It might sound like a buzzword, but the idea of transmedia properties is nothing new. We've seen it with the likes of The Matrix, Star Wars, and other franchises where the story starts with a film but continues the story with novels, comics, TV shows, video games, and other forms of entertainment. The one thing that most of these successful transmedia properties had in common was the fact that they started off organically. An example would be a film that found a large enough audience to sustain the notion of fans wanting to seek out more about that world in other forms of entertainment. Things that were conceived with transmedia aspirations in mind have not been a guaranteed success, but people keep trying to make a universal hit. Unknown 9: Awakening is a game that is meant to be a catalyst for a big transmedia experience, but the execution of the game is shaky enough to make one wonder if the goal of connecting podcasts, books, and a few web series was too ambitious.

It is the early 20th century, when radios and cars were present but not commonplace. Air travel was dominated by blimps and biplanes. You play the role of Haroona, a woman who discovered at a very young age that she had supernatural powers. The game starts with her hitching a ride with her mentor to the desert as they search for a former pupil who has begun to use his powers and resources to upend the world. After an attack gone bad, Haroona escapes and emerges years later to avenge her fallen mentor.

The story evolves from being a simple revenge tale to a big, globe-hopping adventure in the same vein as an Indiana Jones film or one of its many clones, especially when you add in the various companions you meet along the way. It works nicely, but it is also amplified by the various elements that are supposed to shape the franchise. There are groups like the Ascendants and the Leap Year Society fighting for control of the mysterious dimension known as The Fold. There are people like yourself, known as Queasters, that can manipulate the Fold's powers and dive in with the risk of possibly going mad. There are the Unknown 9, who are trying to cheat death itself. There's plenty to take in, and while the opening video does a decent job of summarizing everything important, the incidental information you get as the game progresses doesn't flesh out those roles further. It gives you a feeling that this is just a primer for other pieces of the transmedia property.

The game can be best described as a linear adventure that slightly resembles the Uncharted games — minus the big set piece moments. This is especially noticeable since you'll either have a companion at your side with to share slightly humorous dialogue with or go solo while noting interesting elements in the environment. For the most part, when you're not up against opposition, you'll wander around and pick up various objects while you shimmy across narrow ledges or squeeze into small openings between large rocks. You'll also climb walls and ledges and take leaps across chasms that are painted to lead you down the correct path once you're done scouring each area for trinkets. It's pretty familiar stuff if you've played adventure titles before, but it's done well enough that you won't mind that the gameplay is "by the book."

Speaking of trinkets, you will look high and low for small, out-of-the-way paths for anything that brings up a button prompt. Some of these pick-ups are the only way to build up your skill tree. Unlike some other adventure games, you never get to unlock anything new here, as the skill tree unlocks are meant to power up what you already have; new powers are unlocked as the story progresses. One thing to note is that the developers have stated that there's no way to completely level up all of the skill tree branches, so you can find yourself at a disadvantage if you unlock stuff that goes against your preferred play style.

The journey is littered with enemy areas where you can take one of two approaches. The one that the game wants you to take almost all of the time is the stealthy approach, and the game gives you some basic maneuvers. There are almost always some patches of tall grass for camouflage and walls or other low structures for cover. Once the portable alarms appear, there are always generators you can turn off; they also act as bait for enemies, since someone will notice and reactivate the generators. You can also go behind enemies to get rid of them, but the process is a little gruesome; you essentially rip the soul from their body and make it disappear into the ether.

What makes stealth different in Unknown 9 is your supernatural powers. Items like scaffolding can be remotely triggered to collapse on a foe. Barrels and machinery can be remotely detonated, and just about every area is chock-full of these things, perhaps more so than any old first-person shooter. The one power people will likely use the most is body possession, where you can take control of most enemies and have them run away from you or have them attack another enemy. The type of attack you deliver depends on who you possess; the array of attacks includes firing a volley of shots from your rifle, doing a big ground pound, and dashing forward with a charged spear.

The powers make the stealth feel fun, even for those who aren't fond of sneaking around. Part of that is because this feels less like traditional stealth and more like a fun but limited sandbox where you must stay hidden for as long as possible. Waiting for the right moment to blow up something is rewarding, as is guiding someone to their eventual doom. Letting enemies betray one another is fun, even though it doesn't last long enough to create chaos. The only limit you'll often run into is having enough mana to stay in one spot and let your powers do everything for you.

