Unknown 9: Awakening review: The Anya Chalotra-led story charms, but combat lacks serious polish

GamesRadar+ VerdictPart of a mixed media web, Unknown 9: Awakening isn’t strong enough to pull us further into its universe. Anya Chalotra’s Haroona is a great protagonist, and causing havoc with supernatural powers can be a delight. But, lacking in polish, Unknown 9: Awakening feels torn between what it wants to be, ultimately undermining its areas of promise to deliver a janky experience. Despite it all, it can still charm – but takes work to love.Pros+Anya Chalotra is great as Haroona+Ripping out the souls of enemies is metal+Supernatural powers enable you to cause chaosCons-Janky combat can undermine the playful powers-Proper noun laden lore can overwhelm-Story can feel choppy GamesRadar+ Verdict GamesRadar+ Verdict Part of a mixed media web, Unknown 9: Awakening isn’t strong enough to pull us further into its universe. Anya Chalotra’s Haroona is a great protagonist, and causing havoc with supernatural powers can be a delight. But, lacking in polish, Unknown 9: Awakening feels torn between what it wants to be, ultimately undermining its areas of promise to deliver a janky experience. Despite it all, it can still charm – but takes work to love. Part of a mixed media web, Unknown 9: Awakening isn’t strong enough to pull us further into its universe. Anya Chalotra’s Haroona is a great protagonist, and causing havoc with supernatural powers can be a delight. But, lacking in polish, Unknown 9: Awakening feels torn between what it wants to be, ultimately undermining its areas of promise to deliver a janky experience. Despite it all, it can still charm – but takes work to love. Pros+Anya Chalotra is great as Haroona+Ripping out the souls of enemies is metal+Supernatural powers enable you to cause chaos Anya Chalotra is great as Haroona Ripping out the souls of enemies is metal Supernatural powers enable you to cause chaos Cons-Janky combat can undermine the playful powers-Proper noun laden lore can overwhelm-Story can feel choppy Janky combat can undermine the playful powers Proper noun laden lore can overwhelm Story can feel choppy Why you can trust GamesRadar+Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about our reviews policy. Why you can trust GamesRadar+Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about our reviews policy. Rift apart You can force enemies into their own mosh pit.(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment) Fast FactsRelease date:18 OctPlatform(s):PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox OneDeveloper:Reflector EntertainmentPublisher:Bandai Namco Entertainment Fast Facts Release date:18 OctPlatform(s):PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox OneDeveloper:Reflector EntertainmentPublisher:Bandai Namco Entertainment Release date:18 OctPlatform(s):PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox OneDeveloper:Reflector EntertainmentPublisher:Bandai Namco Entertainment Combat is plentiful, which might not be the hook you expected considering it stars Anya Chalotra (best known as The Witcher TV series' Yennefer) as Haroona. While she’s a delight, a prickly loner on a quest for revenge when a mission with her mentor goes awry; entering the world of Unknown 9 is, again, something you need to work at. Set in a sort of alternate reality loaded with airships and magic-powered ancient relics, the opening of Unknown 9: Awakening is stuffed to the brim with proper nouns – Am, The Fold, Rifters, Shades, Quaestors, and more. While Haroona’s journal contains a handy glossary, I still felt lost from early on. Not least of all because this transmedia project already contains comics, novels, and podcasts, with two, count ‘em,twoweb series on the way. At times, locations can look beautiful.(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment) A globetrotting adventure ensues as the Ascendents and the Society butt heads trying to uncover the Am-laded secrets of the mysterious and immortal Unknown 9, all while Haroona is after the Ascendents’ leader’s head. After the city-set opening level, for the most part you’re moving through uninhabited ruins making for samey action and also a lack of insight into the society of this world (one for the extended media, I suspect). Visually these locations can be quite pretty, but graphically have more than a few rough edges, many interiors suffering from odd lighting glitches. One of the most metal stealth takedowns in gaming?(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment) Even at its best the stealth doesn’t feel very elegant, with waist-high cover and acres of untended grass. Haroona can remotely draw attention with an orb of Am, but this can get stuck on geometry, sometimes inadvertently causing it to attract enemies much closer than you’d intended. Some of the game’s more memorable areas eschew this structure a bit. One is set in a run-down gothic mansion that has you working from the basement up as you explode magic barrels and uncover lore. Another puts the narrative to the fore as you spirit walk through a kind of dream space, which, thanks to some genuinely trippy world design, makes a trope I’m very much tired of feel fresh. They’re exceptions to the rule, only highlighting how the structure makes the rest of the time feel like a slog. It doesn’t help that there are multiple chapters that plonk you into the same hub base to stand still as NPCs spout optional lore at you. Waking up Haroona’s notes are vital for remembering proper nouns.(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment) Despite it all, Haroona’s journey still charmed me. Despite it all, Haroona’s journey still charmed me. It’s hard to shake the feeling that Unknown 9: Awakening doesn’t know what it wants to be. The presence of Anya Chalotra and a world filled with lore suggests the story should be really important, but awkward cutscenes, pacing, and odd fades to black make it feel incomplete. Am-powered strikes have your spirit doing the pummelling for you.(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment) Despite it all, Haroona’s journey still charmed me, and though it pitches itself as the entry point to a larger world it thankfully does tell a story that feels complete (side-eying The Order 1886 here). But it’s also a game that has too many caveats to recommend unless you’re really able to meet it halfway. The Unknown 9 world is clearly ambitious, but after hitting credits I can’t say I have much interest in further following its narrative universe. Rather than deploying an almost overwhelming amount of mixed media projects at once, I’d have rather seen Unknown 9: Awakening honed to the point where it could truly create fans from its own merits. Instead, it just feels like Unknown 9 puts the gas before the airship. 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Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”