Unknown 9: Awakening Shows Off Haroona’s Powerful Umbric Abilities at Summer Game Fest

At Summer Game Fest, Restart attended a behind-closed-doors presentation for Unknown 9: Awakening, an upcoming action adventure game from Reflector Entertainment and Bandai Namco.

Unknown 9: Awakening is the center of a larger Unknown 9 narrative universe, which includes, as of this writing, a podcast, comics, and a novel trilogy. Each piece of content features its own standalone story, adding further detail and depth to the Unknown 9 narrative, but fans won’t be required to experience any of these extra stories before diving into the game.

In the world of the Unknown 9, an advanced civilization disappeared at some point in the distant past. Nine of the people’s citizens were granted immortality, becoming the Unknown 9. This group has access to profound, powerful knowledge, which it slowly spreads among current civilizations, guiding them forever forward.

A secret human faction known as the Leap Year Society has discovered the existence of the Unknown 9 and wants to retrieve the group’s knowledge and share it with the world. At the same time, a splinter group from that faction – known as the Ascendants – wants to claim the knowledge and keep it for themselves.

Stuck in the midst of this war for knowledge are the Quaestors, gifted humans with the ability to enter the “Fold,” a shadow parallel dimension that’s believed to hold immense secrets and potentially even house the Unknown 9 themselves.

Haroona stands looking to the left in the Unknown 9: Awakening video game — Haroona in Unknown 9: Awakening
©Reflector Entertainment / Bandai Namco

In Unknown 9: Awakening, players will become Haroona, a Quaestor who wants to claim the Unknown 9’s hidden knowledge, who finds herself in the crosshairs of the Ascendants due to her unique abilities.

Awakening’s core gameplay loop will focus on three key elements: Stepping, Combat, and Active Stealth. Stepping is one of Haroona’s unique “Umbric” abilities as a Quaestor, giving her the power to temporarily possess an enemy and control their actions. For instance, Haroona could possess an enemy and make them attack their companions.

During the Summer Game Fest presentation, we joined Haroona in Sudan. Vincent, the leader of the Ascendants, has traveled there to learn more about the Unknown 9’s past civilization.

The demo took place far into the game, when many of Haroona’s Umbric abilities have already been unlocked. As a few examples, Haroona can “snap” to destroy nearby objects, use a “push” ability to knock enemies off of platforms, activate temporary invisibility, toss orbs to distract enemies, and more. Haroona can also “peek” at the surrounding environment in order to find hidden secrets and even view enemy locations behind obstacles.

Haroona uses one of her Umbric abilities on an enemy in the Unknown 9: Awakening video game — ©Reflector Entertainment / Bandai Namco

In order to protect themselves from Haroona and the Quaestors, the Ascendants use “Anti-Stepping Devices,” domes that will prevent Haroona from stepping into enemies while inside. During the presentation, we saw Haroona “peek” to locate the generator powering the dome, and then step into a large enemy who was able to destroy the generator.

When Haroona steps into an enemy, time enters slow motion, giving players the chance to strategically perform multiple actions to create chain reactions. For instance, in our presentation, we saw Haroona step into a larger enemy and set off a powerful attack. Haroona then quickly stepped into another enemy and moved him next to the first target. When time went back to normal, the original target eliminated his companion with the attack Haroona initially triggered.

With Stepping being such a powerful tool, its usage is limited. Three dots in the corner of the screen represent the number of times Haroona can step into others, and players will need to complete actions to refill the dots.

Even if players find themselves temporarily unable to step into enemies, they can still defeat their opponents through melee combat.

Haroona crouches behind a dilapidated fence while watching an enemy at night in the Unknown 9: Awakening video game — ©Reflector Entertainment / Bandai Namco

While Haroona will begin with limited abilities, players will be able to unlock their desired upgrades through a skill tree with three main branches: Combat, stealth, and Umbric abilities. It’s important to note that players won’t be able to complete the entire skill tree before finishing the game, so they’ll need to choose the upgrades they want wisely.

As players explore the world of Unknown 9: Awakening, they’ll be able to discover collectibles with information related to the game’s lore. One of Haroona’s Umbric skills will highlight nearby collectibles while peeking.

Haroona will also have a journal that tracks the collectibles players have discovered, while also providing biographies for the game’s main characters, hints on how to fight the Ascendants, reminders about the Ascendants’ technology, and other helpful information.

Finally, Unknown 9: Awakening will allow players to customize their experience by choosing from multiple difficulty options, including a Story option for those who are more interested in the game’s narrative than being challenged with difficult combat.