The Chant is a Cosmic Cultist Horror Game

A remote island, a spiritual ritual, and danger from another dimension – Those looking for classic survival horror might just find their way into The Chant.

Cologne – In the age of interactive slashers and game-limited jumpscare parties, classic survival horror tends to be on the wane. Limited resources, puzzles and fights against dangerous enemies are often no longer cool in a post “Five Nights At Freddy’s” era. Some games, however, want to prove that the genre still has steam and exciting stories in its tank – this is the case with Brass Token’s The Chant. At Gamescom 2022, we played some of this cosmic horror game set against the backdrop of island romance.

The Chant: An island vacation for sanity – worship rituals included

In fact, The Chant’s setting is everything Hollywood always warns about in occult horror movies. The chief is strangely charismatic, there are curious prayer rituals, everyone wears white clothes – none of this really makes you want to be met on an isolated island. The main character, Jess, however, has a good reason to join the “spiritual retreat”. She wants to overcome some bad traumas related to her family past.

Things happen as they should in such a setting, and after a failed ritual, Jess finds herself confronting not only cosmic abominations, but also her own past. From this hook, Brass Token weaves a classic horror adventure game in which you must survive the threat of another dimension and cultists gone wild.

The Chant: A classic one-two-punch of puzzles and battles

As Jess, you puzzle, fight, and escape across the island, but you always have to keep an eye on your mental state. If you are exposed to threats for too long, the main character suffers a panic attack, which robs him of all defensive capacity and requires him to retreat. At the same time, you need to take care of your health and spiritual strength, especially because the latter can improve your psyche and serve as a resource for special skills. Along with crafting rudimentary weapons (smoldering sage bushes or flaming branches), careful resource management is your first priority.

What had already pleasantly struck us in the preview version of The Chant is that the game is already fundamentally pleasant to play. Although Jess is a vulnerable character, she controls herself in a pleasingly quick and precise way – which goes against the slow movements of many horror heroes and offers a welcome change.

Hopefully the story can support The Chant’s solid gameplay structure. The cut-scenes and dialogue give an impression of competence and move the action forward well. But the animations of the faces can and must still be improved, because the facial expressions are sometimes a little too exaggerated to be believable.

But our curiosity is titillated, especially because The Chant presents itself with an original graphic style that is somewhere between Life Is Strange and neon-colored horror as in color out of space is located in the world. On November 03, 2022, you can immerse yourself in the spiritual mayhem of The Chant, which will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC.