Unknown 9: Awakening

Unknown 9: Awakening is an action adventure game created by Reflector Entertainment and Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game takes us on a journey to an original universe known as Storyworld, in which humanity tries to maintain a balance between transcendence and self-destruction.

Plot

The main character of Unknown 9: Awakening is Haroona, played by Anya Chalotra, known for her role as Yennefer in The Witcher tv series from the Netflix streaming platform. A girl raised on the streets of Kolkata in India is haunted by visions of her own death. Under the mentor's watchful eye, the protagonist learns to control her supernatural abilities to manipulate the unseen, and also gains access to a hidden dimension known as the Fold, the secrets of which she strives to unravel. Haroona's abilities make her a target for the so-called Ascendants, led by their founder - Vincent Lichter, who plan to use them to change the course of human history.

The story presented in Unknown 9: Awakening is only a part of the larger universe of Unknown 9, set in the Storyworld. The novel Unknown 9: Genesis by Layton Green, the podcast Unknown 9: Out of Sight, and the comic book Unknown 9: Torment are among those that make up the story. Before the premiere of the game, a social media text game called Unknown 9: Chapters was also made available, which was developed by the Montreal team Alice & Smith.

Nine books play a key role in the world of Unknown 9. They contain all the wisdom accumulated by all civilizations that have ever inhabited the Earth. Each of the civilizations reached an extremely high level of development and then led to self-destruction. So that their knowledge would not be in vain, they decided to write it down. The books, however, were to be guarded by nine ageless (but not immortal, which is why many of them had successors over the centuries) guardians, who then were to secretly influence the fate of subsequent generations and civilizations.

Mechanics

In Unknown 9: Awakening we watch the action from a third-person perspective (TPP). Adventure leads us through various places - from the jungles in India, through the deserts in Mauritania, to Portugal filled with Gothic architecture. Additionally, the protagonist occasionally transports herself to the Fold, which operates under different laws from the world she knows.

While traversing locations and carrying out assigned missions, Haroona must face opponents. On the battlefield, the protagonist uses her supernatural abilities, which allows her to manipulate people and objects. She uses them both to face enemies in open combat and to act silently.

The heroine is capable of creating an energy shield that protects her from attacks, and generating a shock wave that repels enemies within her range. In addition, Haroona has the ability to take control over the body of a selected adversary in order to face other enemies in their skin and use their weapons.

Technical aspects

Unknown 9: Awakening runs on Unreal Engine 5.