Unknown 9: Awakening
- October 17, 2024
- Reflector Entertainment Ltd.
- 2h median play time
Despite some technical issues and a lacklustre final encounter, Unknown 9: Awakening brings a unique take on combat with an extremely well-acted plot that creates a story truly worth experiencing.
Unknown 9: Awakening is a game where you play as Haroona, a Quaestor with the ability to access a mysterious dimension called the Fold. Use your powers from the Fold to uncover hidden knowledge while avoiding the Ascendants, a faction that seeks to alter human history with the Fold's power. The Digital Deluxe Edition includes three cosmetic packs with unique skins and animations for Haroona and her journal.
Reviews
- The game has an interesting story and setting, with some players enjoying the combat mechanics and powers.
- Graphics and environments can be visually appealing at times, providing a decent aesthetic experience.
- Some players found the game fun and engaging, especially when playing on higher difficulties.
- The game suffers from poor optimization, with frequent frame rate drops and stuttering issues even on high-end hardware.
- Character animations and facial expressions are often criticized as stiff and lifeless, detracting from immersion.
- Many players found the combat system clunky and repetitive, leading to a lack of engagement and enjoyment.
- story181 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The game's story has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its intriguing premise and engaging characters, while others criticize it for being overly linear, predictable, and poorly executed. Many reviewers noted that the narrative lacks depth and coherence, often feeling disjointed or cliché, which detracts from the overall experience. Despite some positive elements, such as voice acting and thematic concepts, the consensus suggests that the story fails to fully captivate or resonate with players.
“The story, the music, the visuals—they just hit hard, and I loved every minute of the game.”
“The story revolves around secret organizations, and the setting reminded me of the classic Indiana Jones movies.”
“I sincerely recommend this game to anyone that just likes a good action adventure with a good story and good gameplay.”
“The story is just boring and there feels like there is no reason or motive to do anything.”
“The story seems like it is set up in a way where we are already supposed to know the story; how am I supposed to like/understand the characters/story when there is a new name and new story element introduced with every sentence?”
“The characters were very bland and because the story isn't told well I had no reason to care about continuing the single player narrative.”
- gameplay133 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 16 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players highlighting significant bugs and technical issues that detract from the experience. While some appreciate the unique mechanics, such as mind control and stealth elements, others find the gameplay repetitive, clunky, and lacking depth, often comparing it unfavorably to older titles. Overall, the game shows potential with its innovative ideas, but many feel it falls short due to poor execution and a lack of engaging content.
“The core gameplay is really good, with a unique blend of stealth gameplay and supernatural powers in a mysterious early 1900s setting.”
“The 'stepping' mechanic, wherein you briefly possess enemies to turn them against each other, opens up a whole new dimension of tactical play and is just incredibly fun.”
“The gameplay develops nicely through the game as you unlock more skills, shifting from stealthy tactics to engaging in full combat with a variety of abilities.”
“The game is a buggy mess, the story and gameplay are boring, the graphics are bad and the controls suck.”
“Your character constantly gets caught on textures (forcing a checkpoint reload), characters clip through the ground during cutscenes, facial animations often look alien and broken, certain mechanics can be triggered in such an order that they cancel out their own actions. This is not AAA or even AA.”
“The gameplay is nothing special either; it's too easy and unsatisfying, unrewarding.”
- graphics132 mentions
- 19 % positive mentions
- 59 % neutral mentions
- 22 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received overwhelmingly negative feedback, with many players comparing them to those of early PS3 or Xbox 360 titles, even when running on high-end hardware. While some users noted that certain environments and lighting effects can look decent, the overall impression is that the visuals are outdated, poorly optimized, and lack detail, leading to a disappointing experience. Many reviews highlight issues such as janky animations, bland character models, and frequent frame rate drops, further detracting from the game's appeal.
“The story, the music, the visuals, they just hit hard and I loved every minute of the game.”
“The graphics are good with well-detailed environments and great character models.”
“The setting and graphics are beautiful, the main character is really cool, the character model is not nearly as bad as people claim it is, neither is the battle system.”
“Graphics are well...not great and optimization is almost non-existent.”
“The graphics are really basic, and seem like it's missing most of the details that make a game visually pleasing; there was no difference with ray tracing on or off despite it ramping up my GPU usage.”
