Unknown 9: Awakening

Was the narrative captivating? No. But was the combat responsive? Also no. But was the main character attractive? Not really. But did the graphics look good? Again, no. But would I play more of this game? Also no.

I only have 5 minutes into the game and im not impressed with performance. Store page says "SteamDeck compatible", but im running an og ROG Ally (running SteamOS) which on paper is more capable than a Deck. Running at 1080p medium quality and balanced up scaling, i cant even crack 30fps. The game looks alright but the FPS seems low considering up scaling medium quality. Am i expecting too much?

Generic third person action from ps4 era with all the best hits including (and pretty much limited to!) climbing vertical walls that are of a different color than normal, jumping between helpfully painted beams, squeezing through tight holes for no substantial (in the era of ssds) reason, hiding in tall grass, and covering distances with a grappling hook. That, is not the biggest problem. The problem is that, unlike many great games using largely the same formula, this one has nothing to offer of its own. The setting and story are intriguing, India isn't the most common place to be shown in videogames, and especially colonial India, well into their movement for independence? That's fun! And so it's not in this game, it's not allowed to have fun or novelty here, there's the most basic, most surface representation during the second level and that's about it. Just gotta run really fast and not look too hard so it doesn't seem even more fake. After that? It really doesn't matter, the game has no interest in the people of the region, only about its own, utterly derivative and devoid of originality story that doesn't even attempt to tie into any real life events. While the story has no…

This was a pretty interesting game. It took nearly two years to complete because I am not good at fighting games and also don't generally enjoy them. This one was pretty good, despite rage quitting a few times because I just couldn't beat certain parts. But, I eventually did. And it was pretty good. I ran into many bugs, I had to reload checkpoints because NPCs were flying or I just got stuck (like literally I couldn't move, enemies attacked me but I took no damage, et cetera), or I'd hit a button that I am supposed to hit and nothing would happen, probably others, but like I said it took nearly two years, so I don't remember everything. I have heard there is a lot of negative reviews and that it was a "failure," however, I think this is probably one of the best fighting games I have played. Overall, I think if you are interested, check it out. I had fun. And for less than 30 dollars Canadian, I'd say it was pretty good. I got the game for free (I am pretty sure) when I got my RTX4090, and apparently that is important to disclose.

I have no idea why this was panned as hard as it was - story and characters are enjoyable - game play is challenging and fun. I enjoyed my time with it 7/10.

Tries to feel like Zero Dawn, but it's not there. Worth it on discount.