Analysis of Unknown 9: The Awakening, an inverted beginning

Bandai Namcohand in hand with Reflector entertainment, makes us reach Unknown 9: Awakening. This new IP address which is in the genre of third-person action and adventure with an atmosphere of fantasy arrives on new/old generation consoles with the principle of creating a new saga. From there, a transmedia product which aims to exploit everything we observe throughout the chapters of the game. Now, Is it worth recreating it in this new IP? The indicated answer would probably be the following yes, even if this video game seems to have more shadows than lights.

I played Unknown 9: Awakening in one Xbox Series running the Xbox Series X/S version. Without further ado, let’s get to the analysis.

Unknown 9: Awakening has a background that appears more elaborate than what is initially shown on screen

The story of Unknown 9: Awakening revolves around our protagonist, Aaron (to which he gives voice and face Mother Chalotra). With the possibility of seeing a world beyond reality (called the opposite), Aaron follow the teachings of your teacher, Wander. This questora dominates the power of Umbrian Artswhich he aims to teach to his apprentice. The world as we know it today (located at the beginning of the 20th century) seems to be coming to an end, thus fulfilling one of the self-destruct cycles which occur every x years.

This goes much further, since there are nine foreigners who intend to find a way so that this does not happen again in perpetuity. But as in any good story worthy of the name, Vincent and his faction, the ascendantsthey intend to remove the influence of these nine unknowns in time to bring the future of humanity to a better place (although, as we can understand, this will cause the opposite effect). This is where Aaronafter years of lethargy, takes possession of his powers in search of Wander and with the goal of saving humanity.

Basically, this story is told through cutscenes that are not poorly prepared, even if they could have gone further. Some characters in this story have the enough charisma want to know more about them, as is the case with Luther. However, it is true that our protagonist and the villain (Vincent), have a fairly nominal personality who really fails to give us convincing reasons as to his motivations. On the other hand, the majority of traditions of Unknown 9: Awakening is counted by notes, objects, etc. So to fully understand its context, you have to read for a long time.

An adventure that touches on all the themes of traditional adventures, but fails to exploit any of them

Unknown 9: Awakening responds to what we commonly understand as a action-adventure. To have puzzle, melee action, stealth, exploration…but not all the table legs have the right effect. The main problem is that this adventure seems from another generation, and it should not be bad at first if the correct synergies were established, but in the general calculation we think that at any time we’ve seen this too many times. We advance through the levels, avoiding enemies, exploring the playable spaces a little (enough corridors) and solving extremely basic puzzles.

And the truth is that We don’t get bored while doing it either.the game knows how to capture our attention at times. Although it seems like a fairly predictable story, it does have some good moments, as well as some levels that aren’t bad at all. We will have a base of operations located in nothing more and nothing less than a zeppelin. At this location we can interact with the crewlearn a little more about them and their history. Although many of these characters are presented in a very residualwithout really adding anything to the title.

The levels are more of corridors, with moderately open areas that will be full of enemies, being able to avoid them in the best way we create. The rest of the map has more hidden areas, where we can collect collectibles and acquire a series of orbs which will be used to unlock new tree skills. Many of these sections will also feature a series of fairly basic puzzles, which will break up the monotony of the level a bit but won’t add much either.

Combat, the most interesting point of Unknown 9: Awakening

In Unknown 9: Awakening was implemented a combat system which is quite special. We have the possibility of stopping time for a few seconds, thus being able to take possession of our enemies to be able to order their actions against others or against themselves. This magic occurs via the backhand and is very useful for weakening rivals. Also, quite curious situations will be created since we will be able to interact with certain elements of the scenario. Maybe, could have been exploited a little more.

Concerning conventional combat, we will be able to carry out light attacks, stronger attacks, dodges, blocks…Something typical of action games. Our main weapon is a kind of gauntlets who use magic in reverse. As we progress through the story, we unlock a series of skills such as a force push, stopping time with a dodge, or performing a devastating parry. Although this the fight is a bit rough in executiongiving us a very unsatisfactory feeling during its production.

On the other hand, we have stealth. Use the skills of Aaronwe can activate some devices remotely. Like being able to detonate classic explosive barrels, activate or deactivate traps, etc. Additionally, we can knock down our opponents from behind, be able to complete most scenarios using stealth alone. The AI ​​doesn’t act entirely correctly, giving us some moments where it responds appropriately and others where we’ll sweep through a camp almost without blinking. When they start to appear special enemiesThings get a little more complex, although you can always disappear and start again. We will also have fights against fairly nominal final patterns.

Graphically, it looks like a totally old-gen game, while the audio lives up to expectations

Unknown 9: Awakening it looks like an old generation game. This is due to the graphic level that the title shows, with a art that attracts attention but some textures, character editing and lighting typical of the last generation. If we add to all this that the title is necessarily moved to 30 frames per second And, performance is not quite adequate (with clear drops in fps), we end up with a section which could have given much more of itself. On the other hand, the sound more than respects, with translations into our language both in voice and text and a successful soundtrack at any time.

Conclusion

Unknown 9: Awakening It’s a fairly low-key action-adventure game. Its tradition makes us feel at all times that behind all this we are confronted with a work which has great narrative interest. But execution its exploration, its puzzles, its stealth and its combat (except strategic mode) fails to reach the level we all would have liked. Technically, it’s quite economicalin addition to having a performance problem. Of course he has a good sound section. It seems that This new saga started a little backwardsalthough that doesn’t stop it from being entertaining and interesting to play.

Unknown 9: Awakening This now available has Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 Yes PC. Stay with us and visit our website via the following link.