Unknown 9: Awakening has just been revealed at the opening night of the online Gamescom festival and it immediately caught my attention. The setting, India, the role of a young girl who is haunted by visions of what is going to hurt, even kill her. It's all instantly different and compelling.
Here's the blurb that talks about Unknown 9: Awakening, as told by the developers' Reflector Entertainment.
Raised on the streets of Kolkata India and haunted by visions of her own death, Haroona struggles to understand her mysterious innate abilities to manipulate the unseen. A mentor soon helps Haroona hone her gifts, teaches her to access the mysterious hidden dimension known as The Fold and propels her on a journey to unlock the mysteries of this new realm.
Now, the interesting thing about Unknown 9 is that Reflector describes themselves as a transmedia company and this drops right into that idea. The game looks to be the next stage in a franchise that spans a web-game in the form of Unknown 9: Chapters, a novel called Unknown 9: Genesis (aiming to be a trilogy), a comic book series called Unknown 9: Torment and finally a scripted podcast called Unknown 9: Out of Sight. Each of these contains interconnecting characters, offering an expanded look at the world within.
It's a massive task for one studio to take on but they are going all in. On the game itself, not a lot was revealed other than the character and her ability, at least how it looks in cinematic form. That and the game is described as a "3rd person narrative-driven action-adventure game". It could certainly be interesting to play as Haroona, accessing her ability to enter "The Fold", see and avoid her deaths and how her abilities will interact with the rest of the game and the world.
Alexandre Amancio, CEO of Reflector Entertainment, had this to say about the game:
“Unknown 9: Awakening is Reflector’s first game. It’s a passion project being undertaken by a small team of industry veterans that want to do things differently. Our game features a complex heroine that must come to terms with who she is. The game is set in the Unknown 9 universe, a modern Storyworld that centers on humanity being on the edge of either transcendence or self-destruction.”
Am I interested and will I be following the game? Yes. Do I plan on reading the novel? Also, yes. You can check out the trailer below.
