Unknown 9: Awakening review: don’t sleep on this surprisingly intricate gem

digitaltrends.com:

Unknown 9: Awakening MSRP $50.00 Score Details Pros

• Fun, intuitive combat
• Authentically-written South Asian hero
• Worthwhile collectibles

• Technical issues

After spending nearly 20 hours with Haroona, I truly wish I could spend more time with her.

That’s a testament to Reflector Entertainment’s first video game endeavor, Unknown 9: Awakening. The action-adventure game intertwines engaging gameplay with unique player strategy through Haroona’s powers, stealth, and environmental objects that can be exploited to crush enemies. It brings me back to the era of early 2010s games like Tomb Raider (2013), Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and even Prince of Persia: Warrior Within — in all of the best ways.

Despite some solvable technical issues, Reflector Entertainment has successfully crafted an intricate gem with Unknown 9: Awakening. Its experimental combat makes lots of room for player agency, and its hero, Haroona, is the South Asian AAA action-adventure lead I have wanted to see for decades. Her debut makes me crave the boundless globe-trotting adventures and secrets that await her in the future.

Stepping up

The story starts off with Haroona, Unknown 9’s heroine, stowed away in a vehicle driven by her mentor. Both are Quaestors and are able to push and pull objects and people, similar to how the Force works in the Star Wars franchise (though Haroona unlocks more abilities that set her apart from the Jedi very quickly). What begins as a simple revenge story of Haroona trying to kill the head of the Ascendents, Vincent Lichter, quickly becomes an entire conspiracy theory. Haroona discovers clues around the world and finds secret societies trying to break the cycles of determinism and destruction of a malevolent evil that was sealed away long ago by a group called the Unknown 9.

As a Quaestor, Haroona has a variety of combat skills, powers, and abilities usable throughout the course of her journey