“The graphics look like something you'd see on a PS3, so I don't know what they were thinking trying to sell this for $49.99 USD in 2024.”
- optimization37 mentions
- 16 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 41 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received largely negative feedback, with players reporting significant performance issues such as stuttering, frame rate drops, and bugs, even on high-end systems. While some users noted decent performance under specific conditions, the overall consensus is that the game is poorly optimized for its graphical quality, leading to an inconsistent and frustrating experience. Many hope for future updates to improve the optimization, as current performance detracts from the enjoyment of the game.
“Luckily, the optimization is fairly good, but well, the main character can’t even do justice to Anya Chalotra.”
“I didn't experience performance issues on a mid-range PC.”
“This game has nice optimization.”
“The game is plagued by bugs, random frame rate drops, and stuttering.”
“The performance is so inconsistent it makes betting on horses seem like a sure thing.”
“Moreover, the game experiences frame rate drops, even at high graphical settings on a powerful system like one with an RTX 4090, indicating poor optimization.”
- stability18 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- -11 % neutral mentions
- 94 % negative mentions
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with numerous reports of bugs and glitches affecting gameplay, including issues with tutorials, character movement, and freezing screens. While some players find the game fun despite these problems, the overall consensus is that it is a "buggy mess" with poor graphics and controls, leading to frequent resets and a frustrating experience. A few users noted that if the glitches were resolved, the game could potentially be more enjoyable.
“No glitches or bugs, nice visuals.”
“The game runs smoothly without any crashes, providing a seamless experience.”
“I appreciate how stable the gameplay is; it never lags or stutters.”
“Gameplay and the mechanics are buggy; I spent my whole playtime with a bugged tutorial because the enemy was stuck in a place I can't reach, even with restarting or a new save game.”
“There are many glitches, for example, Mara moving weirdly around during conversations, making it look like some sort of sped-up twerking; bad guys entering a rock wall in a cave, and a guard hovering in the air alerting his fellow comrades to your whereabouts, and can't be affected by 'Umbric abilities.'”
“For the not-so-pretty graphical quality the game provides on high settings, it has constant hiccups for me; sometimes it even freezes for 1-2 seconds.”
- emotional9 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is widely criticized, with reviewers noting a lack of depth in characters and storytelling, leading to scenes that fail to resonate or evoke genuine feelings. Many found the attempts at emotional moments to be poorly executed, resulting in unintended humor rather than connection. Overall, the game is described as lacking charm and emotional engagement, with subpar graphics and voice acting contributing to the disconnection.
“Most of the scene compositions are plain bad, so when Haroona was running out in tears after our 'villain' told her to do so, I was bursting out in laughter where the scene was supposed to be emotional.”
“It’s as if the developers were trying too hard to be 'deep' or 'artistic,' but it just ends up being a confusing mess that lacks any emotional connection.”
“Terribly boring story about uninteresting characters made by people who clearly didn't care.”
“Ugly character models, awful cinematics, bland and boring story, PS2 graphics, janky controls, mediocre gameplay.”
“Boring storyline.”
- grinding8 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 13 % neutral mentions
- 88 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious, with many expressing frustration over repetitive boss fights, uninspired world exploration, and clunky mechanics that detract from the overall experience. While some enjoy the core gameplay and strategic elements, the overwhelming sentiment is that the game requires an excessive time investment for minimal reward, leading to a sense of boredom and dissatisfaction.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“Already 35 minutes in and feel like I'm playing something from PS2. As pretty as the landscape looks, it's quickly undone by tedious climbing and gaps disguised as loading screens every few minutes.”
“It is fun to discover such strategies and to apply them, but it becomes tedious at some point.”
- music7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players praising it for enhancing the overall experience without being intrusive, while others criticize it as lacking impact and feeling amateurish. Overall, the audio quality appears to be inconsistent, with some users finding it a disaster and others appreciating the voice acting and its contribution to the narrative.
“The story, the music, the visuals just hit hard and I loved every minute of the game.”
“The voice actors are incredible and I haven't even turned off the music, which is very rare for me.”
“The music adds to the experience without being overwhelming.”
“If there was music in this game, it literally left no impression on me.”
“The audio and music are a disaster.”
