'Unknown 9: Awakening' Launch Underperforms, Gets Roughly 200 Players on Steam

Bandai Namco's recently released Unknown 9: Awakening opens to an underperforming launch with only around 200 players on Steam.

Despite the game featuring The Witcher series star Anya Chalotra, it failed to live up to the hype that the studio marketed prior to the release. Unknown 9: Awakening was originally revealed during an Xbox Partner Preview event that was held seven months ago.

Unknown 9: Awakening

Many people have recently been talking more and more about the supposed death of AA games. This is a category that a lot of people would classify Unknown 9: Awakening as. The title launched and received poor scores on various sites and Steam only has a handful of reviews at the moment.

In Unknown 9: Awakening, players take control of Haroona. She is a Quaestor who was born with the ability to venture into what is called the Fold. This is a mysterious dimension that seemingly overlaps with the regular world, according to Forbes.

Haroona will go on a quest to uncover powerful hidden knowledge. During her travels, she will learn to master her unique connection to the Fold. This ability allows her to channel the dimension's powers into her own world.

Despite the new title being relatively unknown, pun not intended, it is still a smaller-scale game that will cost you roughly $50. Many of the reviews for the game also suggest that it is not anything to write home about when it comes to how good it is.

Some have even taken notice of the fact that a lot of the relatively mediocre video games that have been released so far featured Hollywood stars. This can sometimes be a hit and miss for studios as they can either be immensely successful, such as Death Stranding, or fail, The Gamer said.

An Underperforming Launch

Other players who had a chance to dive into Unknown 9: Awakening's world said that the game's story felt like it was an opening act that was being drawn out. It then surprisingly dumps cryptic exposition to just suddenly stop without a moment's notice.

It seems like even the gameplay does not save the game from falling into a pit of negative reviews. Players will either rush through the game's visually stunning levels or engage in battle with enemies in combat that mixes stealth and action.

Haroona's ability lets her turn invisible and also temporarily possess her enemies. Most of the time, you will either pick off enemy groups one by one or thin them out before engaging in intense combat, according to Shack News.