After the winter sales, the upper echelons of Steam's global charts were looking rather stagnant. That is, until Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (hereafter Avatar) decided to gatecrash the party. It seems the perfect storm of a winter discount, a new film release, and a fresh DLC drop has finally pushed it into the spotlight.

Released in 2023, Avatar takes us to the Western Frontier, far from the film's primary setting, tasking you with defending Pandora from the RDA. Upon release, it was lauded for its breathtaking visuals—floating islands and lush jungles that you could explore to your heart's content—but it was soon dragged down by the usual suspects: repetitive 'Ubisoft-style' open-world mechanics, technical bugs, optimisation woes, and rather lacklustre combat. Consequently, its Steam user reviews settled at a rather lukewarm 'Mixed'.

However, credit where credit is due; the developers have spent two years grinding away with patches to fix the mess. Players have noticed, and by late October, the overall review score climbed to 'Mostly Positive'. They even added the long-awaited third-person perspective with the 2.0 update on the 5th, and following the release of the new film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, they dropped the 'Secrets of the Spires' expansion on the 19th.

In this expansion, you play as So'lek, a Na'vi whom our protagonist meets early on, as you face the Ash People—a faction familiar to film fans. The Kinglor Forest is now burning under the weight of a new invasion, and the combat mechanics, including Ikran flight skills, have seen some much-needed refinement. The expansion currently sits at a 'Mostly Positive' rating on Steam.