Unknown 9: Awakening

Unknown 9: Awakening was provided by Bandai Namco for review. Thank you!

I love when games expand their stories in unique ways outside of their original game. Usually, this is done with sequels or spin-off series, and my favorites have been the League of Legends universe (RIP) and what Nexon is starting to do with the Dungeon Fighter Online universe, but Unknown 9 is much more unique. Instead of just video games, Unknown 9 expands into other media like comic books, novels, and even podcasts. While there are other bigger series that have done this, like Star Wars, there's something special about seeing it with other smaller media or ones that have roots in forms of media outside of movies.

The universe started relatively recently, and Unknown 9: Awakening is their first foray into video games, and it is starting on a very strong point. The world and lore sucked me in, and while there are some issues that I would love to have seen ironed out, it was ultimately a really enjoyable experience and a great way to dive into the fantastic story behind it.

In Unknown 9: Awakening, you play as Haroona, a young woman who is mastering her powers and becoming a Quaestor. She is able to interact with a supernatural dimension called The Fold and channel it into unique powers called Umbric Abilities. After confronting an old student who has started meddling with powers that could harm society, her master, Reika, loses her life, and Haroona escapes with her life. Now, four years later, she has been training for vengeance and will end up going on an adventure to master her powers and learn more about her connection to The Fold.

While the story does evolve into something more predictable, it is somewhat saved by the fantastic voice acting, especially from Haroona's voice actor Anya Chalotra. I liked the characters and how they were implanted into the story. There is a lot of lore as well, and if you aren't interested and want to learn some of the specific vocabulary they use, it could feel overwhelming. I did enjoy the tale it told overall though, and was curious throughout how the story would end.

The combat does have some minor issues, but I ended up loving it. Fighting enemies while using the Umbric Abilities is exhilarating, and I loved combining all of the mechanics to create some really awesome moments. While you can use light and heavy attacks, you are also able to use your powers to distract, pull, and push enemies and even control them. Each mechanic can be combined with each other in combat to make things so much more exciting and cool.

For example, I was fighting a group of enemies and was a bit overwhelmed, but from there, I stepped into someone and used their gun to shoot a person in the head. Then I took over another person and smacked the ground near a generator that could explode. After that, I went back into my own body and pulled an enemy towards that generator right before it blew up, taking down three of them at once. I ran to the first person I took over and used heavy attacks to take them down, which replenished one of my tokens to take over another person. With two enemies left, I took over one of them and smacked the other, killing them. I then hid, and when the last person lost sight of me, I crawled behind them and stealth killed them.

I had so many moments like this, and it felt fantastic being able to chain all of these abilities together. However, there are a couple of issues I found when in active combat. The lock-on system would sometimes unlock, and I would lose sight of an enemy when I was trying to punch them. Haroona doesn't gravitate towards enemies either, and I found myself sometimes attacking the air around enemies. They can also dodge really effectively and block your attacks to break combos a bit too often, and it got a bit annoying since sometimes my heavy attacks would miss, and they would be able to hit me before I recovered.

There are some stealth elements that do work, but with the janky combat overall, it can be a bit obnoxious. If this was a bit more refined, the combat would be top-notch, and while I did find some enjoyment when I was using all of my powers effectively, like taking control of someone to get in front of a bullet that was shot at me, it can be brought back down as soon as you start to fight with your fists. The camera can also get in the way at times in these situations, which only makes it a bit more aggravating.

I also had a love-hate relationship with Unknown 9: Awakening's progression system. You will end up having to go around the world to find nodes to give you skill points to unlock new abilities and increase your health and energy. The best way to find them is peeking into The Fold, which highlights these and collectibles, but there were multiple times I forgot to do this and I am sure I missed some points to get more powers. Nothing on the skill tree stood out to me as particularly interesting, but it did the job.

I did find most of the areas and world interesting to look at, and it is beautiful under some light. The level design is okay, and it doesn't feel as fluid as it could have been due to some restrictions, like not being able to jump. It's a very linear, slow experience in this sense, and I would have loved being able to jump around and use my powers to more quickly traverse the world and the cool locations they did have on display.

And while it is a bit difficult, the game is technically playable on the Steam Deck.

Unknown 9: Awakening - Steam Deck Performance

Unknown 9: Awakening is the perfect example of a game that should have a 2.5 star rating. It is technically playable, and doesn’t look bad, but there’s are definitely framerate drops that can crop up. A lot of these drops happen in closer-up cutscenes, but they can drop while running around and in battles. I’ve never seen it drop below 25 FPS outside of these cutscenes, and that’s at almost the lowest settings. The game pushes the GPU really hard, keeping it close to 99% almost the entire time.

I did find that setting upscaling too low would help performance but become way too pixelated, and setting too high would cause more drops. RAM also gets a bit close to max but never got to the point of crashing. There were a couple of stutters here and there, but nothing unreasonable. It's a lot of compromise, but in the end, I found it playable.

So, with this in mind, I have two ways to play.

Recommended Settings

My favorite way to play does have some drops, but it looks decent and feels pretty smooth when done in most scenes. With a 30 FPS cap, we will have the lowest settings on with FSR upscaling at Balanced. We will also be setting the resolution to 1152x720. I usually wouldn’t change the resolution, but it brought some scenes from 26 FPS to 30, and I didn’t feel it had a significant image quality reduction. There are still going to be some spots that drop, but they aren’t too bad. With a 30 FPS cap, it feels okay despite the slowdowns, and I never really felt combat suffer from it too much.

There may have been one time where a slowdown impacted my ability to dodge, but I am terrible at it even when there aren’t slowdowns. The game feels great for the most pat and it held 30 more than I expected it to, other than in some cutscenes.

More Stable Settings

I also wanted to make a group of settings that were stable, and while it is a big compromise, it’s at least stable. We can keep the resolution at 1280x800, but with all other settings on low, FSR at Balanced, and a framerate cap of 24 FPS/72Hz. It definitely doesn’t feel nearly as smooth as 30, but it’s not unplayable and does stay stable more often. Some cutscenes will still drop, which is a shame, but it will not fluctuate as much or feel impactful when it drops.

I don't necessarily recommend this way to play as 30 FPS is my personal standard, but I wanted to include this as an option for those who don't care about framerate at all and would rather have less noticeable drops.

Accessibility

There is a specific accessibility tab in the game for Tritanopia, Deuteranopia, and Protanopia, as well as toggles to auto-target and switch target in combat, toggle camera shake, and turn on audio cues. You can also change controller scheme and icons, invert camera, change UI element displays and scale, change audio sliders, and change language and subtitles.

The game does support 16:10 resolutions, controllers, and cloud saves. There are no HDR options.

Conclusion

Unknown 9: Awakening left me with a mixed feeling, but I ultimately had a good time. I love the lore and world that is being built through this game and all the other forms of media around it, and the voice acting is superb against the mediocre story. The powers you have really shake up combat a lot, and it is so much fun when chaining everything together, but the janky camera and small issues all build up and create an obnoxious when not using the abilities you have. And while it is technically playable on Steam Deck, it does require compromises and will have drops.

But, if you are looking for a linear adventure with PS3/Xbox 360 vibes, you are in the right place and will have a great time here.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.