A future with characteristics of the past

Unknown 9: Awakening was developed by Reflector Entertainment and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment and will be released on October 17, 2024, available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox Series S/X, as well as Xbox One.

This is a game focused on campaign mode, with a greater emphasis on exploration and stealth gameplay, using mystical powers throughout a learning journey through a hostile and cruel world.

Ambition and determination

The story of Unknown 9: Awakening is relatively interesting, in an introductory context, we meet Haroona, a Quaestor, an apprentice of "ancestral" magic, who explores a desert and ends up falling into an enemy camp, where the game's tutorial takes place, covering movement, combat, stealth, and the use of powers that we acquire.

That said, the story develops from there, as Haroona becomes stronger throughout her journey and becomes a key part in the fight against greater hidden forces. It is worth noting that Unknown 9 will not be limited to just this game, with spin-offs in books, podcasts, web series, and more, seeking to delve deeply into the whole story of this ambitious universe.

With this context, in terms of campaign and story, it is quite an intense experience that provides considerable hours of entertainment.

Combat and its flaws

As I mentioned, the game heavily relies on stealth mechanics, practically forcing us to use them as a first option. Haroona is relatively weak in close combat, and although we can defeat enemies this way, the combat becomes very slow and frustrating, making the stealth mechanics more interesting because we can almost instantly take down enemies, as well as the option to take control of these enemies and cause a riot, making them fight each other.

The talent tree provided by the game is our main source of means and tools to make combat interesting, as the beginning is quite challenging, causing some frustration.

It is important to note that the game's difficulty is relative; before starting our journey, we can choose the desired difficulty level, so for each option chosen, the experience may vary in some aspects.

Unknown 9: Awakening is an interesting promise that still needs a lot of polishing in various aspects. In the test build we had access to, I noticed some visual glitches, such as artifacts appearing on the screen.

I think it's important to note that the characters' facial expressions are still quite lifeless and some movement animations are quite stiff, but I believe these are details that should be resolved in the game's release build.  

A good hack-n-slash is always welcome

Unknown 9: Awakening was a nice experience, nothing incredibly surprising, but enough to make me curious about the parallel development of the story in this universe. The game has very beautiful graphics, despite the issues with facial expressions that I mentioned, cinematic scenes full of color that allow you to feel immersed in the environment.

The game, in general, is quite easy to play, especially in terms of mechanics. The tutorials are very explanatory and didactic, providing enough understanding of the game overall, which is an excellent feature since it has several mechanics associated with talent trees, similar to God of War, for example. Well-presented and illustrated tutorials are excellent.

The game is localized in several languages, has great overall voice acting, although it does not have any in Brazilian Portuguese, only texts. The Indian accent was well explored, and the text translations were well done.

The game's performance on the machine used was quite satisfactory; it is undeniably a modern game with beautiful graphics, but the overall experience was smooth with satisfactory frame rates.

In search of the 9 Unknown

My experience with Unknown 9: Awakening was good; the game overall offers good quality, despite its flaws and generic aspects in some mechanics and dialogues. Most of the game's features were well developed, and the setting was the factor that pleased me the most, with truly stunning scenarios.

The key mapping is quite intuitive, both on keyboard/mouse and controller, being a player preference issue. Additionally, the overall experience offered, with the aforementioned caveats, is quite interesting, with a theme involving a touch of post-apocalyptic societies, mystery, and magic that I really enjoy, emphasizing that the soundtrack also did a great job of immersion.

The game offers good quality of life; the interface may be confusing in terms of health, healing, and energy displays, but it is quite complete and minimalistic, with good settings and customization options for controls, graphics, and audio.

For this review, the game was experienced on PC, using the Steam platform. I thank Bandai Namco for providing the access key.