Unknown 9 Awakening preview: A promising new IP emerges

I’ve had my eye on Unknown 9: Awakening for quite some time, because I think there’s an enormous gap in the market for more AA action-adventure titles. Too often I feel that mid-sized studios aim to create a God of War Ragnarök or Elden Ring-esque world on a much tighter budget. There’s no shame in reigning in your vision. A vision that proportionally reflects your budget can yield a far better result than a AA game disguised as a AAA.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden springs to mind as the perfect example. It’s easily one of my favourite plays of the year so far and exactly the kind of thing I want to see more of. It borrows from the AAA formula, offering a compelling narrative and a beautiful open-world but so too is it reasonably sized - free of the kind of bloat AAAs can afford to have. With that in mind, I was hoping to see something similar from Unknown 9: Awakening at this year’s Gamescom - and I got exactly what I was after.

Unknown 9: Awakening is a game that I sense will appeal to those who are fans of Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed, boasting a healthy sense of adventure with a dash of mysticism. I had the opportunity to go hands-on with the game for around 30-minutes and while there are aspects I’d like to see more of, including the game’s narrative and world, I came away impressed with its combat system - and a winning combat system is the key foundation to a solid action experience.

Take a look at Unknown 9: Awakening in action below.

Unknown 9: Awakening centres around Haroona, a Quaestor born with the ability to enter a dimension known as The Fold. Throughout the game, it’s up to you to seek out the secrets of The Fold, mastering its power and fighting off those who seek to take it for themselves. As I said, I didn’t get the opportunity to experience much in the way of story or exploration. Instead, I was dropped into a combat encounter that saw Haroona defend a village from a hostile group of foes who, I’m led to believe, will prove to be a recurring threat for Haroona throughout the game.

Built in Unreal Engine 5, naturally, Unknown 9: Awakening boasts pleasing graphics and although the village I spent time in reflected just a miniscule fraction of the game’s wider map, I felt that it was well designed. There were plenty of opportunities for cover as well as a number of element-based traps positioned around me that I could set upon my enemies - fire, toxic gas, and such like.

As for the combat itself, that’s all focused around Haroona’s powers as a Quaestor which I can only describe as a kind of magical force field she can wield. You can push and pull enemies, allowing you to either buy yourself a bit of time or pull in a foe to deal the final blow. Umbric attacks are going to be your best friend. With the options of light and heavy, you can either deal a quick slice of damage or use the heavy to chip away at your enemy’s defences. Eventually, you can put them in a ‘fazed’ state, allowing you to temporarily have free reign.

Credit / Bandai Namco

Perhaps my favourite mechanic though is what’s known as stepping. This allows Haroona to temporarily assume control over an enemy. What you do with that power is completely up to you. You might simply use this brought time to move enemies further away if you find that you’re too heavily under attack, or you might prompt the controlled enemy to turn on one of their comrades. Given that Haroona herself doesn’t have a gun, at least in the portion of the game I experienced, I made sure that any time I ‘stepped’ into a foe with a gun, I’d use it to land as many damaging blows as I could before the time ran out.

Given that I only encountered one group of enemies in this particular demo, I presume that stepping is going to provide for a wide array of unique combat encounters as players find more and more ways of using their enemies’ strengths against them. Of course, you can also opt for the stealthy approach. Haroona can use her powers to launch a ripple that acts as a distraction, as well as temporarily turn invisible. I tried this but I will not lie, all hell quickly broke loose. I did find that the invisibility skill is useful in the heat of a major brawl too, quickly confusing your enemies and buying you both healing time and the time to reposition.

From what I could tell, healing automatically powered back up although I wasn’t able to clarify whether this was as I landed hits or just via the passage of time. Regardless though, it’s an indication of Unknown 9: Awakening’s accessibility when it comes to difficulty. I found the game to just have the right level of challenge. I didn’t succeed on my first attempt but then it did take me a short while to grow accustomed to the controls. On my second attempt, I was able to best the group and their leader, albeit relying on that healing tool. It was a close shave.

Credit / Bandai Namco

But that's what you want, a sense of peril without too much frustration. While Unknown 9: Awakening’s demo was a tad limited, I came away impressed by what I saw. Without getting a sense of the game’s wider world and story, it’s difficult to pass too much judgement but I certainly enjoyed its combat system and find myself looking forward to seeing how else Haroona’s powers can be utilised.

I continue to ask and hope for video game fans to begin embracing AAs. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden flew under the radar when it offered so much entertainment and promise simply because it lacked budget and promotion. Unknown 9: Awakening feels, so far, like another recipe for success. Haroona’s unique powers have captured my interest and attention, and this too could be the start of another budding franchise. I simply hope it’s given that opportunity.

Unknown 9: Awakening is set to launch on 18 October on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.