Unknown 9: Awakening looks to master the flow of combat

Bandai Namco and the team at Reflector Studios have been building to the expansion of the Unknown 9 sci-fi universe for the past few years. They took players on a deep dive into Unknown 9: Awakening earlier this year, but PAX West 2024 provided a first opportunity for Shacknews. It was time to finally try the game out.

For those who don't remember our preview from earlier this year, Unknown 9: Awakening tells the story of Haroona, a young woman out to avenge the death of her mentor at the hands of the Ascendants. She is adept at tapping into the powers of the Fold, but hasn't quite mastered her potential just yet. Fortunately, she'll have plenty of opportunity to apply her powers out in the field against a slew of Ascendant baddies.

The PAX West demo saw Haroona make her way through a dockside town crawling with Ascendant goons. The goal was to make it through undetected and use Haroona's abilities to take out any opposition quietly. With her Step ability, it was easy enough to take out guard patrols by possessing an enemy for a brief moment and taking out other foes with their weapons or their own unique moves. Sometimes, it was as simple as turning the possessed guard's firearm and shooting their cohorts. Other times, there would be a flammable object, so Haroona could direct a possessed enemy to shoot it and blow up everyone nearby.

At one point, Haroona was faced with a larger Bruiser enemy type, but fortunately, Step worked on him just as well. The larger baddie had special moves that he could utilize, giving players a chance to unleash those moves on any supporting enemies. Step only lasts for a brief period and requires Step Tokens to use, which are refilled with successful stealth takedowns.

Haroona's Umbric abilities give many of Unknown 9: Awakening's stealth action sequences a heavy dose of strategy. Players can use Haroona's Peek ability to examine the area ahead, spot any hostiles, and lay out a game plan for how to take them out. One of her abilities is Shroud, which allows her to briefly turn invisible and give her a chance to sneak behind patrolling enemies. If she's spotted, Haroona is adept with melee combat and can mix it together with Umbric abilities like Push, which can shove foes back and create an opening for attack by either stunning them momentarily or sending them into an environmental hazard. Conversely, Pull can be used to pull down pesky snipers from their elevated perches.

The lasting impression of Unknown 9: Awakening I was left with was that its approach to combat would be open-ended. Players could deal with batches of enemies however they wish, allowing for multiple gameplay styles. Haroona will apparently have additional Fold abilities later in the game, but I wasn't quite able to try those out during the course of the demo.

The last thing to note is that voice actress Anya Chalotra looks to be sinking her teeth into Unknown 9: Awakening's lead role. Coming over from Netflix's The Witcher, Chalotra carried herself off like a capable action hero in the brief time I had with the game and it'll be interesting to measure her performance through the rest of the story.

Unknown 9: Awakening is almost ready to roll out. Look for it to come to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on Friday, October 18.

This preview is based on an early PlayStation 5 build played behind closed doors at PAX West 2024. The final product is subject to change.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?