Take a cult, play with crystals and you’ll get a horror game that mixes action and puzzle!
The Chant is a title that tickled my mind as soon as I saw the first press release in my overloaded mailbox. Admittedly, I have a thing for horror games, so when I saw a title that seemed to be ogling old-school Resident Evil or Silent Hill with puzzles and action, I I said: why not? And then hey, the synopsis on a background of spirituality is a little more original than the average game of the genre.
In The Chant, we will embody Jess who is still suffering from the loss of her sister. She is invited to a mysterious island by her friend Kim, but as soon as she arrives, she understands that all is not well in the area. You don’t have to be born yesterday to understand that it smells like a sect in the area. In general, when you land in the pampas, you are asked to change into white clothes and shoes are optional because it allows you to stay connected with the earth… It’s because you don’t You’re not here to sip cocktails and take a dip in the pool. This is confirmed quickly, from the meeting with the local chef, Tyler. Barely time to put down her things and change her fute, Jess is invited to drink a herbal tea. It’s suspicious, because it’s not tea time. As you can imagine, it was a ritual, and it goes so wrong that it awakens a dimension of cosmic terror. But thanks to Skippy, I discovered a total freedom of cosmic thought towards a reminiscent new age… Sorry, I digress. In the end, it’s the slip party and Stranger Things enters the place: yes, you will discover the existence of portals and strange monsters who want our skin. Since Jess is nice, she will take advantage of her spiritual retreat to save the few members of the sect and close the door to this very rotten parallel dimension.
And when we have the 5 stones of infinity, will we snap our fingers?
You should know that the story of The Chant gets off to a flying start, we’re straight into the deep end, probably even a little too quickly, to the point that we don’t even have time to understand what’s going on. pass. Finally, in any case, the player at the end of his controller is a little lost, because the characters, they are quiet. Jess is rarely shocked by what is happening, and the others… Well the others, they are under the orders of a bearded man, their brains are already completely washed out. Overall, the story is a bit far-fetched, the explanations are rather evasive and in the end, we can’t say that the scenario is frankly transcendent. It all looks more like a nice excuse to get together in a small group on an isolated island to release monsters into the wild. Why not in a pinch… Except that it lacks fright, and that we rarely freak out while playing The Chant.
Close your mouth when you sleep
The Chant offers an action/puzzle mix with TPS-like gameplay. We have the impression of being in a small open world, but in the end, this is not the case, we must mainly follow a corridor with a few round trips for the purposes of the story. There is a lot of reading, especially to discover the bestiary which will allow you to find weak points in the types of enemies you will encounter. There are a lot of things that are highlighted in The Chant. For example, it will be necessary to monitor our mental health while paying attention to the state of our physical fatigue. There is also a spirit bar that allows us to recharge our energies with meditation. We can also make objects like the sage stick, for example, which will repel enemies from the shadows. And it will be necessary to play with crystals. Too bad the fights are rather repetitive and suddenly, a little soporific.
Stronger than Thanos
The atmosphere proposed in The Chant is successful. We want to immerse ourselves in this story, and see what is on offer. Unfortunately, all is not perfect. Graphically, it blows hot and cold. The cinematics are rather successful, but when you play, the abuse of grain to make “film of the 70s” hides a little misery. We can see that 3D models are limited, as are animations. Overall, it still holds up, it’s very correct for a game of its kind. Too bad the soundtrack is a little behind. The music, for example, sometimes lacks bite or pep. The sound effects try to make us jump from time to time but that’s all. Finally, even if it’s nice to play a game with French dubbing, it sometimes lacks conviction in the acting. The gameplay is quite pleasant even if, as I said above, the redundancy of the action is a bit annoying. Finally, in terms of lifespan, it will take about 6/7 hours of play in normal mode.
What, do I need to shave my head?
The Chant is a correct title in its genre. He doesn’t have huge flaws, but he doesn’t have great qualities to stand out either. The basic idea is good, the whole thing isn’t bad to watch, but the redundant action and the general lack of scary moments spoil the end experience a bit.