Chants of Sennaar Review
Chants of Sennaar is a well rounded game that balances style, pacing and light storytelling. At its core, the game is about decoding language through world based puzzles. See a pottery store with a sign above it, that word is probably pot. Through this core mechanic the game spins together a series of puzzles and story that make for an enjoyable seven hours.
Without spoiling the game, Chants of Sennaar takes place in a tower split over five levels. The population on each level has their own unique language that you learn through interacting with people and the wider world. Thankfully, the game has a journal system that records the meaning of key words once you hit certain milestones. This way there's a confirmation of meaning and no need to memorize each set of symbols.
The art style and music are big stand outs here. Both are well suited to the tone of the game and remain consistently good throughout. Each level in the tower has a unique style and feel to it while maintaining a sense of connection.
Controls in the game are kept simple. You walk around the world via click-to-move and interact with people and objects via the mouse. There are various puzzles, typically focused around language, that require some interaction but most puzzle solving is encompassed in learning to communicate.
The story of Chants of Sennaar revolves around learning the history of the tower's inhabitants. As you climb the tower you begin to see more about the history of the world and the connection between each group of people. While the story is light it does provide enough interest to pull the player towards the final conclusion.
Later in the game, puzzles appear that require translation between two of the learned languages. My only real complaint about the game is the lack of guidance on each language's grammar. Symbols themselves are recorded in the notebook but at times it becomes hard to recall each language's nuance.
I think some form of conversation log would have helped here. Being able to go back through past dialog would help provide guidance on sentence structure without making things too linear. Beyond this criticism there's very little I'd complain about.
Overall, Chants of Sennaar is a great game providing a unique and interesting experience. I won't be in a rush to play through the story again but I had a lot of fun playing.
Rating: 3/4 - I'd be happy if more games were like this.