Analysis of The Chant, the dimensional Midsommar where purifying the chakras is torture

In a time of stress and worries like the one we are in, there is nothing better than lying down and scratching your belly. There are more communal proposals such as those proposed by Midsummer y The ChantBut that’s not the only thing they have in common. The rivers of blood and despair they also reign in spiritual retreats.

Koch Media’s Prime Matter label has already offered us several works such as Dolmen or Mount & Blade: Bannerlord II and here it launches another proposal under the direction of Brass Token. The indie studio has gone all out with Prismic Science, but the truth is that they have stayed far from being recorded in the memory.

welcome to glory

What The Chant start with a ritual extrasensorialbeyond our dimension and with a sect capable of stealing your soul if necessary, already sets the tone for what awaits us in the next five hours of departure.

We play Jess Briars, a young woman who needs to come to terms with her past, leave it behind and look to the future. The solution? A remote island in the middle of the Pacific called Glory, a place where the cult of Prismic Science cleanses minds and heals spirits. The claim that her friend Kim of her has improved in her time in such a beautiful place ends up giving her the last push to travel.

However, everything just goes to hell because the worship of Prismic Science is directed towards beings from other realities, in a kind of cosmic terror that feeds on negative energy. Of course, minds as fragile as those that summon them make Glory a festival of possession and destruction. In that chaos we will begin to know the history behind the island.

From the 70’s onwards, Glory has become a meeting point for all those who seek to find a path of hope for their lives. However, the cult leaders think only of their own selfishness, taking financial and emotional advantage of the residents. Thus, we will find Sonny, Hannah or Maya as characters with unresolved conflicts.

Due to the possessions and gossip, we will end up exploring the corners of the island, which serve as a point to show the personalities of each of the residents. Whether in a lighthouse or in the mines, we will come across all kinds of documents, film reels and annotations that will give us context about what happened before in these places. Nevertheless, much more complicated is to feel empathy towards our colleagues.

And it is that it is difficult to know exactly why Jess is in Glory if they do not explain it until a good stretch of adventure has passed. It is very difficult for me to feel sorry for characters that I have barely known who are sane and who at the first chance turn into abominable beings willing to do anything. The plot is too constrained by the duration and the need to read a lot of paper if we want to be clear about what is happening around us.

The game seems to be in a hurry to launch us into the action, but at the same time it wants us to get to know each member in depth. Nonetheless, The Chant wants us to feel terror when traveling the roads, but does not seem to invest real efforts in carrying it out. A couple of easy scares is all that we will find, beyond the recurring corpses and blood everywhere.

Armed; attack; huye

The truth is that it doesn’t matter what happens The Chant when everything is focused on surviving. We go barefoot, dressed in white in the middle of the night and face monsters from another dimension. Luck is not on our side, so we will have to find a balance between Body, Mind and Soul.

These three statistics are represented on the screen to indicate a multitude of states. For example, there are areas invaded by horrible flora and fauna, which we will have to cross, and doing so will cause Jess a great panic. Consequently, the Mind will begin to decay and, if completely depleted, we won’t be able to do anything but run

until we recover.

Of course, it is possible to meditate to calm down, but it will be at the expense of the Soul. In turn, this serves as a barrier thanks to different colored prisms, so we will have to place them around our neck to access these invaded areas, beyond the fact that they grant unique powers. Slow down enemies, summon spikes to come out of the ground and many other supernatural abilities that are very useful in combat.

The Body is a representation of health and a large weight of the gameplay mechanics of The Chant orbit around these statistics, which is a success. We can influence attribute enhancement by choosing different responses in dialogues, reading documents, or investing Prismic Crystals in the corresponding skill tree.

Eye, there is more. Being at peace with nature is important, but it is even more important to slap a possessed sectarian who approaches us. For this we have what you could find on an almost deserted island: oil, branches, sticks and a little fire. Traditional and handmade weapons that we can make ourselves by collecting resources throughout the island.

The variety is extensive, dividing the arsenal into implements that hit hard and those that serve to stun momentarily. In addition, each weapon has unique characteristics, either dealing increased mystical, physical, or holy damage. They are not minor data, since The Chant’s bestiary is relatively extensive

. His designs are promising, in line with what we can see on stage.

Throughout the areas we will come across engravings of the creatures with which we will have to deal, being able to be clear about what they are and what way is the most effective to annihilate them. In fact, we can even place small traps, but everything falls apart quickly.

And it is that at the moment of truth, combat is rough and crude, which draws powerful attention when we take a look at who has directed the title. Nothing less than Mike Skupa, the design director of Bully and Sleeping Dogs, two works -especially the one based on Hong Kong- that shone with enormous possibilities when it comes to hand-to-hand fighting. In The Chant this does not happen, since everything consists of hit the same button to attack light or heavy.

The dodges are really easy to execute, the AI of the enemies is many light years away from being a problem and it is much more advisable to make a small detour to avoid them. Normally they are not capable of opening doors, on many occasions they are slow and that means that some confrontations against final bosses do not shine in their fullness.

iGamesNews’s opinion

The balance of AA is really complex. Everything seems to hinge on the thread between becoming a hit like A Plague Tale: Innocence or falling for the unsuccessful attempt to Dolmen. The Chant wants to look hopefully at what Asobo Studio’s adventure achieved, but is closer to the futuristic Souls universe. A story that is very difficult to connect with and a bland combat completely hinder the chances of becoming a memorable title.

That does not exempt him from good ideas, not curdled in the execution. The choice of dialogues, the possibilities in the combats and the interrelation between both mechanics is promising, but it simply does not satisfy. Although the game has a linear approach, the truth is that we can explore terrain by transporting ourselves through the sections of the island if we want to get even more out of it.

Although the soundtrack has been composed by Paul Ruskay, author of the music for Homeworld, the truth is that it does not have a key presence and, sometimes, not even adequate. Yes indeed, graphically The Chant more than meetsoffering absolutely stable 4K/60FPS without a drop.