Unknown 9: Awakening

I’m a great admirer of the 6th and 7th generation of gaming. An era which was overshadowed by certain gaming giants and trends which weren’t always great (military shooters ruled the roost back in the 7th gen). But creativity was abundant, new refreshing IPs, and risk takers who mixed up genre trends and mechanics for interesting concepts. Unknown 9 from Bandai Namco wants a new, compelling universe for gamers to explore while bringing forth humble and imaginative gameplay mechanics.

Does it succeed? Read on.


What is Unknown 9?


Unknown 9: Awakening is the flicker of a cinematic gaming universe, starring Anya Chalotra, centred on an alternative version of 20th century India, which has seen the intervention of powers from another dimension, which has granted gifts of mysterious powers for better or worse. We take on the role of Haroona, a Quaestor born with the ability to venture into a mysterious dimension known as the Fold. As the world before her is corrupted by industrial prowess and greed, she makes it her quest to discover hidden knowledge, that will expand her powers of Fold and give her and the people a fighting chance against a shadowy secret society.

Haroona’s powers allow her to dive into the bodies of her enemies, turn invisible to evade capture, and set off many, many, many well-placed explosive barrels. It’s a grand old adventure that rings many familiar bells, all the classic gameplay mechanics popular a decade ago, including that tried and tested shimmy through tight cracks leading you to the next arena.

While there were elements I deeply admired about Unknown 9, it felt like a game from two generations ago and sadly played like one too.


With great power … you know the line


Haroona’s adventure is one we’ve seen plenty of times before, and this is never a bad thing to see a solid formula of “The Chosen One” be used in any media. It’s not the most engaging, but it can work with great character development, excellent world-building, and exciting incidents.

Unknown 9 does indeed have excellent world-building and creates a place I was truly invested in for the most part.  Presenting both visually stunning vistas and intriguing my tastebuds with an enthralling mystery relating to otherworldly dimensions, super beings, and people harnessing the powers of the Fold for the greater good or ultimate evil.

The plot does feel like a trope fest that’s ticking checkboxes and going with the flow. Again there is nothing wrong with this approach, but there needs to be something more to elevate the overall structure. Take 2011 Cowboys and Aliens, a film that many thrashed due to its contrivances and tropes, but for me, I love it as it has character, cool ideas, and a super weird persona that makes it stand out. Unknown 9 has cool ideas, and the right setting, but doesn’t do much else to make it grandiose.  The good guys want to be good; the bad guys want to be bad, and they all follow a chess play style narrative of go here for McGuffin, good guys get the upper hand, bad guys get the upper hand, and ending on a note that leaves everything resolved but with an opening for a sequel. And again, this is all fine, but you need charm, some exciting events which differ from other films and games, and as long as you have a great list of characters …

Yeah, that’s not happening here. I do like Anya Chalotra as an actress but her portrayal of Haroona is utter tedium, and the supporting cast is not much better. These characters are typical archetypes of the genre but become even more watered down, to the point where they spew exposition and nothing else for 95% of their speaking dialogue. It’s getting old fast, and the motion capture is dire at times.

One of the biggest issues with motion capture is that the eyes are always wrong. Resident Evil 2 while having great motion/facial capture let it down in some instances with eyes that look dead. Silent Hill 2 remake and the Resident Evil 3 remake managed to overcome this problem, making a whole world of difference. Haroona is the main example of a dead-eye stare and it’s so jarring and hilarious. I have no idea why it’s this bad, mimicking something from the PS2. And other characters don’t fare better.

As discussed before, I love the world-building, and visually most of the landscapes do look mesmerising. There were some sights to behold, particularly the desert landscapes, the bustling metropolis of India’s heartland, and some bits of the Fold were quite neat. But again, it’s brought down by some dire smaller details which add up. If you rush by through the thriving cityscapes, you won’t notice it, but stand around for a minute or two, and you’ll see the weeping gaps in the set dressing. Crowds of people, and enemy NPCs will utter the same line over and over again, usually talking complete nonsense, and seemingly being as dead eye as Haroona.

There was so much potential here for a new, refreshing globe-trotting adventure, that takes you to beautiful unknown places and is willing to give us an engaging mystery that grows in scale and depth. But instead, we have something that is held together by tape, and something like Assassin’s Creed back from 2007 outshines it’s immensely.


Focus, and you can set off those explosive barrels


Okay, I will explain this soon enough.

