Unknown 9: Awakening

Unknown 9: Awakening is a third-person action-adventure video game. The player is allowed to partake in combat or to avoid enemies using stealth. A key feature of the game is the ability to body-swap by tapping into the main characters supernatural powers which allows for alternative means of traversing a level. She has a variety of psychic powers as well, referred to as Umbric Ability, which include invisibility, or possession. Through clairvoyance, she can see enemies through obstacles and see where they are on the map.

The game's backstory explains that human civilizations have risen and been destroyed in a series of endless and inevitable Cycles. Nine members of one ancient and advanced civilization, the Sahin, obtained immortality in order to survive the end of their Cycle in the hopes of finding a way to put a stop to the Cycles. These surviving Sahin influence humanity from the shadows as the Unknown 9.

Set in Northern India during the early 20th century, the game follows Haroona, a Quaestor, a person with mystical abilities able to perceive and manipulate an alternate dimension known as the Fold. The plot begins in 1908, with Haroona and her Quaestor mentor Reika traveling to the desert to confront Vincent, a former Quaestor pupil of Reika's. Vincent and his followers are the Ascendants, a radical splinter group of a secret society of Quaestors and explorers called the Leap Year Society. Vincent defeats Reika using technology that disables her powers, forcing Haroona to flee.

Reflector Entertainment was founded by Alexandre Amancio and Canadian businessman and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté in 2017. The company would be a division of Lune Rouge, which was owned by Laliberté and owns a majority share of the company, with Amancio owning a minority share. Amancio was a video game developer who had previously worked as creative director for Assassin's Creed Unity. Preliminary plans for the Unknown 9 series including the earliest announcement of a video game were first revealed in October 2018 at the New York Comic Con.

The series was described at that time as utilizing a transmedia form of storytelling which uses a multimedia approach to tell its overall story, spanning video games, a scripted podcast, comic books, and other forms of entertainment. Consultants Kim Belair and David Bédard who would later form the narrative and development studio Sweet Baby worked on the series as well. From 2018, Bédard was the brand content manager and Belair the story architect on Unknown 9 series encompassing comics, novels, and video games. They initially worked as employees of developer Reflector Entertainment and later as part of Sweet Baby.

Unknown 9: Awakening received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received weak approval, being recommended by 15% of critics.

IGN said "a few good ideas and can’t save this bland and janky adventure". Eurogamer Portugal reviewed the game, and noted that the game seemed to be ignored on release while lamenting that the setting had potential. IGN Deutschland said the game was middling adventure, neither good nor bad. Several reviewers made reference to the low budget nature of the game.