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Bandai Namco
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Release date 10/17/2024
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This is a Sweet Baby Inc. game, with SBI's CEO Kim Belair being the lead narrative designer.
The controversy involving Unknown 9: Awakening and Sweet Baby Inc. revolves around the latter's focus on promoting diversity and inclusion in video games. This partnership led to backlash from parts of the gaming community who felt that these efforts compromised the game's quality and creative integrity for the sake of what they described as "political correctness."
A significant point of contention arose when gamers reported being banned for critiquing Sweet Baby Inc.'s role in the game's development. Critics viewed these bans as an attempt by the developers to silence opposition and enforce a narrative that prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over open dialogue and traditional gameplay values. This situation highlighted the broader cultural debate within the gaming industry about how and if DEI initiatives should influence game development.
A significant point of contention arose when gamers reported being banned for critiquing Sweet Baby Inc.'s role in the game's development. Critics viewed these bans as an attempt by the developers to silence opposition and enforce a narrative that prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over open dialogue and traditional gameplay values. This situation highlighted the broader cultural debate within the gaming industry about how and if DEI initiatives should influence game development.
"Unknown 9: Awakening" has received a mixed to negative reception based on the information available up to October 18, 2024.
In summary, "Unknown 9: Awakening" seems to have launched with significant performance issues and has not met the expectations set by its premise or genre competitors. Its reception has been largely negative with critiques on both its gameplay mechanics and its narrative execution, coupled with very low player engagement figures indicating a lack of commercial success.
Some streamers are currently playing the game, for instance both Vara Dark and Hypnotic are live streaming the game for their audiences.
- Performance: The game has been criticized for its technical performance, with mentions of constant frame drops, game-breaking bugs, and overall poor optimization even on settings not maxed out. This has contributed to a perception of the game as being disheveled or underwhelming in execution.
- Reception:
- Critical Reception: Reviews have generally highlighted the game's routine and formulaic story, shallow combat and stealth mechanics, which fall below the standards set by its genre peers. IGN, for instance, gave it a 5, criticizing the story and gameplay mechanics but noted some fun in its unique powers. Other reviews echoed this sentiment, pointing out the game's failure to execute its narrative well or innovate within its genre.
- Player Count and Engagement: As of the writing of this article it opened to a very low player count, with figures like 169 peak players and mentions of it being a commercial flop. Current numbers have climbed some to 285 peak. While this is an increase it still suggests that the game did not manage to attract a significant player base upon release. I will update this at a later time as numbers will likely raise over the weekend.
- Public Sentiment: There's a strong narrative on social platforms where users are calling it a failure, often linking its performance and reception issues to its association with Sweet Baby Inc., known for focusing on diversity and inclusion. This has led to some labeling it as another example of "forced diversity" impacting game quality, although this is more reflective of community sentiment rather than an objective critique of the game's content.
- Metacritic Score: The game debuted at 64 on Metacritic, which, while not abysmal, indicates mixed or average reviews.
- Gameplay and Narrative: Despite its issues, some elements like the globe-trotting adventure, unique combat powers like "stepping" into enemies, and attempts at a deep lore were noted as positive aspects or at least as ambitious efforts. However, these were overshadowed by the game's shortcomings in narrative delivery, character development, and technical polish.
In summary, "Unknown 9: Awakening" seems to have launched with significant performance issues and has not met the expectations set by its premise or genre competitors. Its reception has been largely negative with critiques on both its gameplay mechanics and its narrative execution, coupled with very low player engagement figures indicating a lack of commercial success.
Some streamers are currently playing the game, for instance both Vara Dark and Hypnotic are live streaming the game for their audiences.
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Reviews
As of October 18, 2024, "Unknown 9: Awakening" has received mixed review scores from various sources, highlighting a blend of criticisms and occasional praise.
Aggregated Scores:
Major Outlets:
User Reviews and Feedback:
Aggregated Scores:
- Metacritic: 64 (Mixed/Average)
- OpenCritic: 61 (Mixed reception)
Major Outlets:
- IGN: 5/10
- GameSpot: 6/10
- PC Gamer: 58/100
- GamesRadar+: 3/5
- Eurogamer: No official score, but labeled it as "Not Recommended"
- The Guardian: 2/5
User Reviews and Feedback:
- Steam: "Mixed" (Approximately 55% positive reviews)
- Metacritic User Score: 5.4/10
Who is to blame?!
Of course it it gamers fault, the expected responses.
Of course it it gamers fault, the expected responses.