And again, the tropes flow right into the gameplay side of things for Unknown 9 too, both for better and worse.

What Unknown 9 attempts to do, and sadly so many fail to do, is by combining stealth and combat and allowing players to fluently switch between the two and produce interesting outcomes on dynamic play style. This is incredibly hard to do and many have failed. Very few games manage to pull this off successfully, let alone well, such as A Plague Tale and its sequel.

In many cases, but not often enough, developers should either stick with stealth or combat, and many don’t like the notion of stealth in video games. This is weird, as good stealth mechanics can create a fantastic gaming experience, look at the Metal Gear series. Unknown 9 feels like a game that wants a focus on stealth but gets cold feet about halfway and doesn’t follow through. Instead, throw in melee combat, action set pieces and lots of Uncharted-style climbing which never has a fail state. 

Broken down, Haroona will usually be plunged into a large area and have to make her way from point A to B, with a dozen or so arenas, climbing sections, and the odd puzzles in between. For many of these arenas, you will have the choice to take out enemies with brute force or with stealth. Or even in some cases sneak by, which I found interesting there were moments I could do this, and appreciated it. So you will be either dishing out blows or sneaking through the trope of tall grass and picking off enemies one by one to evade mass attention.

Each style has enough meat to the mechanics to get the job done and allow some experimentation and fun to be had. I prefer stealth overall, and Unknown 9 while not on the same level as Thief, does have some neat ideas and enjoyable mechanics. The most fun is when you set off explosives right next to enemies, and there are lots of instances like this. Both styles have their own perks be it using a telepathic shove to push enemies off of rooftops or pulling off some comedically over-the-top takedowns in gaming history. There is enough here and enough to make certain encounters vary in your approach and be fun from time to time. And the skill tree is diverse enough to branch out and give you plenty of rewarding options after long investments.

My main concerns were in a couple of key areas. First, the big draw and gameplay mechanic on offer is being able to control NPCs in the environment. This opens up opportunities for attacks, sabotage and getting you out of a tricky situation. The mechanic itself is promising and does get the imagination going on how it can be utilised. But Unknown 9 never fully does, and this is often down to the level of design lacking in opportunities for use, as it’s normally trying to cater to all styles.

There are a handful of moments where it does pay off, but overall it’s just there for you to zap into an NPC, fire a shot off at another to minus one enemy on the field and nothing more. It’s a shame as this mechanic alone if fleshed out could be brilliant, and while the skill tree offers insight to a much more grander use with the power, it never pays off.

Unknown 9 also (like I briefly mentioned before) decides that action is the focus for the last third and stealth has less of a usefulness and impact than just brawling. Which can be fine, if the melee combat was much better. Punches and kicks often feel stiff, and enemies are jarring and spongey, without offering any meaningful variety. It’s no Batman Arkham that’s for sure.

Lastly, I could put up with much of this if it were for the bugs and performance issues. Playing this brought me back to the choppy ear of the Xbox 360 when I kept thinking (I’m playing this on next-gen hardware). I did play this on both an Xbox Series S and X, and either rig proved beneficial to the game. The bugs while never too intrusive pulled me out of the immersion quite frequently. Especially when the AI decided to either keep looking in one direction and not move, or fall through the floor which was hilarious but dire to see a few times.  




Overall?




I truly admire what Unknown 9 is aiming for, and I can fully support it, were it not for the lack of focus in gameplay, and the performance problems. I thoroughly enjoy the world-building, setting, and concept for the powers and their potential for fun gameplay outcomes. It aims to be the next Plague Tale or a bigger version of an indie game like Wildfire (a terrific stealth game that allows you to mess around with powers) but doesn’t settle or refine the most promising ideas it has.

I can see Unknown 9 has a soul and purpose, but it lacks a direct vision and focus. It has all the right elements, but the execution is flawed and the bugs and dead eye stares from Haroona just made it difficult to gel with. I do see promise, and even with some tweaks, fixes and refinements, Unknown 9 can be a decent game, but now there is a lot more to be desired.


+ Compelling world-building and lore
+ Does provide stunning landscapes and vistas
+ Some neat and fun stealth mechanics

-- The story and vital parts of the presentation are lacking
- Unbalanced and unfocused approach to combat/stealth gameplay
- The biggest gameplay feature never evolves
- Bugs and glitches are very much present


Bandai Namco kindly provided a review copy of Unknown 9: Awakening.