In a world with Call of Duty and Spider-Men, where sequels reign supreme, an injection of creativity and newness is sometimes necessary. I love it when developers and publishers invest in new ideas, and even more so when those ideas pan out to something no one knew they needed. Those are good times.
I believe that Unknown 9: Awakening from developer Reflector Entertainment Ltd. and publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment were shooting for the stars to bring something new to the world. While the concept for Unknown 9: Awakening was interesting, with a defined villain that only a 90s action-enthusiast could be satisfied with, and a against-all-odds protagonist in Haroona, a Neo-like character that hasn’t grasped all her powers yet, the blueprint for greatness was there. Sadly, the game fell short in a few areas.
Firstly, the story was rushed. The game was so consumed by its need for good action that it forgot to include a first act and proper character development. Secondly, the action it was consumed with was cool but how and when it was applied was basic at best. Lastly, the direction it wanted to take was struggling between wanting to be the next Assassin’s Creed, which would have been cool and open world, and needing to keep players on the path of the narrative. Everything else about it, the skills tree, the controls, and the cool ideas of how the action would go, was neat and I wish had come to full fruition with all the other elements it was missing.
So, grab your soul from that mysterious dimension, and let’s get cracking on this review.
Awaking to action
The story begins with Haroona and her mentor Reika, a group known as the Quaestor, combing the deserts of their land trying to disrupt the evil group known as the Ascendants, who are trying to rid the land of the Quaestor. A basic good versus evil type of story.
During the Quaestor’s adventure through the desert, they happen upon a large group of Ascendants, and Haroona’s powers are put to the test. She soon understands how to take down Ascendants through multi-dimensional means, and what is at stake if she doesn’t follow through with taking down the entire enemy organization.
The story starts quickly and doesn’t let up for much explanation of the hows and whys. Players are not introduced to the world or the characters very well, though I am grateful for how the tutorial phase of the game was integrated so well with the story (so easy and seamless). We don’t know Reika or Haroona, and we aren’t given much time to connect with them before being thrown into chaos. We are just told that the world has an evil group, that the Quaestors are the saviors, and that everything is at stake if the Ascendants aren’t taken down. It’s quite a bit in a short amount of time.
I’m a little shocked that the story starts fast and messy. This is a narrative-driven game, and at the very least it needs a bit more time to cook. Every good narrative-driven game takes its time to build the world, so the players know it well and can believe the characters live within it, shape its characters through actions and dialogues, identify the bad guys in some way, and firmly establish the gravity of what happens if the bad guys win. As it stands, Unknown 9: Awakening just seemed hellbent on getting to the action, which depreciated the story, and you can’t do that when you want your players to engage and connect with what’s going on in this world.
As someone who appreciates a good story, I was disappointed with how the characters and world were handled. The game just skips the first act and doesn’t give time for everything to develop as it should. I realize this isn’t a movie and that an interactive experience should be as interactive as it possibly can be, but every good game that tells a story starts with a proper first act. The more recent God of War does this, Ghost of Tsushima marinates well before launching into action, and a simple game like Sayonara Wild Hearts throws in characters, motivates, and then gets to the action. Hell, even Horizon Zero Dawn manages to tell Aloy’s story through simple bits of information and a montage, and we end up knowing her and her world quite well.
In short, Unknown 9: Awakening just wants to get right to the interactivity of the game. It wasn’t built for that, especially with its lack of notoriety amongst curious gamers. I was curious as to why this game existed and was very curious about Haroona. I wanted to know her backstory and get to know how she emerged under the wing of Reika. I needed more and didn’t get it. This was a narrative opportunity lost.
Overall, the narrative was messy at best. It didn’t do a great job of establishing the world of Unknown 9 and the characters that live within it. It never gave good purpose or drive to stop the enemy element. It depended solely on action to take the narrative wheel, which can happen but only if it balances with storytelling.
Gameplay helps
What the story lacks, the gameplay does its best to make up for it. The gameplay is interesting and creative, and just cool in its execution. Is it perfect? No, but it makes me want to know more about the story.
Types of Actions
Haroona’s abilities range from punching and kicking to taking the very soul of another human being. The latter of which is cool but requires the utmost stealth (sneaking behind someone and snatching it). Anyway, her powers are metaphysical-based and allow her to affect objects through mind and spirit-driven actions. It’s an interesting concept for gameplay mechanics and the sky was the limit for what Haroona can do.
One of the cooler aspects of her actions is igniting and affecting fire. Throughout her adventure, and her moments going against the Ascendants, she can ignite tanks that lie around enemy camps. If an enemy is around said canister, Haroona can ignite it and blow them to smithereens. She can also control lamps and explode them to set enemies on fire, which is horrendous to think about but neat when you’re trying to navigate a heavily active campsite.
If lighting a fire and exploding enemies isn’t your cup of tea, then there is an action that allows Haroona to briefly take over the body of an enemy and do one action before she is ejected from it. That alone makes for a cool and unique action for this game and is something fun to pull off. This becomes a good strategy for distracting other enemies, as they will question the person Haroona took over and ask them why they ended up killing their soldier. It’s neat to see in action and, again, an interesting strategic move when trying to disrupt a group.
The least fun of Haroona’s action mechanics is punching and kicking, which are just a button-mashing fest of single and multiple-button options. It’s basic and uninteresting but a good option to set an enemy up for other types of takedowns.
