Almost four years ago, the studio Reflector Montreal revealed an enigmatic teaser for a game called Unknown 9: Awakening. All in CGI, and short of a minute and a half, it didn't show us much about its universe, and even less about its gameplay. After years of work, the development teams are finally ready to reveal more to us, with a few surprises to boot.
Unknown 9: Awakening is an action adventure game centered on the character of Haroona, a young woman with almost supernatural powers. She manages to use and travel in a parallel dimension called the "fold", a special ability that will allow her to avenge the death of her master. A scenario that will lead the heroine to travel through different regions of her world and perfect her skills.
While the game is barely being revealed, we were able to attend a preview session with representatives from the studio. We were then able to discover a few dozen minutes of gameplay, environments and hand-picked game saves, which already give us a glimpse of what Unknown 9: Awakening has in store. Is this first shot promising?
Do you recognize this actress?
The action of the game takes place in an alternative world inspired by our universe. Some cities and settings remind us of India, for example, and we face its more or less already known technologies. In terms of time, the game is set in 1912, which particularly affects the costumes and weapons. Overall, we are dealing with a rather visually immersive game, with “corridor” type environments and some “arena” type areas.
The latter house all the combat parts of the game and stand out from the rest of the story by their strong strategic potential. If we were not able to experience the narration, we were able to see some clashes, presenting the character’s skills. Fans of the Witcher series will also not fail to recognize Anya Chalotra who plays Yennefer in the Netflix production. There are several ways to approach the fight: head-on, or indirectly.
Several approaches to the same problem
It is possible to possess the body of your enemies for a few seconds to build a retreat strategy. You can thus use certain elements of the scenery, and even make repeated possessions to trigger chain actions. The technique is limited to the number of tokens you have, so you can't abuse it. You also have to keep a certain mastery of movements and blows because everything happens rather quickly.
Otherwise, it is also possible to use an invisibility power or to rush into the heap. At first glance, the game seems to adapt to several styles of combat without too much effort and with a certain measure in the use of special skills. One would tend to think that the clashes can break the overall rhythm of the game, and this by compartmentalizing them in closed areas, like obligatory stages during the adventure. Fortunately, the little respite the enemies give the protagonist quickly brings back momentum.
In addition to its fights, Unknown 9: Awakening will work on its narration. During our session, the characters spoke very little for reasons of discretion in the story. We were only able to see the jungle, until the appearance of the airship below. Overall, we appreciate the rather sober HUD which reinforces the feeling of immersion. It feels like we're dealing with a Tomb Raider 3.0 with more special effects.
A game like we're making too many of?
For the moment, and without having had the controller in hand, we can only express reservations about the hook potential of Unknown 9: Awakening. The transmedia aspect is always an interesting added value for a franchise, but often struggles to attract crowds when it takes place from its creation. The public is scattered and the weight of each work loses its effectiveness. We can only hope that the game will free itself from this trend, although today Unknown 9: Awakening does not seem to stand out much.
Over the last two years, we have been treated to many games of the genre, mixing science fiction and magic, but especially exploration and exotic (or at least non-Western) environments. Even having a famous headliner has been seen at EA with Immortals of Aveum and actor Darren Barnet (Never Have I Ever). Especially since some themes are commonplace, it remains to be seen whether the title can diversify its offering. It is therefore advisable to scrutinize future communications around the project and wait for a real hands-on experience to form a clearer opinion on its place in the industry today.
Unknown 9: Awakening announces its availability window for summer 2024 on all Xboxes, PlayStations, and PCs.
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