Unknown 9: Awakening is the debut title by Canadian developer Reflector Games, as well as the first entry in a rather ambitious multimedia shared universe that is set to expand across comic books, web series and podcasts. Despite being saddled with an unintuitive title that makes it sound like the 9th entry in a franchise you’ve never heard of, coupled with an unwieldy and generic subtitle, I am pleased to announce that Unknown 9: Awakening is actually quite a lot of fun as an action/adventure game, as well as an intriguing introduction to the larger world that Bandai Namco is expanding across other media.

Set in 1912, you play as Haroona (voiced with an endearing earnestness by Anya Chalotra, who is also known for playing Yennefer of Vengerberg in Netflix’s The Witcher series), a Quaestor with the ability to draw energy called Am from the Fold, an eldritch otherworld that lies parallel to the physical realm. After losing her mentor four years ago at the hands of Vincent Lichter, a renegade Quaestor who has formed a faction of dissidents calling themselves the Ascendants, she is set on a path of revenge. Teaming up with a group of travelling researchers called the Leap Year Society, Haroona and her friends embark on a globetrotting adventure as they combat Vincent’s schemes and uncover the hidden history of the mysterious lost civilisation of the Sahin and the Unknown 9, a group of enigmatic Sahin immortals who are said to be the key to humanity’s salvation – or potentially its destruction.

I liked the plot and cast of Unknown 9: Awakening a whole lot. The period setting, delving through ruins and being assailed by a rival group who are trying to use the lost technology for evil instead of good, tapped into the same vibes as some of my favourite pulpy adventure stories, like Indiana Jones or the good Mummy movies. Haroona is a likeable protagonist, and her supporting cast of the Leap Year Society, such as Luther, the cantankerous elderly cowboy and Buchra, the curious engineer, were pleasant additions that nicely contrasted Haroona’s slightly naive determination.

Vincent isn’t the deepest antagonist, with the Ascendants lacking the ostensible principles that make, say, the Templars in the Assassin’s Creed franchise compelling antagonists. However, the plot’s relatively light tone prevented that from taking me out of the experience too much. The plot isn’t exactly self-contained, with a lot of set-up for elements which I imagine will become relevant in the expanded Unknown 9 media. That said, despite those concerns, I was still drawn into the story told and hope that Haroona’s journey continues at some point.

As far as gameplay is concerned, Unknown 9: Awakening is a rather straightforward linear action/adventure sort of experience, in the vein of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series. Levels are separated into chapters comprising arenas filled with foes to take down, platforming sections and the occasional puzzle to solve. There are hidden collectables scattered across each area which sometimes require going off the beaten path a bit, which can both increase Haroona’s maximum health and Am meters as well as flesh out the world with new entries Haroona can add to her journal.

Combat is a sort of arena-based brawler, akin to Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, albeit with stealth elements. Haroona can perform light and strong melee attacks with her bracers, as well as ranged energy attacks by channelling her Am. It’s a competent enough system with a decently sized upgrade tree to enhance Haroona’s ability to deal damage and sneak by enemies. The stealth system also felt nicely fleshed out, with a useful ranged distraction ability, an invisibility spell and plenty of places to hide in most areas. Unknown 9: Awakening also does what a lot of other games with optional stealth mechanics forget to do, which is to make it relatively straightforward to re-enter stealth after you are discovered. By making me able to easily hide again if my cover was blown and creating new opportunities for stealth kills and healing, it ensured that all the upgrade points I was sinking into stealth abilities weren’t wasted the moment I made a wrong turn and blew my cover.

It’s a system the game encourages a lot of use of, as well. Step tokens recharge pretty quickly, very few enemies in the game are immune to to being possessed, and there are some useful upgrades for the feature in the game’s upgrade tree. Some areas have large anti-Step forcefields around much of the arena, but that just added an extra layer of strategy to locate the generator and destroy it before engaging in body-snatching hijinks.

As fun as the Step ability was, it probably could have stood to be a bit more refined. The only thing you can do when you’ve Stepped into a foe is attack something. This is good for dealing damage or drawing heat away from Haroona in a fight, but it isn’t exactly subtle. Getting a controlled foe to just turn off a generator (something Haroona herself can do on her own) might have been more useful in terms of not causing a scene and allowing Haroona to sneak through the level effectively.

It also doesn’t really synergise all that well with the game’s boss fights. With one exception, you cannot use the Step ability at all due to the bosses having no flunkies that you can manipulate. This is probably for balance purposes, as the one boss fight in which there are henchmen to Step into is noticeably a lot easier than the others for that very reason. There are few enough boss fights that the Step ability is still worth investing in, however it is still disappointing that these encounters mostly jettison Unknown 9: Awakening’s most unique gameplay feature, and often devolved into repetitive fistfights. I would have liked the Step ability to be used more to maybe fight on multiple fronts or complete puzzles; hopefully if more games in the Unknown 9 series are released, this mechanic can be fleshed out a bit more.

There isn’t much bloat to Unknown 9: Awakening; it isn’t overly long, but its brisk pace and varied locations make each chapter feel valuable and memorable. I’m unsure how excited this game has made me for future Unknown 9 projects, which will focus on other characters and time periods (not to mention be in other media, such as novels, podcasts and web series), as Haroona’s personal journey and the plot threads concerning her story, rather than the overarching machinations of the titular Unknown 9, were what drew me into this game. Still, I cannot fault Bandai Namco for its ambition here, and Unknown 9: Awakening is an exciting first entry into this new world it is establishing.