Chants of Sennaar stands side by side with all the wonderful puzzle games of the last four-five years that people keep mentioning in the same breath, without ever being subservient to them - part of a lineage, not chasing a trend. That said, where those games live in the contemplative or sardonic, Chants is bright and joyful. It may not be as complex or deep, but finding new solutions made me feel happy as much as I felt clever. Making discoveries is a full-bodied delight, which leads to that initial aimlessness at the start of each new puzzle / area being more of a chance to breath and take things in than something to rush through.
While it's mostly content to let the player work at their own pace, there's a point at which the story picks up underneath the puzzle and starts to carry the whole experience along faster than before. The puzzle of cultural exploration and translation is sidelined pretty hard. It's a low point that would ruin the experience entirely if it weren't followed by an ending that feels earned and built up to, if perhaps a little bit out of nowhere in that way games tend to end. The stealth segments too feel more textural than substantial, but they don't last long enough to cause a problem.
An absolute highlight of the game are the vocabulary tests - when the developers ask if you've really been paying attention, if you understand the glyphs as a means of communication. They're short and sweet puzzles, but rewarding in a way that few of its peers have managed. Solving them feels like more than just figuring something out or filling out a catalogue - it's having an impact on the world, making a real difference to its people.
If you like Heaven's Vault, Return of the Obra Dinn - two of the best games released in the past five years, you will likely consider Chants of Sennaar a worthy companion piece. More than that, though, it ties their core mysteries together and builds a world around how nice - how meaningful - it is to simply solve a puzzle, to figure something out, to make a connection.
While it's mostly content to let the player work at their own pace, there's a point at which the story picks up underneath the puzzle and starts to carry the whole experience along faster than before. The puzzle of cultural exploration and translation is sidelined pretty hard. It's a low point that would ruin the experience entirely if it weren't followed by an ending that feels earned and built up to, if perhaps a little bit out of nowhere in that way games tend to end. The stealth segments too feel more textural than substantial, but they don't last long enough to cause a problem.
An absolute highlight of the game are the vocabulary tests - when the developers ask if you've really been paying attention, if you understand the glyphs as a means of communication. They're short and sweet puzzles, but rewarding in a way that few of its peers have managed. Solving them feels like more than just figuring something out or filling out a catalogue - it's having an impact on the world, making a real difference to its people.
If you like Heaven's Vault, Return of the Obra Dinn - two of the best games released in the past five years, you will likely consider Chants of Sennaar a worthy companion piece. More than that, though, it ties their core mysteries together and builds a world around how nice - how meaningful - it is to simply solve a puzzle, to figure something out, to make a connection.