Unknown 9: Awakening review

Unknown 9: Awakening is part of a new meta-universe, spanning multiple platforms to tell an overarching narrative built from different stories. Webseries, comics, a trilogy of novels, even a scripted podcast, all exist to tell the story of the search for the Unknown 9. They’re a group of powerful Immortals, like an undying Illuminati, who possess ancient secrets that could save or damn humanity. Two groups seek them out: the Ascendants and the Quaestors, with a cadre of do-gooders caught in the middle called the Leap Year Society.

In Awakening you play as Haroona, a young woman with the powers of a Quaestor, trained to use her Shade Bracelets to channel Am, an ancient inner power, from an other-world called The Fold. What begins as a quest for revenge soon escalates into a battle to save humanity as Haroona gets caught up with Luther Goodwin and the Leap Year Society as she searches for Vincent, the target of her vengeance.

From the get-go, it’s obvious where Unknown 9: Awakening takes its inspirations from. Ancient shadowy cults, opposing clandestine societies, a healthy dose of climbing, stealth, and silent takedowns… It moves and feels like an early Assassin’s Creed game, for better and worse. Much of the game is spent crouching in tall grass or lurking behind crates, waiting for patrolling guards to forget they recently found a dead body and wander off.

But where Unknown 9: Awakening differs is in its use of Shade powers. Haroona, played by The Witcher’s Anya Chalotra, can reach into the Fold and manipulate certain elements to channel telekinetic energy, become invisible, read the life force of those around her (see also: Eagle Vision), or even possess her enemies by “shadow-stepping” into them. It gives you plenty of options in combat, even if it does make you a little overpowered for most of the game.

Standard gameplay is fairly formulaic, following the Uncharted ethos of clearing enemies, before either moving on, watching a cutscene, or solving a puzzle, usually involving “diving into the Fold”. Few scene transitions don’t involve either opening a heavy door or squeezing through a narrow opening, to the point that it becomes a little too regular.

Combat is fun but a little janky, as collision detection and hitboxes go awry when you fight more than one enemy. There’s always plenty to interact with, including the enemies themselves as you Shade-step in and out. Eventually you can chain up to three steps, and when you return to your body the actions you performed all happen at once. You can move one guy to stand next to an explosive gas tank, make another guy shoot it, and then make another guy shoot the second guy, then have it all happen at once. You can rarely see the fruits of such labours though, because the camera is an unruly little imp at the best of times. There’s an element of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden to it, though, which is a plus.

The plot is well acted if a little convoluted and nowhere near as original as it seems to think it is. Most story beats are signposted a mile off, but it’s well acted by a good cast. Chalotra is superb, while the actor behind Goodwin delivers his lines so naturally that you forget you’re playing a game. Sound direction is all over the shop, though, with dialogue triggering while characters are halfway through sentences so you’ll never know how they were going to finish some sentences. It’s not like God of War where they reassert their point; they just instantly drop one sentence for another and it’s always jarring, especially as you spend so much time in the company of NPCs.

You can improve Haroona’s skills, extending the duration of certain Shade abilities for example, and there are collectibles everywhere, though they fail to provide any real reward. There’s also a lot of wasted real estate, with alternate paths that lead to dead ends or simply rejoin the original path with no rhyme or reason. It’s over-designed for the hell of it at times, and it does become irritating when there’s no objective marker. Half the time you don’t know you’re going the wrong way until there’s a solid wall or impassable barrier with nothing to collect or pick up. As you need to explore everywhere to find Gnosis Points to level up and special pick-ups to boost Health and Am, pointless dead-ends feel like the game is just wasting your time.

Whether or not the extended universe of Unknown 9 will take off remains to be seen. It doesn’t seem original or exciting enough to capture my attention when the “secret ancient society” stuff has been done to death by Assassins Creed, The DaVinci Code, Indiana Jones, and National Treasure, among countless others. But as a self-contained adventure, Unknown 9: Awakening is more than decent, offering some fun combat and exploration with a cast of mostly likeable good guys and entertaining pantomime villains. It’s no revolution, but it’s likeable enough to keep your attention.