Unknown 9: Awakening (2024)

I completed this a little over two weeks ago, and I still find myself thinking about it. I really hope it receives some patches to fix some of its rougher areas because I ended up kind of really digging it. I really like Haroona and her frequent snide anti-colonialist commentary, and I quite liked all of the abilities that I had at my disposal. It felt a lot like an AC game minus all the Ubisoft baggage, and I like a good blockbuster feeling action game like this once in a while.

On an additional note, I grow ever more excited to give the copy I bought as a gift to my brother's partner at Christmas because I enjoyed it enough that I think it will go over well. As am I excited about the accompanying book.

While I admit that on many fronts this isn’t a particularly innovative game, and feels like a throwback to PS3/360 era with a setup that is a bit like a slightly more linear Assassin’s Creed, I also have to admit that I kind of had a blast from start to fish. Especially so toward the end when you spec Haroona into some of the best abilities in the game and can wreak havoc on the battlefield.

It’s true that enemies aren’t the most brilliant, but I’d argue that they were no dumber than enemies in another big game featuring stealth that I played this year, a game incidentally made by a studio with nearly twenty years of Stealth design experience (or more). It’s a bit too easy to lose enemies on the battlefield, but enemies don’t have X-ray vision which is a blessing. It’s not the best stealth I’ve ever encountered, but certainly not the worst.

The best thing about the stealth is the stepping system. Haroona can step into the body of another person and manipulate their behaviours. Eventually you can chain stepping and step into multiple enemies in a row.The result is that it can still be a ton of fun to stealth around an area jump into enemies and cause them to do damage to one another, while never being discovered. The step ability is novel and I like that the game is centred around brawling rather than being a shooter. It’s a nice departure from games like Tomb Raider or Uncharted that Unknown 9: Awakening might get compared to due to the general setting and vibe.

Digitaltrend’s Unknown 9: Awakening review by Veerender Singh Jubbal captures a lot of what I’m feeling about the game:

As for Haroona herself, I love her character. Plain and simple. She feels like a hero I would have seen beside Lara Croft and Nathan Drake if this game had been released around the 2010s…There is a lot of depth in Haroona and her portrayal; you can feel a lot boiling inside Haroona. It’s not just her revenge for Reika that defines her. You can feel her change when she discovers a place or a group of people she belongs with. When Reika is taken away from her, Haroona very much pushes people away and only lets those near her that can aid her to hunt down Reika’s killer. Moments where she called out colonialism endeared me to her. She is affectionate and true to herself as best she can be. The titular Awakening is not just about her powers; it’s about opening her heart to new people to let them inside.

Gaming enthusiasts tend to talk a lot about how they want all-new games rather than playing the same tired franchises. Even with some technical hiccups holding it back in a few places, Unknown 9: Awakening delivers a fresh new world filled with memorable characters and an inventive combat system that pushed me to experiment with my powers. It may have gotten lost in 2024’s busy holiday season, but I hope more players return to it once the flood of new games slows. It’s the kind of hidden gem that deserves to be discovered.

I do sorely wish that more AA studios would embrace a willingness to explore a wider gamut of aesthetic styles rather than slavishly/stubbornly leaning on graphical realism. This feels like a criticism I can’t help making every time a play a AA game. Games like Unknown 9: Awakening would benefit from stepping away from the safety net of graphical realism and attempting other aesthetic approaches. It’s probably why I found the aesthetic approach of Dustborn (and to a slightly lesser degree, Flintlock) so appealing. The Invincible is another that comes to mind. In several ways, the game is pushing for a type of realism. However, it’s one focused through a lens of cold-war era pulp cinema and comics. I wish Unknown 9: Awakening had attempted something that broke with graphical realism and that tied in with the themes of its story and the reality bending nature of the Fold.

I’m still enjoying h the game, I just think graphical realism does it’s other, much more interesting components, a disservice.

Side note: this game could really use a shader pre-compilation step.

While it’s true there is nothing really groundbreaking about this game, it’s still pretty fun. It doesn’t have the most demanding stealth but it’s still fun to pop in and out of a shroud to sneak up on and take down enemies, or to step into them and chain several attacks by possessing their bodies. It’s especially fun to do all of that on the run and wipe out a big group of enemies in a nice fell swoop.

The sad thing is that AAA games from big franchises regularly get a pass for being no more innovative, and certainly less interesting, that Unknown 9: Awakening.

It’s also nice to play a south Asian woman in an action adventure game, something that feels exceptionally rare.

I think Anya Chalotra is one of the most beautiful women I've seen on a screen and was a little hype about a game with her in the main role. Sadly, Unknown 9: Awakening is a mess. The combat and stealth mechanics are boring, the level designs are bad, it's full of glitches and runs really bad on PS5.

If I force myself to find good things to say about it, I think the costumes, tech and magic visual designs are very good, but that's it.

You can read my full review in spanish in GamerFocus.

Well... I think I'll better watch The Witcher again.