Every so often you get a video game live Chants of Sennaar transcends what the medium can do from entertainment to education to an almost life-changing experience. Chants of Sennaar is one of those games that falls into the category of “Damn, that was truly something special”.
So what exactly is Chants of Sennaar and why do I think this? Let’s break it down, shall we?
Chants of Sennaar from Focus Entertainment and Rundisc is a puzzle adventure game where players will take on the role of an unknown Traveler. You’ll awaken in a strange location and get thrust right into an adventure that will have you exercising your brain. Soon you’ll be deciphering a new language in order to progress and things just escalate from there.
The gameplay in Chants of Sennaar starts off incredibly basic. You’ll move your hooded character around a 2.5D environment and will be able to interact with some objects. Within the first few minutes of starting the game, you’ll encounter another person. However, they speak a foreign language and you’ll have to figure out what it is they want you to do. Thankfully, the game onboards you into its educational process in such a smart manner.
Your character has a journal and jots down things when you encounter symbols or words, you can take notes yourself too to figure out what a specific symbol means. From the game’s visual cues and what’s going on with its environmental storytelling, you’ll be able to piece together what symbols actually mean and thus allow yourself to progress further in the story. It’s incredibly satisfying piecing together clues to figure things out and when something eventually clicks into place, you’ll feel a wave of satisfaction rush over you. This happens multiple times throughout the game and as it goes on, things get more and more complicated.
Once you start Chants of Sennaar, it’s legitimately extremely hard to tear yourself away from this game. The puzzle solving and adventuring is perfectly blended in a way that you’ll want to keep going further and solving more and more so you can discover more of the game’s downright gorgeous world. Why did you wake up in this strange place ? Why are there devotees trying to get to the top of the Tower? There are warriors with swords ?
What’s going on with the plants that are withering? The game’s drip feeds you answers and sometimes you will be spend quite a long time just trying to decipher what the heck is a specific symbol referring to. When it all makes sense though, it’s amazing and the world-building being told via very minimal interactions with NPCs and the environment is fantastic.
Very few games out there get this kind of puzzle adventuring right. Chants of Sennaar has absolutely nailed it and even included some light stealth mechanics which further enhanced my enjoyment of the game. Some of these sections could have been a bit more challenging to add to the tension but I’m glad that the developers opted to just keep things straightforward and simple instead. The game is quite reminiscent of point-and-click adventure games from years gone by but this time around in a 2.5D visually stunning artistic package.
If you’re the type of gamer who loves games that build up their story through the environments and the interactions with other characters being visually represented in an artistic, minimal manner, Chants of Sennaar will hook you. Each floor of the tower that you’re trying to climb has its own distinct visual theme too which further draws you into the game’s world. The game also gets a lot more complex when your player’s character discovers the additional languages and starts to piece things together.
Graphically, Chants of Sennaar is a visual masterpiece. Opting for an artistic 2.5D environment with graphics that ooze colourful almost comic-book-esque or graphic novel vibes was absolutely the right choice for this game. Each and every single location in the game is a visual masterpiece and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be taking screenshots everywhere because of how gorgeous everything looks.
The soundtrack of the game perfectly compliments the visuals too with the music building the tension during dramatic segments and an almost congratulatory jingle playing whenever you solve a puzzle. There’s minimal voice acting in the game and that’s perfectly fine because the languages the characters speak are foreign anyway so the emphasis is on the symbols and deciphering their meanings.
If you’re a gamer that wants action-packed gameplay, Chants of Sennaar is not for you. This is a game that’s for fans of puzzle or adventure titles that require you to think. To ponder. To solve and overcome. Thinking outside of the box is required for a few puzzles so it might not be everyone’s cup of tea but when you do eventually solve something, the level of satisfaction that you’ll feel is unmatched.
The game does feature a “Hint” system but this is very basic and doesn’t spoon-feed you. For the most part, you will have to solve the puzzles by yourself but most aren’t terribly obscure so it’s not too difficult so long as you were paying attention.
Chants of Sennaar is a title that I can solid recommend and is definitely worth picking up because it ticks all the right boxes and excels at what it does. While the game might be a tad slow because of all the mental work you’ll have to put in, it hooks you and doesn’t let go for the 12 hours of so it will take you to complete it. Give it a try for yourself and see if you like it. Chances are, you will and you’ll want to see it through right till the end.
Chants of Sennaar Trailer
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