Video Game Review: Chants of Sennaar
Screenshot from Lachlan White’s gameplay.
REVIEWED BY LACHLAN WHITE.
Screenshot from Lachlan White’s gameplay.
The tale of the Tower of Babel has always fascinated me. If you’re not familiar with this biblical story comes from the book of genesis, it’s the origin story as to why people speak different languages, in which a group of ancient humans were united in speaking one language until God confused their tongues, for their hubris punishment in working together building a tower to the heavens.
Chants of Sennar, a puzzle adventure game was inspired by this biblical origin myth, As you explore the beautiful tower and its stunning views, you solve linguistic puzzles and chat to the people of this tower, however the catch is that you don’t speak their language and have to slowly decipher their language by learning patterns through trial and (much) error.
Screenshot from Lachlan White’s gameplay.
Spoiler, Screenshot from Lachlan White’s gameplay.
You are a traveller that has arrived to these lands on the task to re-unite the people in the ways of language. Many of the puzzles are written in unknown language of cryptic glyphs and symbols, you start with the only clue is a sign that's written in an unknown language, which means that if you want to progress, you'll have to decipher the unaided text, and figure out the meaning of these unknown symbols. You slowly build a dictionary of pictographs by developing memory of patterns of the symbols used in different, by assortment of actions, objects, social positions and linking ideas with association.
Slowly climbing the levels of the tower attempting to decipher the words and phrases of the people and then translate between the growing number of groups. Once you crack the base language, you climb one level higher in this tower and you meet a new group of people with a new culture and a new language, now having to translate between the groups which aids in solving the puzzles and so the game continues.
For a game about language, they have not skipped out on the “language of the soul”... Music, the soundtrack of the game composed by Thomas Brunet, which sets the aura of the gameplay experience, the memorable melodies brings you into the world of this tower. With minimalist aesthetics filled with warm tones changing chapters like a chameleon that is a real beauty behind the art design.
The complexity of the game keeps it from feeling like a grinding task however I always find myself returning to this game due to its fun puzzle solving, I guess that is a blessing of the switch. Best Switch game I’ve played, so I give this game a high review as it is always on the tip of my tongue.
5 Stars
Available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Steam, and Xbox One. (With a free demo for most of those platforms)