If you’re like me and sometimes crave a video game that plays like a good old fashioned video game then you need to have Unknown 9: Awakening on your radar. Developed by Montreal-based studio Reflector Entertainment and set to launch on October 18, 2024, Unknown 9: Awakening is a title that feels like a throwback to the action-adventure games of past generations such as early Assassin’s Creeds and the rebooted Tomb Raider series. I was able to play about two hours of the game recently, and surprisingly I came away rather excited for the full launch, with Unknown 9: Awakening scratching an itch I didn’t know needed scratching until going hands-on.
Set within the Unknown 9 universe, Awakening is a new story that sees Haroona (portrayed by The Witcher’s Anya Chalotra), a Quaestor, someone with the ability to enter and harness the power of a mysterious dimension known as The Fold, as she hunts down a powerful and wealthy man named Vincent who organised the killing of her mentor.
My hands-on began relatively early in the game’s proceedings, with Haroona traversing the streets of fictional India as she heads towards a lighthouse and away from an enemy threat searching for her after she caused a ruckus. Despite the big city feel, the journey is quite linear as I sneak across rooftops, dropping into alleyways and deserted back-end streets, and although the game’s visuals don’t have the fidelity of other titles launching this year, Awakening’s environments felt well detailed and its world properly lived in, even if some of the NPCs seemed a bit nuff at times.
Although Haroona’s powers give her an advantage, stealth is encouraged, especially when faced with large groups of enemies, so silently taking them out by ripping their souls out from behind is recommended. The game does give you tools to make this happen, with Haroona able to go invisible, to cause distractions or to set off nearby explosives.
Eventually though, you’ll need to engage in combat, and Haroona is no slouch when the sleeves need to be rolled up as she’s a bit of a brawler. While satisfactory enough, melee combat lacks a little weight and oomph, but the combination of Haroona’s powers takes the tedium out of it.
One of Haroona’s most useful powers is called Stepping, giving her the ability to take possession of enemies, allowing Haroona to use their attacks, such as a ground smash or a gun to use on other soldiers, to break equipment or to set off explosives while remaining hidden. While this ability was limited in the preview build, I get the feeling that this can be upgraded to allow Haroona to dish out multiple acts of body swapping to devastating effect.
Another power allows Haroona to either pull an enemy towards her (get over here!) or to push them away, and I couldn’t help but exploit this ability, especially bigger and more difficult enemies. I do hope that Haroona learns some new tricks as the game goes on, really leaning into her powers.
Once I reached the lighthouse, I ventured to an island hot on Vincent’s trail. But I wasn’t alone, and I was joined by a mysterious man searching for an airship – also connected to Vincent. This man wanted to strike up a travel partnership, but Haroona is more of a lone wolf. Our paths would cross a couple of times over the course of the next hour as Haroona made her way through the jungle before my hands-on concluded with a boss fight with one of Vincent’s cronies – a three-phase event that got the better of me a couple times but eventually saw me victorious.
Most of what Unknown 9: Awakening is doing isn’t new, but it’s all set in a world that is interesting and has me intrigued, and from what I’ve seen, Anya Chalotra does a great job at bringing Haroona to life. It’s also really cool to see different cultures and settings being used to help tell a story that we’ve heard in different variants many times before.
What I love most about what Reflector Entertainment is doing is that it has captured the essence of the action-adventure games I’d get lost in in generations gone by. Unknown 9: Awakening may lack a bit of the polish found in other games, but so far it’s fun and engaging, and I can’t wait to kick back and get lost in a damn video game like the old days once again in October.
Previewed on PS5
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