Unknown 9: Awakening Review – Bandai Namco’s Transmedia Endeavour Falls Spectacularly Flat
As someone who’s been around the gaming block more times than I care to remember, I must confess that Unknown 9: Awakening left me scratching my head in bewilderment. It’s not often you come across a game that promises so much but delivers so little, much like that dodgy takeaway I had on a Friday night back in ’85!
Bandai Namco seems to be treating Unknown 9: Awakening as a major event, not just a game. It comes with comic books, novels, a podcast, and a web series, but it might not live up to the hype. The production values are lackluster; visually, it’s unappealing and unoriginal, the combat is underdeveloped, and the story may leave you feeling apathetic. It’s puzzling why they’ve marketed it as a grand transmedia venture when the end result seems uneven. However, there are some intriguing concepts within, though they might not be enough to redeem a disjointed and inconsistent experience.
In this game, you assume the role of Haroona, portrayed by The Witcher’s Anya Chalotra, a strong Quaestor with a unique link to ‘The Fold’, a spirit realm. This connection grants her various supernatural skills, particularly useful in the numerous stealth sequences throughout the game. The stealth mechanics are well-developed, allowing you to sneak up on foes undetected, silently eliminating them by extracting their souls and then disintegrating them. You can also cause distractions, trigger explosions, or manipulate enemies (who oddly investigate a burning fuel container before it blows up in their face) to control them briefly and sow chaos. It’s during these strategic moments that Unknown 9 truly excels, but unfortunately, when combat ensues, it falters.
Mysteriously, Haroona possesses an extraordinary ability to shatter crates and wooden barrels with just one punch, and in close combat, she demonstrates impressive skills, though the camera occasionally locks erratically, sometimes obstructing your view, and parrying is extremely unpredictable. By gathering glowing anomalies, you’ll accumulate ‘Gnosis Points’ that can be used to learn new abilities, enabling you to more effectively face your adversaries – a group called Ascendants who serve under the sneering villain, Vincent Lichter. To begin with, Haroona can pummel enemies with a rapid series of punches, and later she will acquire Force-like powers to push and pull foes, while eventually gaining Umbric strikes, which disorient enemies, setting them up for a Burst Attack finisher – a barrage of punches targeting their disjointed spirit.
The game Unknown 9: Awakening seems to have been created by developer Reflector Entertainment by tossing a multitude of concepts together, hoping some would stick. The stealth elements work fairly well, but the hand-to-hand combat leaves much to be desired. One major issue with this game is its blandness – it lacks the excitement and visual appeal found in Assassin’s Creed, and fails to capture the same level of intrigue or narrative drive. In truth, the story progresses at such a snail’s pace that it’s challenging to feel invested in its outcome, or even in the characters themselves. During your time aboard the Morning Star airship, which serves as your operational base, you’re occasionally prompted to converse with your allies, but they rarely share anything meaningful, their stories often wandering aimlessly without resolution.
The process of exploration is often hindered by bothersome travel mates that accompany you, such as Luther with his bright white mane. These individuals provide little more than repetitive dialogue that becomes tiresome as you search for the numerous collectibles hidden throughout the environment. However, it must be said that Unknown 9’s environments are aesthetically pleasing, assuming the textures load correctly and the frame rate remains stable, which can sometimes be an issue given the lack of apparent technical demands on the game. Character models seem out of place with their visible flaws such as rough skin textures, straw-like hair, and lifeless eyes. The game also has issues with clipping, glitches, and these minor problems accumulate to create a poorly executed production overall.
It’s unfortunate indeed, considering the significant risk Bandai Namco has taken with this title. If ‘Awakening’ is your introduction to the Unknown 9 universe, one might wonder why you’d intentionally delve deeper into it through its multiple mediums such as comics (‘Torment’), podcasts (‘Out of Sight’), novels (‘Genesis’, a whole trilogy!), and planned web series like ‘Passage’ and ‘The Taylor Files’. At the moment, these are all additional content created by writers and creators. However, I must admit that I struggle to appreciate their worth when the game seems insufficient as a starting point for exploration.
To put it simply, I played Unknown 9: Awakening from start to finish and managed to find a bit of pleasure in it, much like finding something enjoyable about a game you randomly picked up for your Xbox 360 or PS3 back in 2009. It has that old-school B-tier vibe, but we’re now in the year 2024, where we’re usually treated to stunning visuals, cinematic storylines, and well-designed mechanics. Playing a game like Unknown 9: Awakening makes you appreciate how far we’ve come, as it feels like it belongs to a different era, much like Haroona in 1912.
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2024-10-17 18:12