Unknown 9: Awakening review – magical stealth action-Steve Boxer-Entertainment – Metro

Unknown 9: Awakening – like Uncharted with superpowers (Bandai Namco)

A brand new action franchise from Bandai Namco mixes magic abilities with Splinter Cell style stealth gameplay, in this unusual new IP.

Unknown 9: Awakening wasn’t blessed with the best start to life. Published by Bandai Namco, and the first game developed by Montreal outfit Reflector Entertainment, it was initially billed as the initial part of a transmedia campaign. That opaque term apparently means that its game universe will spawn comic books, podcasts, novels, ‘and more’.

But what of the game itself? Expectation was unintentionally dampened by a ham-fisted and somewhat janky splGamescom presentation, which was little more than a tech demo, and an unimpressive one at that. Thankfully, the final game has turned out to be a lot better than we imagined, even if the transmedia aspirations do seem rather optimistic.

Unknown 9: Awakening is no modern classic, it has plenty of flaws, but it also has some unique and imaginative gameplay ideas, that gift you with some very unusual magical abilities. It also has the benefit that protagonist Haroona is portrayed by Anya Chalotra, who shot to fame with her brilliant portrayal of Yennefer of Vengerberg in The Witcher TV series.

Haroona is at the centre of everything that is good about Unknown 9: Awakening. You first see her in 1910 India, in flashback as the teenage apprentice to Reika, a mystic who is instructing her in the mysteries of the Fold, an invisible lifeforce harnessed by an ancient lost civilisation that few can access.

There’s an awful lot of exposition about the Fold, couched in obscure terminology – Unknown 9: Awakening’s lore is extensive and, initially at least, somewhat confusing. But the general upshot of it all is that Haroona develops magic powers which include everything from invisibility to possessing other enemies.

Unexpectedly, this makes the gameplay reminiscent of a fantasy version of Splinter Cell, with the military aspects and guns stripped out in favour of fantasy. Unknown 9: Awakening is a stealth brawler, as while many opponents have guns, Haroona never does, as she relies on her own powers and those of the enemies she possesses.

She can also wield an energy shield, push and pull enemies, perform takedowns, parry, dodge, and launch ranged energy attacks, that can reduce enemies to a confused state allowing her to step in and launch a melee combo. Plus, she can peek into the Fold, allowing her to highlight enemies and objects which can be used to damage them, not unlike Splinter Cell’s tagging system.

As you might imagine, this isn’t all introduced at once but it’s still a complex set of interconnected abilities, that asks much more of its player than many other action games.

At first, you find yourself facing clumps of enemies that you can thin out while hiding in thick grass, in time-honoured stealth game fashion. But as Haroona’s powers progress, cover becomes scarcer and ‘stepping’ into enemies – the game’s term for possession – becomes more crucial, along with her energy attacks.

Enemies’ abilities also ramp up nicely as the game, and Haroona’s powers, progress. You begin to encounter fast-moving, semi-invisible ninjas who can pull Haroona towards them and tanks with their own energy-based attacks. There are also some pretty challenging boss battles, although the earlier ones have too much of a tendency to be unwinnable, merely requiring Haroona to lower their health sufficiently so that a cut scene kicks in.

Unknown 9: Awakening’s gameplay ebbs and flows decently well, with the odd outbreak of (pretty easy) Tomb Raider style puzzling and traversal. The plot feels very derivative at times, but the setting and geographical locations sometimes throw up echoes of not just Tomb Raider, but Uncharted and Indiana Jones, along with, oddly, Rebellion’s Strange Brigade.

Comparisons with the latter become particularly apposite given that Haroona and her principal sidekick Luther soon acquire an airship to use as their base, conveniently skipping between far-flung locations. Sadly, the Strange Brigade comparisons also highlight one of Unknown 9: Awakening’s weaknesses: its writing is rather bland, totally lacking any of the former’s quirky humour. Which is disappointing to say the least, if it hopes to expand into things like novels and comic books.

It’s hard to imagine Unknown 9: Awakening spawning its own multimedia empire but viewed purely as a video game it’s fun, unusual, and well-polished. Any new IP should be welcomed with open arms but the irony is that you then immediately start thinking about how much better a sequel would be, once the developer applies more experience to it. That’s the situation Unknown 9 finds itself in, but that’s not a bad place to be.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £44.99
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Developer: Reflector
Release Date: 17th October 2024
Age Rating: 16

Unknown 9: Awakening – Splinter Cell was never like this (Bandai Namco)

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