The mix of supernatural powers and stealth is cool, but it has some problems. The most prominent one has to do with the camera. There are a number of areas where the camera collides with walls and narrow spaces, resulting in a view that's obscured by tall grass and other obstacles. This happens often, since grass is usually next to tall rock formations and can ruin stealth since you'll lose sight of a guard who might be moving toward or away from you. As cool as possession is, it is also rather limited because you can't make an enemy fall to their doom. You can't have them turn off an alarm's generator; they go for the extreme approach of attacking the generator and causing an explosion. The game also lacks the basic move of hiding bodies so unless you get lucky, you're always going to trigger a situation where everyone in the area goes on alert when a body is discovered. Finally, remote detonation is awesome, but only a few items will kill the enemy. Most of the lamps and explosive barrels give off a great deal of damage, but you'll need to have foes go to another explosive item just as it detonates — or you can run up and attack them to finish them off.

The moment you are seen by an enemy, you get into combat. The door to the next area immediately locks up until all enemies have been eliminated. In its most basic form, the fighting works well enough. You can unleash a few combos with light and hard attacks in addition to some dodging. Just like with stealth, however, your powers make the fighting stand out from other titles. Body possession remains a vital tactic, since the enemy attacks are much more powerful than your melee attacks. The ability to remotely trigger objects is still present, and it's useful if you lead enemies into explosives and then light them up from afar. You can use powers to stun enemies so you can deliver a flurry of hits. You can pull enemies toward you or push them away — sometimes even off cliffs or buildings. Energy shields can block bullets and even reflect shots once you power up the ability enough.

Like the stealth, the combat could use some tweaks in a few areas. Your aim sometimes shifts slightly during a body shift, which has you possessing an enemy that's completely different from the one you're targeting. Your hits never seem to deal more damage, but the enemies seem to deliver a variable amount of damage when using the same move on you. Locking on to an enemy is hit-and-miss, as the game sometimes fails to register that you've activated the lock or decides to lock onto someone far away instead of someone closer. Having company is nice, but their inability to attack a foe leaves a lot to be desired. This is especially true when you see them make a move to knock down an enemy but they don't take the attack any further, leaving you to do all of the work even though you're outnumbered.

There is one bug that prevented me from finishing the game. The issue occurred around what is presumably the game's halfway point. After returning from a dive into The Fold, you're plotting an escape. You run outside and need to hold off the pursuing Ascension minions until your blimp arrives. Once the blimp arrives, nothing happens. You're stuck in a cycle where you're fighting off the same three or four enemy types in a near-endless wave. No support is coming from your blimp, despite knowing that it houses a mounted machine gun. Half an hour passes, and there's no end in sight. If you die, you start the fight again, and the same thing happens. Reloading the save produces the same result, and so does rebooting the game with and without rebooting the PS5. With no other save file present, the only way to determine if the bug could be bypassed would be to replay the game from the beginning. Considering the time constraints, this wasn't feasible during the game's review period. For just about anyone else, the bug is debilitating enough to deter players from trying to finish the game without a guarantee that the issue has been patched.

It's a shame that this bug exists, since the journey isn't bad. There aren't too many games that try to emulate the kind of adventures that were so commonplace during the Xbox 360/PS3 era of gaming. Those adventures paced things out by having decently sized exploration sequences dotted with closed area enemy encounters — and a turret sequence for good measure. Adventures of yore tried to dazzle players with multiple environments instead of having big, open worlds. It's nice that the developers have tried to bring that back, but it's only good if bugs like this could've been squashed before launch.

Unknown 9 is available for both the PS4 and PS5, and while we looked at the latter for review, the graphical presentation makes one wonder if perhaps the system labels were reversed. Part of this is because the game exhibits a good deal of shimmer, which was a signature of games in the late PS3/Xbox 360 era, where the low resolution conflicted with the lighting and details to create visual oddities. You'll also think that something is wrong because the frame rate seems to lock in at 30fps but can dip below that whenever you're in the menus. Given the lack of a performance or quality preset, the only hope for getting better performance out of the game may lie with a PS5 Pro.

The game has some visual strengths. The environments look quite nice with some good textures. It helps that the game doesn't suffer from the texture quality pop-in that is synonymous with Unreal Engine, but it does have the issue where you see bits of white space before they're filled in with the parts of the environment. The characters also look fine and animate well, and those elements hold their own even if they don't match the quality of other games with bigger budgets.

At least the game's audio fares much better. The soundtrack is fine, and while none of the tracks can be called memorable, they fit in fine with each situation. The effects are also good, but the standout aspect is the voices. All of the voice acting performances are top-notch and are helped out by a script that gives everyone some depth.

There's potential in Unknown 9: Awakening. The story and setting are fascinating, since so few games are set at the cusp of World War I. Haroona's powers add an enthralling wrinkle to the stealth and combat systems. The experience falls apart when you scrutinize some of these gameplay mechanics, and the bad bugs and mediocre presentation heavily reduce the game's potential. Give it a few patches, and maybe the title will end up being a guilty pleasure for those looking for a straightforward adventure game, but don't expect to uncover a hidden masterpiece.

Score: 5.5/10