What is the fate of AA games that did not receive a large budget and the time needed to elevate the project to the level of current hit games, whose presentation and ambitious gameplay push the boundaries of modern gaming? This was a question not only for the Canadian studio Reflector Entertainment, for whom Unknown 9 Awakening was their first major project but also for their owner, Bandai Namco, who attempted to expand their catalog of entertainment software with this original title.
Unfortunately, the answer to this question is that games with an apparent lack of budget and some gameplay shortcomings must work twice as hard to captivate an audience that might be put off at first glance. Many projects have managed to achieve such success, but when a game lacks that magical ingredient, its fate is often not only to be ignored by the audience but also to be forever forgotten.
This is one such game—an ambitious project by a new studio that did many things successfully but still lacks many things to justify the €50 price tag the publisher demanded at launch.
On a completely unrelated note, is Fortnite good for kids? Check our article and find out!
What Is Unknown 9 Awakening
Unknown 9 Awakening is a linear action-adventure in the style of the Uncharted series, where the action focus is shifted from firearms to special powers that our heroine learned from her mentor. Right from the start, the entire story follows the good old formula of the original 1977 Star Wars movie—the heroine learns details about an ancient power available to unique individuals and loses her mentor, Reik, at the hands of her deranged former student, Vincent, who wants to seize all the power for himself.
During the campaign, which lasts an average of around 9 hours, our main heroine, Haroona Gayen, will gather a small group of allies around her who will try to thwart Vincent's plans to obtain the power once wielded by the ancient civilization of the Sahim.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the game is its universe, which describes the history of planet Earth as occurring in cycles, where civilizations grow and develop until the moment the world resets and everything starts over. Wanting to prevent this cycle, the ancient Sahim race gathered all their Amn power from the parallel dimension, the Fold. It focused on nine representatives who protected the Earth, became legends, and were named the Unknown 9.
The Story
The mediocre introduction set a few years before the start of World War I, quickly transitions into a grand adventure in which Haroona and her companions manage to acquire the airship Morning Star and visit many locations around the world. The story is told rapidly in many sequences, and there is a justified desire for a few more hours of the campaign. This focus on diverse locations effectively enhances the game's atmosphere and makes it enjoyable to play in moments when other parts of the game begin to falter.
Here, we mainly refer to the game's combat elements based on Haroona's powers. Throughout the game, she can collect Skill points to unlock special moves in three separate Skill Trees and special runes to expand her Health and Amn stats. We recommend investing most of the skills in Stealth and Combat moves, as they can completely transform your play.
Since we don't have access to firearms, players must learn to use all the Jedi-like... Sahim's powers can be roughly divided into offensive and sneaky. Offensive power involves pushing enemies into objects that can incapacitate them and very effectively possessing their souls and commanding them to attack their evil comrades. After upgrading this power, players can turn combat arenas into puzzle locations where the pawns are the enemy soldiers themselves, who will injure themselves.
The Combat of Unknown 9 Awakening
But despite this interesting approach to combat, the sneaky powers are much more effective. Haroona can briefly become invisible and approach enemies for a special one-hit-kill move. After upgrading this power, players can remain invisible even after eliminating enemies, making many combat arenas trivial.
Although the action sequences will become monotonous well before the game's halfway point (mainly due to the minimal variety of enemies), we must praise this unconventional approach to powers, pushing players to engage more during battles where firearms are unavailable.
Another anchor is the game's audio/visual presentation. Although it was made in Unreal Engine, this powerful tool was not used to its full potential in this title.
The Look And Feel
The first mission starts with a level of graphics that we could have seen in the first few Uncharted games. While the quality of the environments improves slightly in subsequent missions, this will never become a game that will visually amaze you. This is especially true due to the unconvincing animation system during movement, as well as poorly realized character faces in the game (where only our heroine stands out, whose appearance and voice were provided by Hollywood actress Anya Chalotra, whom most players will recognize as Yennefer from Netflix's adaptation of The Witcher series).
PC players will also immediately notice one of the worst elements of Unreal Engine's performance—constant brief screen stuttering when compiling Shader scripts every time you see something new on the screen or perform a new action. Fortunately, this effect is not present in the game's console versions nor on the Steam Deck, which can run this game with a framerate slightly above 30.
In Conclusion
Unknown 9 Awakening has an ambitious backstory and combat systems that cannot shine in their whole light due to a rushed campaign, mediocre presentation, and overly monotonous combat arenas. Although this game was too expensive at launch, we recommend it at a much lower price if you are willing to get acquainted with the Unknown 9 universe, which may receive another video game or multimedia project.
In the meantime, while you wait for the price of this game to drop, we recommend trying another ambitious game from the "AA" camp that managed to better combine its narrative, technology, and gameplay elements, such as this year's impressive Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden.
Rating: 6/10
The game has an ambitious story and unique mechanics but is held back by repetitive combat, mediocre visuals, and technical issues, making it overpriced for what it offers.
Recommended Age: 13+
The game's themes, combat, and narrative complexity are suitable for teens and older, though younger players might find the stealth mechanics and story pacing challenging.