Unknown 9: Awakening is the debut game from studio Reflector Entertainment but not the first entry into the Unknown universe; so far there are novels, comics, and even a dramatised podcast. Thankfully, Awakening is a standalone experience and so you don’t need to delve into any of the other cross-media releases to understand anything.
The opening scenes are a little heavy on lore, telling you all about the Unknown 9. They are said to be immortal beings who watch over humanity and throughout history have provided wisdom and power to a select few. Some regard the 9 as little more than folklore and superstition but a couple of rival groups aim to seek out the truth. The Leap Year Society wants to gain access to this knowledge in order to benefit all of humanity, whereas the Ascendants want to use it to advance society only in ways that they see fit. While it may seem like only a subtle difference, it leads to big differences in the ways they operate.
The main protagonist, Haroona, is an outsider to both of these groups. She’s what’s known as a Quaestor and has a strong connection to the Fold, a mystical realm which contains powerful energy as well as long-lost knowledge. Whilst we won’t spoil the hows and whys of the narrative, she’s basically on a mission of revenge and so it doesn’t take her long to get entangled with the various factions.
The story is well written even if it does sometimes get a little bogged down in its own lore. It helps that the performances by the main voice actors are all excellent. Particular praise has to go to the talented Anya Chalotra (of The Witcher fame) for her portrayal of Haroona. She does a great job of displaying the character’s vulnerable side whilst still being charismatic and fiery at the same time.
You’ll get to trek across the globe with levels taking place in a variety of environments such as bustling city streets, hot and sandy deserts, as well as lush forests. It’s a shame that there isn’t a dedicated photo mode as some of the vistas are pretty stunning. Hopefully this is something that the devs will add in a future patch.
While the story is full of interesting ideas and the world looks beautiful, Awakening won’t be winning any prizes for its level designs. Most are fairly linear and a tad predictable, and at times it feels like a throwback to the PS3-era of gaming. In games like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune or The Last of Us, whenever the level opened up and you saw some crates or low-level walls, you knew you were about to get into another fight, and it’s exactly the same here.
Despite this, the combat is actually pretty entertaining. Haroona has some pretty nifty abilities and you can either take on enemies directly or sneak around and take them out from the shadows. Her magical abilities are a bit Star Wars-esque, where you can pull or push enemies away from you and into explosive objects or off cliffs.
Our favourite ability is where she can ‘step’ into an enemy and possess them for a short amount of time. This allows you to set up chaotic chain reactions where you can force multiple enemies to converge in the same area and then set off an explosive gas canister, allowing you to wipe out a bunch of grunts in one go.
As you progress enemies will gain access to technology which disrupts your abilities, making it more difficult to hide yourself or possess them. Enemies can be lured away from their gadgets but sometimes it’s quicker to just take them head on. Hand-to-hand combat is fairly simple but a little bit clunky. There are only a limited number of enemy types and attack patterns so combat can get somewhat repetitive. It also doesn’t help that in tight spaces the camera is not always particularly helpful. This can lead to some frustrating moments where you’ll struggle to align yourself with whoever you’re trying to attack.
Much of your time will be spent hiding in long grass and popping out occasionally to defeat bad guys but when you’re not doing that, you’ll be solving basic puzzles or exploring the environments looking for hidden collectibles.
There are plenty of collectibles dotted around with lots of the documents you find providing extra insight into what is happening behind the scenes, as well as adding more details about what’s driving certain characters. A beautiful journal helps to keep track of your discoveries as well as provide a running update on Haroona’s thoughts of what’s happening.
One of the collectibles you’ll find are called anomalies. These shimmering little whirlpools of energy are the only way for you to learn new skills, with each one found granting you one skill point. There are three skill tree branches: magic, stealth, and melee. It’s not a particularly large skill tree but even so, it’s impossible to unlock every single skill so you’ll have to decide which abilities best suit your playstyle.
Apart from collectibles there’s nothing in the way of side quests or any form of New Game+ to get your teeth stuck into, which makes this more of a one and done kind of game. While that may put those looking for a longer experience off, it’s actually pretty refreshing to not have to do a bunch of repetitive busy work for the sake of completion.
Unknown 9: Awakening is one of those games where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. With its linear level design it’s a bit of an old-school experience compared to many new releases, but that doesn’t stop it from being good fun. There aren’t a lot of new or innovative ideas here but its interesting lore and engaging stealth mechanics make it a thoroughly entertaining experience.
Conclusion
Unknown 9: Awakening is a good debut from a first-time development team. This narrative-driven action-adventure has some rough edges but the beautiful locations, intriguing narrative, and well-written characters make it hard to put down. The gameplay doesn’t evolve much but the entertaining stealth mechanics add a lot of variety to the skirmishes you find yourself in. Overall, this is a compelling new IP with lots of potential for future adventures.
Comments 44
Looks very rough. I doubt it will do well.
RIP to the game and studio
Are there alternate ending to provide replay value, if there's no NG+ and skills are not all unlockable in a playthrough? Or at least can you reset skills and try something different?
@Gewertzx looks like ps3 game or budget ps4 title and they want 60 swiss francs maybee be bosted on the ps5 pro lol
As I said somewhere else, AA offerings like this and Banishers are a bit over priced.
If they aren’t viable at a lower price point, then I guess that means the AA market is dead.
I remember it was on its way out back when I bought Murdered Soul Suspect a decade or so back.
Not to say that I wouldn’t pay the launch price personally, but I don’t think many people will and it will be a commercial failure.
Edit: I see IGN were talking about performance issues. So I guess they succeeded in emulating the AAA experience!!!
