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Unknown 9: Awakening launched last Friday and I have been playing it over the weekend. This is a short first impression of the game given we received the key on Friday evening and will be following up over the next 10 days or so with the full review.
I didn’t know about this game at all, I hadn’t heard of it prior to seeing a gameplay video which peaked my interest around 6 weeks ago and thought I gotta play this one as it looks really cool.
So you have a story set in the early 20th Century (1912), which instantly makes you think of the golden age of adventuring, while there was still plenty to be discovered. Indiana Jones and Lara croft come instantly to mind with the character and locations, as well as the sense of adventure.
This is a self-contained story set in India, but there are also going to be comics, podcasts, books and other media to tie the whole world created together, much like Defiance, which had a TV show on the Sci-Fi channel a few year back which linked directly to the game.
I’ve found the gameplay to be a bit of a mixed bag, but in a good way! You have stealth like the Dishonored games, action and level design like the Uncharted series and a host of supernatural type skills which can be used during combat. Additionally, there is also being able to look into The Fold, an alternative universe which helps locate objects, and make enemies have a blue hue to them, so you can keep track of their locale easier. There are also puzzles dotted throughout, like the original Tomb Raider games from Core Design.
There is no map available as it is set out into levels, which can be explored to find hidden notes and collectibles, as well as anomalies which give you a skill point. The levels are pretty big, with plenty nooks and crannies to explore and to work out alternative routes to a collectible.
I have personally been playing stealth as much as possible, but you tend to get spotted quite easily. However, the skills you have mean you can switch things up in an instant, such as pushing an enemy (kinda like a force push) into an exploding cannister, briefly disappearing to get into a hiding spot till enemies cool down, pulling enemies towards you (force pull!) to beat them up and you can easily possess an enemy, and go hit another or an exploding cannister. It all flows freely and nicely, and is easy to get through a sticky situation if stealth tactics go wrong.
So far I am around a quarter of the way through Unknown 9: Awakening, and am looking forwards to seeing how this one unfolds…
Thanks to our friends at Bandai Namco for the review code.
Unknown 9: Awakening is out now on PC / Steam and the digital stores for Xbox and PS5.
Important info:
- Developer: Reflector Entertainment Ltd.
- Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.
- Players: Single player only
Unknown 9: Awakening – Cinematic Launch Trailer – Bandai Namco
Retro at heart and lover of all things ’80s, especially the computers, the music and the awesome movies and TV shows! Crazy huge retro gaming collection spanning the ’80s and ’90s with hundreds of tapes, discs and carts for various machines on top of a 600+ strong Steam library that is ever-growing. No I am not a serial hoarder, just a dedicated retro gamer!