If you haven’t heard of this game, there are good reasons. However, in reality, Unknown9: Awakening is a title with good intentions and far from being devoid of potential. This action-adventure game turns out to be the first production of the Montreal studio Reflector, founded in 2016 by Alexandre Amancio whom players know for his work on franchises Assassin’s Creed et Far Cry. With such a CV, all the ingredients seem to come together to give rise to real success. But it is clear that the result is far from living up to expectations. And that, Unknown9 was long overdue.
The announcement of the project dates back to Opening Night Live at Gamescom in 2020. The title was released four years later with a launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC on October 18, 2024. If these four years have nothing abnormal in the video game industry where AAA productions take more and more time to appear, it should be remembered thatUnknown 9: Awakening does not fall into this category. This game is a fully accepted AA, from its Price range (€49.99 at launch) to its development under Unreal Engine 4, less complex and less expensive. Today, many studios are trying to prove that there is no need to produce AAA to succeed in the industry. Reflector tried to ride this wave, but ultimately fell short. Both in its gameplay and in its visuals, Unknown9 is more of a low-budget licensed game from the PS2 era than the surprise initially promised.
A messy start that sets the tone
Unknown9: Awakening is biased towards a story anchored in an alternative version of our world. In it, humans called Questors can commune with the Reverse, a strange parallel dimension that gives them supernatural powers. The introductory cinematic tells us that humanity faces an endless cycle of extinction, with the exception of nine members of the very first civilization. That’s a lot to remember in a very short time, and we come away from these first moments of play with the impression that we are trying to drown ourselves under a mountain of lore. The title lays out a whole bunch of notions without ever digging into them and quickly enters the sad model of “shut up, it’s magic“.
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The adventure places us in the shoes of the young protagonist, Haroona, and barely takes the time to introduce her, making it difficult to become attached to the character in the first hours of play. Especially since the entire introductory chapter is intended to be dramatic enough to try to introduce the heroine’s motivations, which then only fall flat. The exploration of supernatural themes in a fantasy version of our planet is an excellent pitch for an ambitious adventure game, but the writing still needs to be able to keep up. Finally, the player finds himself faced with a protagonist with an uncertain character and a not-so-alarming threat, drowned in a gloubiboulga of vague information concerning the Reverse. And unfortunately: the gameplay and visuals ofUnknown9 have nothing to try to make up for the story weaknesses.
A title that doesn’t make you want to continue
We said it earlier: Unknown9 is intended as an AA game, which does not necessarily mean a less good or less ambitious result. The overbidding of AAA in recent years has quickly made us forget that some of the best titles of previous generations fell into this category. Reflector’s production attempts to emulate the charm of games from that era, to no avail. All Haroona’s Adventure seems to borrow from PS2-era adventure games is outdated visuals and lackluster clashes. In reality, it is above all in the modeling of the characters and their animations that the title suffers. The environmental artists have probably managed to get the most out of Unreal Engine 4, because the settings and special effects are generally quite convincing. But as a result, it reinforces the lack of effort put into humans.
The faces seem devoid of any soul, their gazes are so empty. A shame for a game in which the heroine’s power requires a spiritual resource called “Am”. Already the scenario does not facilitate immersion in this universe, but the animation of the dialogues gives the impression of following the story on the lips of amorphous puppets. We almost fall into the valley of the uncanny. The difficulty that Unknown9: Awakening to transcribe human movements is also found in the gameplay. The combat phases are completely unintuitive and almost require you to hammer the attack buttons, even on higher difficulty. Moreover, these have been placed on the triggers, enough to push the feeling of discomfort even into the grip.
The game attempts to take advantage of Haroona’s powers in numerous infiltration scenes, all of which are as frustrating as the rest of the adventure. You can try to throw enemies against decorative elements, to stun them… But nothing helps. The AI spots us far too easily, so much so that it always ends up coming to blows, much to our chagrin since the combat system is absolutely unsatisfactory. This title may offer a fairly sustained pace, but we find ourselves experiencing the story as a series of barely significant sequences, for an average ensemble at best.
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