Unknown 9: Awakening Review – Hear the best-known stories

The last few generations of games have been strong in many ways and given us many memorable, top-notch releases, but they've also become undeniably tiring. Live services, battle passes, ever-increasing development times, and so much more have irrevocably changed the landscape of the medium as we know it.

As someone who first fell in love with video games as a solo player, with the wave of multiplayer-focused releases, finding a linear triple-A title was akin to finding a needle in a haystack full of microtransactions. I've spent a lot of time recently wishing I could get back into the solo campaign on PS3 and Xbox 360, and luckily Unknown 9: Awakening came along.

Meanwhile is Part of a multimedia universe comprised mostly of comics, novels, and podcasts, Unknown 9 gave me exactly what I was looking for. The most modern game. Technical issues and repetitiveness keep it from achieving greatness, but the solid story and unique mechanics make it worth the journey.

A story full of soul

In Unknown 9: Awakening, you draw energy from another world called the Fold to become invisible, enter someone else's body (as I told you) and take control of that body. While exploring the ruins with her mentor Reika, an evil society known as the Ascendants forces Haruna to go it alone and sends her on a path of revenge.

Once you get past the thesaurus' worth of knowledge and space terminology – if you're wondering, Queastors are basically adventurers – the story of the Unknown 9 is a heartfelt one about learning to be your own person, deal with grief, and find your place in the world. This is a story. universe. While some of the late game's twists are predictable, the well-acted and humanizing characters elevate the somewhat clichéd story to one of the game's best elements.

In particular, Haroona, played by Anya Chalotra, stands out as one of my favorite characters of 2024 for her never-say-die witty attitude and unwavering confidence despite the loss that drives her every move. . There are shades of Lara Croft and Nathan Drake in her and she makes for a wonderful protagonist who is held together by an equally great supporting cast that prevents Unknown 9 from becoming bogged down when it goes into exposition.

Haroona's main companions, Luther and Buchra, also had a huge impact on the story and had me invested in almost every way.

channeling the unknown

But the comparisons to Uncharted aren't just about Haroona being as talkative as Nate during his adventures traveling around the world. The core gameplay loop of active stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and light platforming (all mixed with a healthy dose of collectible hunting and helping your companions reach higher ledges) rang very familiar Naughty Dog bells in my head.

The main ace of Unknown 9 and what sets it apart from other third-person action games is Haroona's Umbric ability. During combat, she can use long-range attacks to push and pull enemies, deflect bullets with her magic shield, explode or collapse nearby objects, and even send her soul to build up a high-damage takedown move. .

When you combine all of the above with Haroona's body-stealing ability, things get really interesting. This ability allows you to stop time and subdue enemies, unleashing attacks on you and your unsuspecting friends. At first, I mainly used it to sneakily take down enemies as they approached me, but I quickly got used to it and started orchestrating pure chaos.

Initially, only one person can possess it at a time, but eventually it can be moved between three people at a time.

Near the end of the game, I jumped on a beast, causing a massive shockwave, and jumped on one of his companions, activating a nearby explosive canister, detonating everyone around him. At its best, Unknown 9: Awakening's Soul Stepping can seem like an E3 demo that's been practiced a million times, and even when the adventure felt like it was dragging, the delightfully sinister ways in which Haroona's powers could be used never failed me. . laugh.

As fun as it is to use helpless villains to set up a domino effect of murder, helpless hand-to-hand combat is useful, but sometimes a little clumsy and weightless. The same goes for stealth. This is pretty basic when you're not turning invisible or walking up to your opponent and attempting a blatant takedown. It's a shame you can't have people for longer or have them do more complicated things like disabling traps. Because that would raise stealth capabilities to the equivalent of instantaneous combat.

The feel of the last generation is not always appreciated

Unknown 9's last-gen approach to delivering a linear adventure has largely made me very happy, but frequent technical issues make it feel dated in a less purposeful way. When playing on PS5, framerate drops, character getting stuck in the environment, and collectible bugs make it a little less nostalgic.

Unknown 9 also sent me the first “PS5 is too hot” warning notification, which was surprising considering the graphics don't exactly push the system.

Aside from the gorgeous environments, Unknown 9 doesn't stand out much thanks to its outdated character models and blurry textures. I've never been big on graphics, and while I'd prefer something a little less shiny if it meant more unique mechanics and depth of gameplay, Haroona's Adventures clearly could have used a little more time in the oven.

Even when these technical issues halted my time leaping at enemies, Unknown 9: Awakening's stellar cast of characters and ingenious soul-crushing combat mechanics kept me invested throughout this glorious last-gen adventure. That's absolutely meant as a compliment, given how depressing this generation has been at times.

Score: 3.5/5. The PS5 code was provided by the publisher.