Unknown 9: Awakening looks promising, but doesn't feel wholly original
I came away from my Unknown 9: Awakening preview at Gamescom feeling like there's promise, but that I need to see how its combat fits into its wider world.
Lloyd Coombes
27th Aug 2024 11:05
Images via Bandai Namco
Unknown 9: Awakening has a whole host of pressure on it as the first chapter in what is intended as a "transmedia franchise" that stretches across podcasts, live-action shorts, and a video game franchise.
That means it needs to set a strong foundation for itself, particularly amongst other third-person action titles. While I was impressed by some elements of my gameplay demo at Gamescom, I feel I need to see a lot more to see how it differs from the rest of the pack.
Haroona Hits Hard
Unknown 9: Awakening stars Haroona, a young woman with the ability to tap into another dimension called The Fold. This gives her a series of powers that feel genuinely unique in the modern gaming landscape.
She doesn't use weapons, instead leaping out of her physical form to deal damage through a sort of spiritual doppelganger. That bleeds into things like ranged attacks, too, sending her ghost-like form out in front to fight enemies, while also being able to power up an area-of-effect attack.
She needs all of these abilities in the section I played, too, as she's beset on all sides by a series of bad guys wielding rifles and power-dampening melee weapons.
Step Up
The most unique and enjoyable of Haroona's abilities is the Step, which lets her possess an enemy, set up an attack for them, and then shift to the next enemy and onward. This can be chained multiple times, causing a sort of 'Rube Goldberg' chain of death and misery as one trooper shoots their comrade, at the same time as they slam the ground to deal damage to another enemy, who then shoots the first one.
It's a fun, inventive mechanic that calls to mind Quicksilver's best moments in the X-Men movies, setting pieces into place before knocking them over once time catches up.
That all works nicely within the sort of shanty camp the battle takes place in because it sent objects flying and NPCs fleeing, and Unknown 9: Awakening is certainly a very pretty game to look at - it's just hard to do so in a combat-focused environment such as this.
Final Thoughts
Sadly, the short demo only highlighted Unknown 9: Awakening's combat chops, and while it was fun, it felt just like any other third-person action game aside from those fun powers. I'll need to see much more of the game before I can decide if it's one I'll be picking up at launch.
Unknown 9: Awakening launches on October 17, 2024. For more from Gamescom, check out our preview of Dragon Ball: SPARKING! Zero.
About The Author
Lloyd Coombes
Lloyd is GGRecon's Editor-in-Chief, having previously worked at Dexerto and Gfinity, and occasionally appears in The Daily Star newspaper. A big fan of loot-based games including Destiny 2 and Diablo 4, when he's not working you'll find him at the gym or trying to play Magic The Gathering.
