Last year saw the release of Unknown 9: Awakening, the debut videogame of Reflector Entertainment. I’d first seen snippets of the game through trailers over the year, though it had also won the award for Best Announcement at Gamescom four years prior, in 2020.
The trailers showed the game’s protagonist, Haroona, played by Anya Chalotra, in both urban and rural landscapes of India. I got a sense of exploration from the trailers, not too dissimilar from the adventuring of the Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider franchises. But what stood out to me was that Haroona could manipulate what appeared to be astral plane projections forced out of her enemies. She could also possess them, leading their bodies to danger and turning her enemies into temporary allies. There was an underlying potential there for the world built for the game.
Alas, the game released to much disappointment. I personally found the game rough around the edges with a consistently low frame rate, poor visual quality, and somewhat repetitive (and frequent) combat.
Despite the underwhelming nature of the game, it seemed to have a lot of interesting concepts within its world. Having seen that this was part of an ambitious transmedia narrative (as this new studio’s goal since its inception), I decided to seek out the other media to find out more about this intriguing world.
Out of Sight
Early this year, I started listening to Unknown 9: Out of Sight. Initially released on a mostly weekly basis in August 2020, this scripted audio drama follows a paranormal investigator, Blake Elrich, as he records his investigations into strange mysteries in modern-day America. Blake addresses the listener through the podcast, and openly edits it based on his experiences, as one would to remove long periods of silence when investigating the paranormal, blurring the line between reality and fiction. But he’s not alone. The producer of the podcast, Lazari, travels with him in what could be thought of as the duo’s Mystery Machine: their RV.
I should say that I don’t have much experience with audio dramas, but I thought the production of this show was excellent. The production house for the first season was Gideon Media; this switched to West End Media for the latter two seasons. The sound design was superb, helping to build a clearer picture of the environments and locations explored. This includes things I wouldn’t necessarily think about, like footsteps on different surfaces, echoes depending on whether an area is an open or closed environment, the rustling of papers, and birdsong cutting through the sound of the wind blowing through the trees. The podcast embraced its nature as a story told through audio and was all the better for it. The vocal work was brilliant and well performed, drawing me in to feel the tense, scary moments and times of relief and joy, mixed with story beats that gave me genuine surprise. I caught myself cheering and emotionally invested in the story as it progressed. I was absolutely captivated, and from Season 2, I turned this into a nightly ritual.
The show never relied on lore gleaned from the game or other media and stood on its own well. Across three seasons with nine episodes each, the level of information never felt overwhelming, organically growing with space for listeners to feel curious about the central mystery of each episode. The episodic mysteries are separate, but linked through the special dimension of The Fold — the details of which I won’t reveal here.
To compare it to a more popular game, each mystery feels somewhat like an exploration of an event documented in Remedy Entertainment’s Control. To compare it to a TV show that I have watched, at least in part, The X Files could be the closest. Mysteries include a bottomless hole in the basement of an apartment block (the very first episode), an abandoned amnesia-inducing mining town, and a laboratory study on tulpas. Along the way, artifacts are discovered, connecting different mysteries together, and eventually introducing two competing, secretive societies with hidden knowledge.
I had a blast with this audio drama this year, and I would have loved to see more from this universe. It renewed my faith in the world that was built by this team. But it was not to be.
What Became of Unknown 9?
Resting so much of the franchise’s structural foundations on the game’s potential success proved to be its undoing. Reflector Entertainment is a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Entertainment, which, amongst other things, predominantly publishes videogames. Under different circumstances, I could see this transmedia project succeeding, but with a videogame further down the line, minimising risk, rather than close to the starting point. Of course, as a gaming studio, the videogame would be a key focal point. In fact, five more games had been planned as part of the Unknown 9 universe. And the website alludes to even more universes beyond Unknown 9.
The house of cards folded. In a statement, Herve Hoerdt, the CEO of Reflector Entertainment, said:
This decision correlates directly with the failure of the studio’s ambitious and courageous first project, a new IP with a rich transmedia universe. The performance of the release didn’t come near the company expectations, after numerous timeline adjustments and investments, both financially and other, and didn’t warrant any further exploration in this universe.
I don’t think that came as a shock to anybody who was aware of the game. However, I imagine it came as a disappointment, not just to those caught in the subsequent layoff, but to fans of the other media in this universe. Fans who wanted to get more to dive into. Fans, as I have become.
Seeking The Unknown
I’m not done with this universe. I’ve only played the videogame and listened to the podcast. I’m excited to read the first book in Layton Green’s trilogy next. Aptly titled Genesis, this is what kicked off the Unknown 9 universe in 2020, and it became a finalist for the Best Original Paperback Novel category from the International Thriller Writers. Personally, it’s available as an audiobook, so it’ll be easier to get into. For those who want a more visual story, there’s a 12-issue comic book series available for free on the official website. There’s even a web series that clearly connects with the final season of the podcast and a second web series that explores what is described as a “psychic arms race” between the CIA and the Soviets at the end of the Vietnam War.
Unknown 9 may now be a dead universe, but there are enough interesting ideas to keep me coming back for more!