I hate comparing games to other games, but if one person comes and reads about Chants of Sennaar because they think, “Oh I liked that little fox guy,” then I’ve succeeded in doing my job. Unfortunately, there’s no little fox guy in Chants of Sennaar, but the exploration gives off similar vibes to last year’s acclaimed Zelda-like.
If I was being completely honest, I’d have put Heaven’s Vault in the headline instead of Tunic, because the language puzzles in Chants of Sennaar are reminiscent of Inkle’s archeological RPG. But far fewer people played Heaven’s Vault than Tunic, and it’s got far less name recognition, so I picked the more memorable comparison.
All this is to say that I want you to read about Chants of Sennaar, and more importantly, play it. It’s a unique puzzle game in every sense of the word, whereby the fairly simple puzzles are made more difficult by the fact that all instructions are given to you in the game’s hieroglyphical language. As you progress through the game, you build up a dictionary of terms that the religious organisation you’re a part of uses, and you’ll progress further up the Babel-esque tower and towards God, enlightenment, or something else entirely.
While I was picky with my headline comparisons, I wasn’t lying. Chants of Sennaar leans heavily on the same Moebius inspirations as Sable, and the art style perfectly realises those ambitions. Whether you’re exploring cramped courtyards or looking out over spectacular vistas, Sennaar consistently looks spectacular. It’s an art style that I personally adore, but even if you prefer hyperrealism, I’m sure you can appreciate the care that’s gone into crafting the religious iconography and houses or worship.
The visuals all tie into the puzzles. Sometimes you’ll be following instructions to redirect waterways in order to reveal staircases and pathways, other times you’ll play hide-and-seek with a robed child in order for them to show you a secret entrance to a forbidden building. Either way, the environment is key to the puzzles, and often helps you solve them.
Carved murals depicting the history of this religion adorn the walls, complete with embossed stone plaques telling you what’s going on. The hints from the images let you compile your dictionary, which in turn help you understand other devotees and progress further.
This is where the game feels like Heaven’s Vault, albeit slightly more forgiving. I came to countless incorrect conclusions in Inkle’s indie, which led me down long and winding paths to dead ends. Chants of Sennaar won’t let you progress without the correct interpretation of its language, whether that’s ignoring the symbols and trial-and-erroring the puzzle, or painstakingly working out which character means ‘open’ and which ‘closed’.
At certain points, you’re also prompted to fill out dictionary pages with image-related guesses. Fill a page with correct guesses, and the game will tell you all three are definitely correct. You can do this randomly, hoping for the best by placing random glyphs into each slot, but there are hundreds of possible combinations so I wouldn’t recommend it. Besides, that defeats the point of the game. Sometimes I’ve struggled on a final slot and tried a few different options to fill out the page, but that’s a part of archeology, right? The languages on the Rosetta Stone were translated largely through contextual clues, so it’s good enough for me.
The language-based exploration hearkens back to Tunic, too. Both games are largely silent as you’re plonked into a strange world with little instruction. Chants of Sennaar doesn’t have an open world, but it still presents you with engaging mysteries off the bat, and only thorough understanding of your instructions will help you solve them.
Chants of Sennaar is a unique puzzle game that’s worth your time and attention. I’ve never played a game that fuses puzzles and language in such a way, with such stylish presentation to boot. Give it a whirl to see if it has the same profound effect on you – there’s even a demo on Steam if you want to dip your toe in the water.
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