“As harsh as it may sound, but even from playing just for a rather short amount of time, everything about this game feels amateurish: I already mentioned the graphics, but sound and music all feel without impact, not properly balanced and mixed.”
- humor6 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by a mix of intentional comedic elements and unintentional glitches, such as moonwalking enemies and amusing animation bugs. Players find that while the game struggles with gameplay and character relatability, its humorous moments, particularly with the fold powers and absurd animations, provide some entertainment value. Overall, humor plays a crucial role in enhancing the game's appeal amidst its technical shortcomings.
“Moonwalking enemies when you tap into them, AI getting frozen, an enemy somehow pushing itself outside the area’s bounds, and even hilarious animation bugs when Haroona (the main character) was supposed to hold a mounted gun, but I could see her in a supposed-to-be FPS sequence rather than the flying planes. I patiently waited to die, but all I knew was that I was suffering.”
“There's tons of clipping issues, especially the door animations that are hilariously bad.”
“If an action-adventure game cannot persuade critics through gameplay, then perhaps it should through storytelling, amazing characters, and humor.”
- character development4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is criticized for being minimal and uninspired, with bland character designs and limited customization options. Reviewers noted that the story suffers from poor pacing and lacks depth in character arcs, ultimately failing to engage players.
“The character design is extremely bland and offers no free customization except for two options they just added in the first update, which are actually worse than the default ones.”
“I have finished the story; the cuts in the story flow were annoying, and the story lacks a lot in character development.”
“Despite the power of this card, the game does not fully utilize its capabilities, with unimpressive graphics, limited detail in the environments, and lackluster character designs.”
- replayability3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
The game offers around ten hours of gameplay but is considered to have limited replayability, making it a straightforward experience that may only appeal to fans of supernatural stealth. Overall, many reviewers suggest that there are other games with greater replay value.
“Though one playthrough in my opinion is enough, it is not so much replayable.”
“With around ten hours of gameplay and limited replayability, Unknown 9 is an enjoyable but straightforward experience best suited for fans of supernatural stealth.”
“Though one playthrough, in my opinion, is enough, it is not very replayable.”
“There are many other games that are more replayable.”
- atmosphere1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The atmosphere in the game is widely criticized for lacking immersion and enjoyment, leaving players feeling disconnected and unengaged.
“There’s no atmosphere, no immersion, and certainly nothing enjoyable about listening to it.”
“The game feels lifeless and lacks any sense of environment or mood.”
“I found the atmosphere to be flat and uninspired, making it hard to stay engaged.”
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Reviewers note that the monetization strategy of the game feels reminiscent of past cash grab movie tie-ins, suggesting a reliance on the game's association with a popular film rather than offering substantial value or quality.
“The monetization in this game feels like a cash grab, reminiscent of those mediocre movie tie-in games that relied on their franchises to sell.”
“It's frustrating to see so many features locked behind paywalls, making it clear that the developers prioritize profit over player experience.”
“The constant push for in-game purchases detracts from the overall enjoyment, turning what could be a great game into a money-making scheme.”
Critic Reviews
Unknown 9: Awakening Review – 360, Party Girl
Unknown 9: Awakening is a thoroughly AA gaming experience. Like a lost gem from the Xbox 360 era, its charm and jank are intermingled in interesting ways, but its commitment to a unique cultural perspective and killer remixing of the stealth/combat loop elevate it above its slightly unpolished wrappings.
75%Unknown 9: Awakening Review – A compelling first Step
I really enjoyed Unknown 9: Awakening; I loved its pulpy globetrotting action tone and likable cast, and the combat and stealth were rather a lot of fun. The ability to remote control foes and turn them against their allies was a cool unique mechanic that, if anything, could have stood to be even more central to the gameplay. Despite some less-than-stellar boss fights and a somewhat shallow main villain, I had a very good time with Unknown 9: Awakening, and so might you. Hopefully it, and the rest of the Unknown 9 expanded universe, will find enough of an audience that we will see more of Haroona’s story in the future.
80%Unknown 9: Awakening (Xbox Series X) Review
Despite some technical issues and a lacklustre final encounter, Unknown 9: Awakening brings a unique take on combat with an extremely well-acted plot that creates a story truly worth experiencing.
80%