Preview: Unknown 9 Awakening Plays Like a Long Lost PS3 Remaster on PS5, PS4 1

Unknown 9 Awakening feels like a remastered PS3 game, and we mean that in the nicest possible way. This cross-media debut from Montreal-based studio Reflector is part of a wider push into comics, books, and more. But its largely linear level design and small-scale combat skirmishes feel like they were designed over a decade ago. That’s not a bad thing if you have a fondness for adventures of that era, like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune et al.

You play as Haroona, a so-called Quaestor with the ability to enter a different dimension, known as the Fold. The protagonist is portrayed by Anya Chalotra of The Witcher fame, who brings a little star power to the experience – even if the cutscenes do feel very rigidly part of a bygone era, with some awkward and unwieldy animations. It is what it is, and her voice acting generally seems decent when she’s mumbling to herself throughout.

While the lore is dense, effectively you find yourself the target of a mythical faction known as the Ascendants, who want to use the Fold to do naughty things. Considering your command over the parallel universe, you have a bullseye on your back, and so you must use the power which your nemeses seek against them. This segues nicely into the combat system, which sees you embodying your foes in order to place them in disadvantageous positions.

Preview: Unknown 9 Awakening Plays Like a Long Lost PS3 Remaster on PS5, PS4 2

So, you can pilot your rivals temporarily and force them to shoot at each other, or destroy generators powering motion detectors. Each combat scenario becomes a kind of puzzle: sneak into the stronghold, take command of a nearby sniper and execute his pal, snap the neck of the sniper, then lead two foes to an explosive barrel and detonate it, watching as they commit a cruel kind of suicide. It’s silly but undeniably entertaining, and new enemy types and challenges keep things varied.

If you do make a mistake, the hand-to-hand combat is cumbersome and very much a last resort, but it’s functional. Looking at the skill tree, which we’d barely scratched the surface of by the end of our two-hour demo, it does seem like these gauntlets will become more and more intricate over the course of the campaign; we’re assuming new enemy types will be sprinkled in to counteract some of the more powerful abilities you unlock, too.

Much like an Uncharted or Tomb Raider, we’re expecting plenty of globetrotting, too. In the opening exchanges of the demo, we found ourselves working our way through a sun soaked sea port, before ending up in a tropical jungle at night. We imagine there’ll be many more locations in the final game, and while the level design is very much reminiscent of that PS3 era, with one key route to follow and collectibles off the beaten path, it’s refreshing to play something a little more linear among the many open world titles already available.

Preview: Unknown 9 Awakening Plays Like a Long Lost PS3 Remaster on PS5, PS4 4

Our concern for Unknown 9 Awakening is that it feels a little scrappy – like the kind of thing that could easily get lost in the shuffle. While we respect the ambition of a cross-media push, we’re yet to be convinced the fiction here is strong enough to fuel such a wide drive. Ultimately, we enjoyed the puzzle-like combat encounters here, and even the more straightforward level design – but in a holiday season absolutely bursting with blockbusters, there’s a worry that Haroona, ironically, could just get lost in the Fold.

Unknown 9 Awakening launches 17th October on PS5 and PS4. Are you attracted to the idea of a more straightforward, PS3 era adventure? Embody another person in the comments section below.