“Chants of Sennaar is an ingenious linguistic puzzle game that takes the right notes from genre greats like Return of the Obra Dinn.”
Pros
Ingenious logic puzzles
Thoughtfully constructed languages
Engrossing setting
Striking artwork type
When I used to be first dropped into Chants of Sennaar, I used to be a stranger in a wierd land. Without a phrase of English to information me, I used to be left wandering round a desert village perched on a tower, struggling to grasp locals who solely communicate in overseas symbols.
No greater than an hour later, I used to be a budding anthropologist. I’d decipher a set of murals that taught me the setting’s mythology, be taught the category construction of the tower, and even get to some extent the place I may write my very own sentences from a small handful of symbols. To attain that time, I’d have to cease seeing myself as an alien and begin discovering widespread floor with my fellow man. After all, the one factor that separates us within the multilingual tower is the image used to explain us.
Chants of Sennaar is an ingenious puzzle-adventure in regards to the nuance and complexity of communication. Players aren’t simply uncovering the that means behind overseas letters, however studying how language can be utilized to have fun what we worth in our cultures … or oppress ones we don’t agree with.
Learning languages
Inspired by the parable of Babel, Chants of Sennaar is a singular 3D journey that turns language into logic puzzles. In order to ascend a mysterious tower and be taught its secrets and techniques, gamers have to decipher 5 distinct languages, placing phrases to mysterious symbols through in an in-game pocket book. It’s a frightening process at first, however one which’s made simple because of a bevy of good design choices.
To make the method extra manageable, Chants of Sennaar borrows from the most effective: Return of the Obra Dinn. Just like Lucas Pope’s critically adored deduction recreation, Chants of Sennaar has a validation system that lets gamers confirm a set of symbols by putting them subsequent to photographs of their journal. Even once I was stumped, I may use that to select up some additional context clues and higher perceive what sorts of phrases and ideas are widespread all through the tower.
Focus Interactive
That system is a useful fail-safe, however I used to be impressed by how usually I didn’t have to lean on it. That turned clear instantly after being thrown into the sport’s opening village, as I rapidly turned an professional on how its folks communicate. Some of the cues are clearly telegraphed. When a toddler invitations me to play hide-and-seek, I start to grasp what symbols stand in for you, I, search, and discover. Other puzzles require some inventive considering. When I discover a collection of murals depicting the religious battle that led to the tower’s energy battle, I have to make some educated guesses about what I’m seeing. I scribble phrases like “villager” and “God” over the symbols, piecing collectively some model of the reality. It’s an absorbing loop that has me racking my mind as I attempt to translate runes with out utilizing a phrase of my very own tongue.
I’m not all the time proper, however that’s a part of the sport. Sometimes I see my tough translations pop up in one other context and notice I’m off, like an embarrassed vacationer utilizing the incorrect phrases with an area. Those moments push me to not simply be taught particular person phrases, however the methods through which a language really capabilities. For occasion, completely different folks have completely different strategies for pluralization and even primary sentence construction. To ascend, I have to develop into fluent in these grammatical nuances too.
It pushes me to grasp why languages are constructed the way in which they’re.
What’s much more engrossing is how a lot I find out about every of the sport’s 5 factions by means of the handful of widespread phrases they use. When I infiltrate the ranks of the knights patrolling the tower, I start to see oppressive phrases like “weapon” and “duty” pop up — in addition to some loaded phrases for the opposite inhabitants within the tower. I get the sense that they’re a disciplined group residing by a agency code of guidelines. Later, I hit upon a city filled with free-spirited artists, and their language is much extra playful, with symbols representing artwork and music. Each language feels distinct, giving me a glimpse on the differing cultures populating the tower and their values.
Chants of Sennaar isn’t only a intelligent phrase recreation; it pushes me to grasp why languages are constructed the way in which they’re. The larger I climb, the extra I search to grasp who holds the ability in a multisided struggle, and the way phrases will be fastidiously formed into propaganda to win me over to 1 aspect.
Complex puzzles
While the majority of Chants of Sennaar is constructed round deciphering phrases, it finds a shocking variety of methods to twist that concept into extra conventional puzzling. When I uncover a tradition of laborers and scientists, I’m all of a sudden transmuting metals and uncovering formulation utilizing a language depending on math and science. Any puzzle that appears hopeless at first look normally has a transparent resolution hiding elsewhere on this planet, even when it requires somewhat additional thought to seek out the answer. One city looks as if an not possible labyrinth till I discover the phrases I have to orient myself.
I’m entranced by the tower, with all the vivid colours and lovely sounds …
In a cleverly self-reflexive transfer, Chants of Sennaar is simply as a lot about studying the language of video video games as it’s about human tongues. Even one thing so simple as stealthily transferring round guards requires me to grasp primary sample recognition, as I time my actions to create audio distractions to “solve” a room. One late-game puzzle has me crafting a key utilizing the identical form of arithmetic problem-solving that I’d count on to see in a Professor Layton recreation. Just as Chants of Sennaar teaches me why languages are constructed the way in which they’re, it does the identical for puzzle recreation design.
Its solely weaknesses come within the moments the place it strays away from that core thesis. With no maps to orient me, just a few sections had me backtracking between distant rooms as I appeared for some clue I missed or logical leap that was the important thing to establishing the subsequent puzzle. Those few irritating moments develop into extra about spatial consciousness as I tediously bounced round mazes on the lookout for the subsequent puzzle piece (a useful button highlights all interactable objects in a room, and I like to recommend utilizing it liberally).
Focus Interactive
But like mistranslating a phrase, getting misplaced isn’t all the time a nasty factor. It offers me an opportunity to as soon as once more move by villagers I beforehand couldn’t perceive or murals I couldn’t learn. Even decoding one phrase might help me perceive an entire sentence, resulting in extra discoveries. Even when it doesn’t, the additional time spent strolling permits me to soak in Chants of Sennaar’s Moebius-inspired artwork type, which is filled with pop artwork that makes it really feel like a religious cousin to 2021’s Sable. I’m entranced by the tower, with all the vivid colours and lovely sounds that symbolize its various inhabitants.
When I set out on my journey initially, I’m only a vacationer wanting to get from one place to the opposite with out eager about the areas I’m transferring by means of. The deeper I get, the extra I notice the cultural significance of each place I go to. A easy card recreation early on takes on new that means once I notice it’s subtly educating me the category construction of the complete tower. The extra I look and hear, really partaking with what the folks of the tower try to speak, the extra invested I’m of their struggles. Though as keen as I’m to assist, I additionally have to be taught that language is a strong multitool that can be utilized to coach, mislead, or manipulate. That’s the true check I discover within the tower; an ethical meta-puzzle that may’t be solved with a easy translation.
Chants of Sennaar was examined on PC and Steam Deck.
Editors’ Recommendations