Does the name Unknown 9: Awakening ring any bells? If not, you’d be forgiven for forgetting, because the game was originally announced four years ago with an intriguing trailer, and developer Reflector Entertainment has been tight-lipped about the project ever since. It’s part of a multimedia franchise called Unknown 9, which has already seen a novel, comic, and podcast series release all within the same shared universe. MP1st was invited to get a sneak peek at the upcoming video game with a hands-off preview, and we can finally inform you of what’s to come.
One Story From a Larger World
As mentioned, Unknown 9 is a media-spanning franchise, with the game being a part of a shared universe. As development began several years ago, Reflector is using the Unreal Engine 4. While this may not be the latest and greatest, the game still looked and appeared to play just fine. The game was definitely still in an early state, as occasionally enemies would not make a sound even as they were getting beaten up or noticing things out of place. There was apparently an audio-related bug discovered shortly before our demo, but that’s why this was an early look after all.
Unknown 9: Awakening plays in a manner somewhat similar to Assassin’s Creed, in that stealth is generally your best option for surviving, however main character Haroona (played by Anya Chalotra, who plays Yennefer in the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher) has some interesting options at her disposal which are otherworldly. She is a Quaestor, who has a special connection with a parallel dimension to our regular reality called The Fold. With that, she can use telekinetic and telepathic abilities to gain the upper hand. While there is the typical pushing and pulling of things using this ability, she can also “Step” into other people for a short time, which allows her to control their actions while time stays still. What this means in terms of gameplay is that you can hide in the shadows, and set your enemies up to be their own demise.
Stepping Into Control
We saw several working examples of this. Our demo player stepped into one enemy, and made them shoot an explosive barrel that was conveniently nearby. Once set into motion, naturally the enemy who shot the barrel was confused as to why they did this, but this action also alerted other enemies to the area. The player was spotted due to sneaking out of the bushes at an incorrect time, and at this point they were out of charges for the stepping ability, which gets built up over time by performing various actions, but especially by taking out enemies. So, a couple of melee takedowns later, Haroona was ready to step into another enemy. She did so and made one enemy use their large two-handed blade to slice right through two other enemies, while she took care of a couple of stragglers.
Naturally, while this stepping mechanic is very powerful, it does have limitations to prevent the player from using it as a crutch. On the other hand, later sections of the game can see Haroona able to use stepping multiple times in a row, which means eventually you’ll be able to clear entire rooms of enemies without ever using Haroona’s melee moveset. Unknown 9: Awakening includes save slots, thus encouraging experimentation as you are able to run through a scenario, utilizing stepping in different ways or at different times to get completely different results.
Familiar, Yet Separate
Any of Unknown 9: Awakening’s similarity to Assassin’s Creed makes sense, as Reflector’s Chief Creative Officer, Alexandre Amancio, used to be the Creative and Artistic Director at Ubisoft Montreal, as head of Assassin’s Creed. The story even includes two rival factions, both in the search of the truth. There does not seem to be any sort of time-travelling in Unknown 9, however, and the secret societies are interested in finding individuals, not ancient relics. Perhaps most distinctly, Unknown 9 is not an open-world game. The story is linear, for a more tightly-controlled narrative.
Unknown 9: Awakening has an interesting premise, set in a large, multimedia universe which can already be experienced in some form. While this early glimpse at the game was a very quick look at some of the gameplay mechanics on offer, it did show quite a lot of promise. Single player, linear games certainly still hold appeal for many gamers, and the mixture of stealth, action, and puzzle solving should help to keep things fresh. While it has certainly been a long time since Unknown 9: Awakening’s announcement, thankfully there won’t be too much longer of a wait as Reflector Entertainment is ramping up for release on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and Steam this summer.