Unknown 9: Awakening Hands-on Preview: An unconvincing demo leaves much to be desired

I've had the chance to see a fair bit of Unknown 9: Awakening over the past few months, but that's as far as it's gone. We're less than two months away from launch, and it was only at Gamescom that I first got a chance to go actually hands-on and get a taste of how this game plays.

Now, a quick disclaimer: the demo I tested at the German trade fair was brief at best. It dropped me into a combat encounter and asked me to defeat all of the threats standing in my way. There was no time for narrative or storytelling, environmental appreciation, or even much of a chance to learn the ropes. I was essentially handed a loaded gun and sent to the frontlines. What I'm trying to say is that this brief preview will solely revolve around how Unknown 9: Awakening's combat feels in action, as the rest of the game is something I'm yet to experience.

As I noted in my preview of the game back in March, Unknown 9: Awakening is a game all about flow. As the protagonist Haroona, you have to use stealth, environmental manipulation, hand-to-hand combat, and Umbric abilities that tap into the potential of the Fold to unlock supernatural moves and skills. There's a lot of creative potential with this setup, but from my brief experience with the game, it's not all sunshine and rainbows in practice.

You can see that developer Reflector Entertainment had grand plans for how the Umbric abilities would affect and impact the action, but truth be told they feel like an afterthought made to complement basic and rudimentary melee action. Effectively, the idea is to use Stepping skills to jump into enemies, control them and get them to attack their own allies or activate environmental elements, such as igniting an explosive barrel. You can chain Stepping actions so that two enemies turn on their friends at once, and this all means that Haroona can be the least of her opponents' worries.

However, in practice, Stepping can be quite difficult and rigid to master, meaning it's often easier to just use Haroona's more basic melee actions instead, running headfirst into action, punching, kicking, blocking, parrying, dodging, and using a few more straightforward Umbric skills to cause havoc. For one, I found using Umbric skills to activate environmental elements manually was far easier and superior to Stepping and having an enemy do so. Also, the pull mechanic that allows you to drag an enemy toward you quickly is hugely useful for isolating and breaking down enemy formations and even eliminating the ranged foes that use firearms to make your life a nuisance. Sure, you can use a shield mechanic to block a bit of damage, but you won't be able to permanently avoid taking a hit or two, hence why it's often easier to get up-close-and-personal and to quickly take down threats with a one-two punching combination.

The enemy variety is perhaps the saving grace of Unknown 9: Awakening, but at the same time it reinforces my stance that the game is most effective when you keep Umbric skill use to a minimum. There will be times when you run into a few opponents that wield technology that neutralise your ability to strike them with Umbric moves, meaning you're forced to get your hands dirty and to use the environment to your advantage. Frankly, these seem to be the only enemies worth a damn too, meaning the huge focus on Umbric moves and skills never really landed with me in the way that this demo clearly wanted it to.

What I will say is that I think the Umbric setup will thrive most away from action, where stealth can excel and where you can create great Stepping combinations without being in the heat of action. This demo never gave me a chance to experience that, which is why after 20 or so minutes with Unknown 9: Awakening, I'm not exactly sold on what I've seen so far. There's definitely more to this game than meets the eye, but this demo and example of it didn't do much at all to display that.