When a game is released to the public they are either great, bad, or in the middle, meaning they could of been great but something went wrong or wasn’t done properly. Unknown 9: Awakening falls into the category of games that had a potentially great story, but unfortunately could not hit the mark. You play as a woman named Haroona, a Quaestor on a mission to avenge the death of her mentor and stop Vincent, the main villain, from getting an ancient power to change the world and prevent the cycle of life and death from continuing like the Unknown 9 had set out to stop near the beginning of time.

Unknown 9: Awakening has a mix of combat and stealth game play, but unfortunately it is lackluster at best and horrible at worst. You don’t have many options to deal with the hordes of enemies you will be facing. During my experience I find it easier to use stealth in all the enemy encounters in the levels. However, the stealth game play boils down to sneaking up on the enemies, knocking them out, causing noise, forcing you to use your abilities to turn invisible and get away before the rest of the enemies arrive. The abilities you do have to take out the enemies will causes too much noise and will have you surrounded before you can react. The main combat is basic as can be. You have regular melee attacks but don’t have any combos to mix up the combat and all of your abilities except a few, are only useful for stealth and puzzles.

As you play through the game, you do gain new abilities  such as turning invisible, pushing enemies away, a shield to block gun fire, and the ability to temporarily possess an enemies body. You can find these white orbs called relics around the levels, to upgrade your abilities to either make them last longer or use them more often. The relics can be found almost anywhere in the levels, even in areas where you have enemy encounters. I recommend looking everywhere to make sure you don’t miss one before advancing the level. There is also another upgrade called Bodies Scribings, which can either upgrade your health or Am meter, which is needed to use your abilities. Bodies Scribings are harder to find since they are usually invisible, unless you use your sight ability. But the game shows you when one is nearby when your character’s gauntlets glow and the controller vibrates. When this happens you can use your sight ability to see where it is located, but it isn’t always easy to get to and you might not be able to get it until later on in the game.

The difficulty of this game is definitely unfair. The very first required fight in the game, has the enemies have weapons that stun you in place. Should they hit you, there aren’t any invincibility frames so if you are surrounded its game over for you. You don’t even start with the ability to block until late in the game, which is the only way to stop gunfire. You also don’t get a ranged option until the fifth level of the game or even an option to deal with enemies when they surround you, making it too important to focus more on stealth then combat. But as stated earlier, stealth is something to be desired. The game does not balance its difficulty well and makes it difficult to enjoy the story or the game play.

As you play through the game, you end up joining a group of explorers looking to take down Vincent and his men. During some levels, one of them will accompany you into the level but they serve no purpose game play wise or even help out in combat, despite most of them having weapons capable of taking down enemies as well. The most they do is allow you to jump up higher ledges, but you are only required to go up these ledges when you advance the level. Otherwise, they only give exposition about the level or backstory of a character. They could have at least had each companion do something different in the level to give them a purpose.

In conclusion, Unknown 9: Awakening had potential but fell short of what it could have been. From basic combat, to lack of options for stealth and mechanics and under utilized characters, this is a game that I wouldn’t worry about missing out on. 

Score: 5 out of 10

Reviewed on PlayStation 5