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The Chant REVIEW

 


The Chant is a game detailing the story of Jess, a girl looking to heal from the grief of her recently deceased sister. As Jess, we are sent on a mission to explore the island in search of uncovering the truth behind the retreat's purpose, and along the way, we encounter some otherworldly enemies. The never-ending nightmare that unseemly mocks the horror genre, never really quite grapples us with fear or tension, the same way it does with boredom. What makes it worse, is the game was marketed as a choice-based story game that would affect the outcome of your gameplay as a result, similar to titles like Until Dawn and The Dark Anthology Series, but when you actually start to play, you realize it is a narrative action-adventure game more similar to Alan Wake, if anything. The choices you make will only lead to 1 of 3 different ending outcomes, which frankly, none of them really satisfy the time you spent walking this nightmare of an island.


I will say, The Chant tries to be good. It offers a unique spin on a hallucinogenic trip gone wrong, all the while, trying to create discernable pivotal scenes that they'd hope you'd get a thrill out of from its battle sequences. It presents a variety of tools at your disposal to defend yourself, and granted some of them are interesting to witness as it takes down your enemies, it still wasn't enough for me to turn a blind eye to the overall experience. As a game with a diverse cast of supporting roles, I would think the character development would be a little deeper through conversation, but I mostly learned about my peers through the lore of discarded notes left behind in the camp. Although I gained some backstory and reasoning to their presence at the retreat, I didn't feel strongly enough to care about them individually. I would characterize them more as acquainted NPC's, where I knew enough about them that I could dive deeper, but didn't have enough interest to care. 

I felt that most of my gameplay was spent walking and/or finding lore items to read and watch. There was plenty a time that I spent combating enemies, but it seemed more like a chore, when I was halfway through the story, chanting for a way out of this game. My biggest concern with this game is the bestiary section of the notes, where it details every enemy you encounter during the night. Normally, it'd be helpful to have this information handy, since you could easily remember or reference the strengths and weaknesses noted for each creature. Contrary to this belief, The Chant, has a multitude of enemies waiting for you to discover, so much, that I had to group them together to help me remember which creatures shared specific weaknesses, unless I wanted to reference the information every time I got into a fight.  I found myself rarely encountering certain specified enemies, where it made me wonder why I would need it in my notebook, if I was to never to see this creature again. Lastly, the inventory was a bit annoying, because there was no discard after use system, and towards the halfway point, you find yourself with key items you will never use again for the duration of the game. It's just there to confuse you amongst all the new key items you will find for the remainder of your journey.

The game retails at a strong, but reasonable $40 price in comparison to newly released titles, but after my time with The Chant, I would say it is at most worth $20 for the experience you get. If Alan Wake and extraterrestrial creatures are your vibe, you might love this game. I didn't have a terrible time playing the game, but it definitely wasn't enjoyable enough for me to do a second run. 

Let me know what you think about The Chant in the comment sections below!

5/10




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