game every time. Although this is definitely a first-world problem, it has to be noted.

Final Thoughts on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora The Sky Breaker Story Pack

Sky Breaker is an iterative experience that expands, rather than builds upon, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The story pack is quite dense with lots to do and includes a lot of neat and useful under-the-hood improvements. Just don’t expect it to stray too far off the path. 

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora The Sky Breaker is available now across platforms and is a part of the Ubisoft+ subscription. 

Note – The story pack was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review

Final Score: 7.2 / 10

Pros

• Lots to Do
• Great Price
• Solid New Performance Options
• New Meaningful Quality-of-Life Improvements

Cons

• More of the Same
• Lack of New Biomes
• Issues with Quick Resume