The Chant catches on with its plot, but confuses it with its presentation and very uneven gameplay. We tell in the review whether the new horror is worth attention from an online game developer Friv2Online Games Studio.
The Chant tells an interesting story - horror about cults has always attracted me. However, one should not expect revelations of the Silent Hill level from this game, and the plot here is served somehow right off the bat: the main character, a girl named Jess, did not have time to come to an isolated island for a retreat, as the first session of group meditation began somersault, the participants fled in all directions, and the player, together with the protagonist, has to figure out what the hell is going on here.
However, you can enjoy the atmosphere of the game. From the very first minutes, when the girl arrives on the island, there is a feeling that something is wrong. Too much everything that happens looks like one of those charismatic sects, the followers of which soon leave for another world. Only here people say goodbye to life not voluntarily, but through the fault of monsters that crawled into our world from otherworldly gaps.
Following each of the participants of the retreat, you willy-nilly immerse yourself in their experiences. Everyone keeps some personal problems, including the main character, who carried childhood trauma through the years and eventually realized that she still needed help. Other characters are no less interesting: someone has outbursts of anger, someone mourns for a dead child, and someone needs self-affirmation.
Numerous cut-scenes are able to impress with beautiful camera work, but fail in terms of production. Heroes speak out of place, their facial expressions fail and their mood changes. Sometimes it causes bewilderment, sometimes it causes laughter, which the authors of the game clearly did not count on.
The gameplay is also annoying. At least the fact that instead of weapons we literally have bunches of grass with which Jess drives away monsters. They can be crafted from flowers and vines collected at corridor locations. And that's not all: how about stunning the monster with a pinch of salt thrown in its snout?
The combat system looks as ridiculous as it sounds: the girl clumsily dodges enemies, pushes them and attacks with improvised weapons. Opponents here to match: flying flowers, half-animals, half-humans, flocks of flies and other infernal evil spirits.
A pleasant find in The Chant was the division of the health scale into three parts: mind, body and spirit. Each of the parts must be kept healthy, and the mind scale is depleted when meeting with the otherworldly, physical health suffers from attacks, and the spirit is spent on using special abilities. By collecting special jars, Jess will be able to upgrade: he will become stronger and more resilient, he will be able to resist enemies longer, stun them and deal more damage.
However, you will have to carefully explore the locations not only for the sake of jars and items for crafting weapons. Scattered here and there are notes that reveal the stories of those who have been here before, and quest items are hidden in secluded places, such as keys to locked doors and parts of mechanisms that need to be started. Puzzles in the game do not scare away with their complexity, on the contrary, they are solved very easily. Only the absence of a map can confuse: you will have to remember which parts of the level you have visited and which ones you haven’t yet.
The Chant is completed in just four to five hours, and this is the optimal length for the game: so it does not have time to get bored and does not start to cause negative emotions. More often funny than scary, hastily assembled and stumbling out of the blue, this horror for some reason does not make you regret the time spent.
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