The main question for me is: is this game a fun/hidden gem type of 7/10?
I'm glad to gear Anya delivers in the VO. Didn't expect anything less to be honest.
Glitchy camera is kind of a deal breaker though...
Ooh, annoying camera in 2024 is a bit of a no no.
Otherwise sounds promising. Shame it didn't get a bit more time in the oven to sort stuff like that
Good news, was expecting a 7 rating tbh.
Peaked my interest from the first trailer released a few months back, , glad to see it's a good game overall. Gonna buy it.
My copy arrived today. I'll dive in in the evening.
@Shinnok789 it's 'piqued', just to let you know. I'll delete this later, it's not meant to dig you out.
@riceNpea only one ending and unfortunately you can't reset your abilities
@Jenny_Jones well that's disappointing. Not even a reset, why even have skill trees you can't sample everything from? Pass.
Sounds like something I could get into. The only problem at the moment is time for me. I'm still on Metaphor and don't think I'll have the time to squeeze this in before Dragon Age either. Maybe around Black Friday I might give this a go.
I remember hearing about this game and I had no clue it was launching already. I thought it was a way out.
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No thanks. Hard pass.
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I can see the SBI whiners are here crying about their big,bad boogeyman smh. I’ll be playing once it unlocks at 6 I’m actually excited to get a game that feels like a throwback to the ps3 gen that isn’t open world and doesn’t take a hundred hours with 90 of that being repetitive garbage just so someone can feel like they got their moneys worth.
@Nintendo4Sonic Let me know what you think. Im kind of on the fence with this one.
@dark_knightmare2 I couldnt agree more. All positives in my book!
Despite the negitive sentiments of many here, I think this could be good fun and I dont think it looks rough. Clearly its not as polished as a Sony AAA game, but all that glitters is not gold.
For a first title, it looks pretty impressive and Im rooting for it and likely to try it once I finish a few more titles...
This seems like the sort of game I'd pick up for $5 in a sale and quit playing after a few hours.
She's a wonderful actress, but this game is largely, pardon the pun, unknown. It won't do well.
I don't want to be banned again so I just say this game is not for me because of main character.
Looks okay, I don't know about £45 okay though. Maybe £15 kind of okay. I'm a big fan of Anya Chalotra but a lot of her is lost on in the game from what I have seen so far.
Never heard of this until today, my missus saw a screenshot of the main character and thought it was a bloke lol
Really didn't believe me that it's supposed to be the woman who played Yennefer on Netflix.
Looks like something I'd get bored of quickly though, only really into GT7 at the moment.
Looks and sounds generic. I'm guessing it was pretty generous to give this one a 7.
The game is based on a comic book, but I think the game’s name won’t do it any favors. It’s really weird for it to have a random sounding number in the title. Is this the 9th in series? That could be a legitimate question for some.
I felt the same way about Alan Wake. The title does absolutely nothing for me and I still haven’t played anything in that series because it sounds like an accounting simulator.
@Czar_Khastik I say it is and I am grabbing it( of course with my rule - never day one. Let them fix things but 100% getting that).
@Titntin Same here. And it is not AAA as SW Outcast too thank god
I still need to finish Unknown 1 through 8 first.
people want new ip's and new game studios , but judging from the comments so far , i guess people don't actually want either.
@dark_knightmare2 I think it's perfectly valid for people to inform potential buyers who was involved in the narrative and characterisations.
I would say that narrative is one of the most important features in a game for me - to the point that my favourite genre is walking sims, with Gone Home being one of my favourite games of all time.
If the story and characters ain't doing it for me, I'm not motivated to plod on for tens of hours, regardless of how engaging the minute to minute game play is.
So if people do have some take on how that narrative might pan out, due to who had input into the writing, it's useful information to me when making a purchase decision.
If someone came here and told me the game was written or co-written by Sam Lake, I'd be ordering it right now due to positive past experiences.
Would you have a problem with that?
If not, why would you have a problem with people highlighting involvement of individuals or organisations who previously created negative experiences when I purchased products?
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@BIG3 I will do that.
@twitchtvpat people don't know what they want. I think many people are so confused and stuffed, that they aren't satisfied with anything.
I see it same as you, this game tries to be different and that's what people are complaining about often, that there are too many remakes and remasters(which is fine by me) and when there is a game, which is new and different, it gets no chance.
Really sad.
Looks like my kind of game! Looking forward to it.
Looks very interesting! Couldn't give two craps about Sweet Baby or whatever woke-panic social media grifters are trying to attach themselves to. New IP is a good thing to see, as well, and supposedly much in-demand on what people here act like is barren platform.
This game has been getting 4s and 6s everywhere else. So, a 7 is a generous score
@ButterySmooth30FPS @twitchtvpat It doesn’t matter, really. If said game of the new IP is bad, then it will be dead on arrival. Concord is the best example of that. I’ve seen critic reviews, not just users comments, pointing out all of the deficiencies of Unknown 9, and none are related to politics. Push Square gave it a good score, and that’s fine. But they are in the minority right now.
I don't really think $50 for a AA title is unreasonable. That's still a $20 drop from AAA titles.
As for this, I would like to get it at some point. I know some consider it's PS3 era roots to be a negative, but I actually find it to be a positive since that era is still maybe the best ever for gaming. I'd rather go back and play something like that than some of the modern games.
Given that the 7/10 from here is an outlier amongst other reviews, I'll likely be waiting on this though. I have a lot of other things to play right now, and maybe they'll iron out some of the performance issues other places mentioned.
Just because this game may not sell well doesn't mean the developer will be dead after 1 game. The budget for this game would be a fraction of the budget something like Concord had.
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