There are various ways for Haroona to move and affect the world around her so that she can take down Ascendants, and all together they make the game more interesting. I played this game to see how many abilities she could acquire and how those could affect strategic movements through enemies, and I wasn’t disappointed. I enjoyed her actions, her ability to see her surroundings, and her ability to jump back and forth between metaphysical and physical combat. Even having the ability to alert enemies using a sound blip to lure their attention, akin to Jin’s tiny bell distraction in Ghost of Tsushima, made for a good time when developing/executing strategy.
Enemies
I’m divided by the enemies in Uknown 9: Awakening. Part of me enjoys how they act and react to their surroundings. I especially enjoyed their conversations and tips about why they should be on alert at times. Their dialogue was placed well within moments and gave them more shape than the typical set of enemies deserves. They provided plenty of good personalities for the world.
As cool as actions and strategy are, the enemies must be interesting as well. The enemies within Uknown 9: Awakening are mostly common enemies with repetitive movements. While you can argue that games like Ghost of Tsushima and God of War certainly had uninspiring and repetitive standard enemies, especially the former I can’t tell you how many enemies felt the same during my 50+ hours with that game. Anyway, the enemies in Uknown 9: Awakening were very systematic in their movements and reactions. Once a scene shifted from stealth to action, the enemy movement was stale and unchanging. There wasn’t a time where I felt like enemy AI was trying to outsmart me, rather it felt like they were just going through the motions. The guys with the guns would fire a couple of times and then reload for an abnormally large amount of time. The guys with the batons would swing and then wait for me to respond. There just wasn’t good variety, not until you get to the bigger baddies.
The most complicated parts of enemy action sequences were simply trying to locate them so that I could kick their ass. Once located, I could just maneuver around their actions and slowly kick everyone’s tail, butt by butt. Their lack of variety and varying action made for a ho-hum time. I enjoyed using Haroona’s powers to try and take down enemies, but it was so repetitive that at times it felt like I just needed to go through the motions in hopes of getting to something more engaging.
Again, none of the enemies felt too difficult to overcome. Nothing felt like it was pressing. For the most part, the action sequences felt like a road bump on a speedy road. It hindered the progress and didn’t do anything for the drive.
Backend
The skills tree for Uknown 9: Awakening was interesting and kept some motivation to keep the most repetitive pieces from getting too boring. Sometimes a game can use that backend system to make up for its front-end disappointment. For example, I know my next opinion is certainly in the minority, but I found the Jedi Order series rather pedestrian in execution and only held up by the backend building of the main Jedi character. Sometimes that is enough, especially when a good story helps back it up.
Unknown 9: Awakening is similar. It has a nice backend that helps prop up the game’s purpose and helps motivate the player to keep going. The first upgrade I took was widening Haroona’s gaze so that she could see more enemies as she approached areas. It’s a simple upgrade with major impact on the game when it comes to preparing a strategy of approach.
Anyway, the skills tree is good for the game and adds more excitement and motivation to the gameplay. It just wasn’t enough to overcome the other flaws in the title.
Bigger world, linear movement
When this game was announced and expectations were given, I thought for sure that we would have a newer, better Assassin’s Creed on our hands. The world looked huge, especially when you get into cities and rural areas, giving the illusion that you will be able to go pretty much anywhere. What came out of this is a big world with a linear path, a gameplay structure that I’ve seen before in bigger AAA titles.
Haroona’s journey covers dusty deserts, luscious green landscapes, and busy caverns, showcasing some graphical goodness along the way. What it hides within it is a linear path that Haroona is pushed to take. The path can’t divert to a more open-world concept and isn’t close to being an Assassin’s Creed type of landscape. While it is true you can divert to smaller paths with quick conclusions, for the most part, the game keeps you on a linear line that is driven by its narrative and doesn’t want you to deviate from it.
Of course, the expectations of a more open-world concept for Uknown 9: Awakening were probably created in the minds of gamers and journalists, something that we all tend to do now and then. Those expectations are not reasonable, as it’s mostly just a straight path from point A to B with progression in Uknown 9: Awakening. Is that a bad thing? Not at all, but that does require a better story with more interesting enemies to encounter. This isn’t a huge knock to the game, as it does what it can to keep the game interesting. Going off the beaten path might have turned out worse for it, so linear was probably the proper way to go. It keeps the dialogue fresh, character and player progression fresher, and gives hope that something better is always around the corner.
Graphically gorgeous, good acting
The graphics in Uknown 9: Awakening are great, especially the environments. While the cutscenes didn’t live up to the actual gameplay, the character movements and environments were visually interesting. They felt smooth, cool, and active. You will see this the first time you reach the jungle area early in the game. The flora and fauna are everywhere and look like something out of Horizon Zero Dawn. Lots of good animation and movement that help put you in the environment.
In addition to the actual gameplay, the acting in this title is comparable to action films from the 90s. If you need an example of this, enjoy The Mummy, where the acting wasn’t superb or Academy Award-winning, but it was entertaining and meaningful. If anything, it sounded like the actors bought into their characters and delivered some fun, sometimes overdramatic passion to their roles. I think this might have been the reason I’m so harsh on the lack of story because if a proper three-act narrative (at the very least) was established, then this would have been an epic tale driven by story and acting. As it stands, they did their best and came out of it impressive.
Anyway, visually you’re in for a treat, and the actors help to make that world even better. There is nothing wrong with the presentation and delivery of this game. It’s good and a strong point of the gameplay.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap this review.
Conclusion
Unknown 9: Awakening from developer Reflector Entertainment and publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment is a game more about what could have been rather than what turned out to be. With a better story that builds out the world, its characters, and more interesting enemies, the game would have been more of what it intended. It had the makings of a good fantasy/sci-fi action adventure but just didn’t make it there.
