While the past few generations of gaming have been strong in many ways and given us many memorable top-tier releases, there’s no denying that it’s also been exhausting. Live services, battle passes, steadily increasing development time, and more have irreversibly changed the media landscape as we know it.
As someone who first fell in love with video games, as a pure single-player player, the wave of multiplayer-focused releases made finding a linear triple-A game like looking for a needle in a haystack filled with microtransactions. I’ve spent a lot of time lately wishing we could go back to the days of single-player campaigns on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and luckily, that’s it Unknown 9: Awakening Come in.
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although it yes Part of a multimedia world made up of comics, novels, and podcasts, Unknown 9, for the most part, gave me what I’d been looking for – a classic, story-focused single-player game. Adventure games aren’t even close to most modern games. While technical issues and repetitiveness hold it back from greatness, its strong story and unique mechanics make it a journey worth taking.
A story full of soul
Uncharted 9: Awakening lets you (you’ll figure it out later) take on the role of Haroona, a young Quester who can draw energy from another world called The Fold, and Use this for a variety of abilities, such as becoming invisible and controlling others by stepping into (telling you) their bodies. While exploring the ruins with her mentor Rika, an evil organization called the Ascended forces Haruna to fight alone and sets her on a path of revenge.
Once you get past the lore and in-universe terms in the thesaurus – in case you were wondering, Quest is basically an adventurer – the story of Uncharted 9 is a heartfelt tale about learning to be yourself, dealing with grief, And find your place in the life universe. While some of the game’s late twists are predictable, strong performances and humane characters elevate a somewhat cliche story into one of the game’s best elements.
Anya Chalotra’s Haroona, in particular, has become one of my favorite characters of 2024 for her never-say-die witty attitude and unwavering confidence, despite the loss. The drive that drives her every move. Part Lara Croft and part Nathan Drake, she’s a great protagonist and is supported by an equally great supporting cast, which prevents Uncharted 9 from ” gets bogged down as it enters the exposition phase.
Haruna’s main companions Luther and Buchla also left their mark on the story, keeping me invested at almost every turn.
boot unknown
Compare Uncharted But don’t just stop at Halona being as talkative as Nate on her adventures around the world. The core gameplay loop of active stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and light platforming (all mixed with the discovery of collectibles and health services that help companions reach higher platforms) sounds very familiar. naughty dog Bells rang in my head.
Unknown 9’s main trump card that sets it apart from other third-person action games is Haroona’s Umbric suite of abilities. In combat, she can push and pull enemies, deflect bullets with a magic shield, trigger objects in the environment to explode or collapse, and even send out souls for long-range attacks, resulting in high-damage knockout moves.
Things get really interesting when you mix all of the above with Halona’s subject-stealing ability, which lets you pause time and take over enemies, both on themselves and on unsuspecting friends. At first, I mainly used it to bring enemies to me and quietly take them down, but I quickly got the hang of it and started orchestrating pure mayhem.
You can only possess one person at a time at first, but eventually can jump between three people at a time.
The game ended with me jumping into a beast, causing a massive shockwave, and then jumping into one of his companions, triggering a nearby explosive canister that blew up everyone else around them. At its best, Uncharted 9: Awakening’s soul-stepping looks like it’s been practiced a million times from the E3 demo, even if the adventure feels draggy and you’re delightfully evil using Halona’s powers. The approach has never let me down. Smile.
While it’s fun to create a domino effect of murder with helpless villains, the feeble hand-to-hand combat is serviceable but can feel a bit clunky and weightless at times. The same goes for stealth, which is pretty basic when you’re not invisible or walking into enemies and bringing them up to you and taking them down shamelessly. It’s a shame that you can’t possess people for longer, or have them do more complex things like disarm traps, as that would bring stealth to the level of instant combat.
The atmosphere of the previous generation was not always appreciated
While I was very happy with Uncharted 9’s linear adventure approach last generation, its frequent technical issues made it feel a little dated and less purposeful. On PS5, my gameplay was plagued by framerate drops, characters getting stuck in environments, and collectibles being bugged, all of which made me feel less nostalgic for the days gone by.
Uncharted 9 also gave me my first “PS5 is too hot” warning notification, which was surprising considering its graphics didn’t exactly push the system.
Aside from some stunning environments, Uncharted 9 also doesn’t stand out due to its outdated character models and blurry textures. I’ve never really cared about graphics, and I’d prefer a little less gloss if it meant more unique mechanics and gameplay depth, but it’s clear that Halona’s Adventure could use a little more time in the oven.
Even if my time jumping to enemies was interrupted by these technical issues, Uncharted 9: Awakening’s stellar cast of characters and inventive soul-hopping combat mechanics kept me invested all the way through its glorious last-gen adventure. Given how frustrating this generation can be at times, that’s definitely a compliment.
Rating: 3.5/5. The publisher provided the PS5 code.
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