Unknown 9: Awakening Review – A Punch to the Soul

Imagine Assassin’s Creed but better. You’re not limited to an AI searching for you only for him to say ‘Must be the wind’. An aggressive cluster of enemies constantly hunting you down, but you can fight back with even deadlier supernatural abilities.

Released on September 18, 2024, Unknown 9: Awakening is available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Published by Bandai Namco and developed by Reflector Entertainment, here’s how they were able to innovate a fresh approach to this game style. This is Gameffine’s official review of Unknown 9: Awakening.

A Punch, you’ll Feel to the Soul

Unknown 9: Awakening starts in Kolkata, India where the protagonist Haroona is equipped with abilities to connect with a space called the fold. The fold is assumed to be an underlying space co-existing with the world, where infinite energies can be drawn. Haroona, under training from her mentor, has a rough start to the story. Her Mentor, Reika travels to a strange desert filled with the long-lost legacy of the unknown 9. Reika soon discovers Haroona snuck her way along the ride and now has to forcefully tag along. But tragedy struck sooner than expected. The big bad – Vincent and Reika challenge each other only for her to lose and perish.

Four years later, Haroona is found sneaking around the city of Kolkata again, on the hunt for Vincent. Filled with revenge and lack of any other emotions, Haroona is now a violent quester who is ready to rub the ground red with anyone who stands in her way. This is where your journey begins, the quest to master the ability of harnessing the fold and fulfilling your redemption for a lost mentor.

What you read above, is probably a story of a rebellious woman, who just wants revenge on someone who took her loved one away. What I felt was a storyline, which felt absolutely felt, uninspired and heartbreakingly obvious. There isn’t something happening which feels new, or to be hooked about. The character feels forced in terms of placement to be reserved or angry about wanting to take everything down to find her mentor. Simply put, the protagonist failed to establish the personality that would make her a hero.

Unfortunately, the story itself feels like a theoretical approach to the storyline of Immortals of Aveum. Ironically, in both the games, your main characters are categorized as ‘Ascendants’. Even the ending goal of the villains and their style of villainy are similar. While I’m not denying that creativity often overlaps, I want to highlight the fact that both games have an easily forgettable plot.

Also, if you’re wondering, except for Haroona and her Brother, no one is Indian So the primary idea of the game being set in India and showcasing the Indian-styled approach is barely there. Except for the first few levels which show a classic Indian city, the NPC and speaking Bengali, the game mostly takes place in the lore-based POIs, caves, and manors.

The Only Thing That’s Great – Combat!

The reason I am motivated enough to continue to play Unknown 9 Awakening is mostly because of the combat. The game has many combat features, which makes the core of the game itself very exciting. The approach and their combat style is Assassin’s Creed without a hidden blade. Well now that we look back at it, we do have an Assassin’s Creed without a hidden blade.

But the fact that Unknown 9 separates itself from its approach which it loves to copy-paste in all of its franchises is the soul stepping ability. Haroona will face threats that are of incredible scale, and here enemies have many variety. But Haroona may only pack incredible punches, her ‘gifts’ allow her to change the battlefield in her favor at any given time.

Haroona can step into the soul of her enemy, and briefly control it to attack other enemies or break hazardous environmental items. Haroona also carries many other tricks under her sleeve. She can pull an enemy and charge for a devasting punch to the gut. She can disappear, allowing her to unveil deadly strikes without raising the alarm. Or she can simply Jedi her way and push enemies off cliffs.

All of this being used at a real-time combat scale with you alone is exceptionally fun. If you read that carefully, I mentioned ‘you’ alone. You will also have a sidekick, which in my experience, never does anything, except help you climb long cliffs. There is no personality to the characters when dialogue isn’t involved, and neither there are co-op finishers that even Yakuza games or Spider-Man have. Usually, you’d be tanking 10 enemies against 2, and your partner will only distract one of them, leaving you open to 9 enemies at once. So the whole fact of having a partner the entire time is just a big bloat.

We played the game in hard difficulty, and the challenge is there and to be honest, actually becomes tense at times. But at the same time, it breaks immersion as much as it can and all the time. If you are landing gut punches with unwavering combos, the enemy can just hit you right back without flinching. So special types of the enemy will just meet you off your position and keep attacking even if you disrupt their attacks.

The enemy has a good amount of variety in the game, but there is no chemistry or balance. The elites are pretty much easy when faced alone, but machine gunners can delete you from the game with just a single burst of fire. This especially becomes immersion-breaking when faced with 8-10 enemies at once. And if you’re wondering why don’t you just control them and shoot their allies? Well, they barely take any damage to bullets compared to what Haroona is hit with.

Overall the combat perfectly separates itself in being unique and innovative, but fails at making a perfect system that works together and keeps it rapidly interesting.

Visuals of Kolkata

The graphics of the game are very flat. Even after being in Unreal Engine 5, the game does not step ahead to bring out something creative. While the side characters may look decent enough, the main character herself does not look like her concept art. There are barely any details or expressions on her face except being tensed or frowning.

While I was convinced the graphics are as it is, I was blown away in the final level. The last level looks like a game straight out of top contenders of current-gen games. But that just makes it worse to be fair. If the game can look all that good, why does that not happen before?

The level design in most places is just pretty rough. You cannot possibly differentiate which path will lead you to the main story, or which path leads you to collectables which are filled like the amount of air in a pack of chips. And just in case you chose a path with the main story, your option to backtrack is often restricted.

There are just too many collectibles, and most of it isn’t even interesting to read or follow through. The worst part is that your perks points are also powered by collectibles. This means that if you are not looking around to pick up these abilities, you are going to progress without new abilities.

The OST also does a very mediocre job. Stories and adventures like these are fueled by their music and composition and become a legacy for future games. Something similar to ‘Ezio’s Family’. The dialogue delivery, on the other hand, is very professional and undoubtedly fulfilled well by the experienced artists and actors selected for the role. But the dialogues itself make them barely rememberable.

Real Talk

Unknown 9: Awakening is a decent game that is mostly playable because of its interesting approach to combat. But apart from combat, there is no other quality that helps the game stand out. The graphics are only good for a few levels, but continue to be an average game from there. With the selection of games offered this year, you are better off avoiding this one for now.

FINAL RATING: 65/100