The Chant Reviews
Despite some weak writing, The Chant is fun to play regardless with exciting fighting mechanics and entertaining lore.
The Chant is a fun horror adventure with its own personality, but it fails to reach 100% of its potential due to a too predictable script and a technical compartment plagued by several shortcomings.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Chant offers a mix of horror you don't see often in games. It combines survival-horror with elements that could come straight out of a H.P. Lovecraft book. Besides a few flaws the game looks great and the gameplay keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way. The gameplay could use a bit more depth, especially the combat and the skill tree and sometimes you miss a bit of balance. Still, if you start this game, be ready for a ride that keeps the blood pressure going up and down.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
What a great surprise The Chant was. It's a superb debut game from Brass Token filled with top-notch motion capture and voice acting, highly detailed environments, an engaging story, and it has some truly haunting enemy designs. If you like horror adventure games, book your trip to Glory Island immediately.
Taking a vacation, Jess ends up at the seemingly soothing Glory Island spa. Soon the situation takes an unexpected turn and she is surrounded by terrifying monsters. Can you reveal the truth about this mysterious cult?
Review in Dutch | Read full review
I'd say The Chant is a very solid entry into the survival horror genre, especially for someone like me who isn't really a big fan of the horror genre in all media. The acting is strong, and the crafting elements help to bring a sense of defencelessness to Jess. The story kept me enthralled, and The Gloom did its job of keeping me on my toes and giving me that horror game experience. The Chant may not look as good as it perhaps should on current gen, but the griminess of the island acted as an eerie backdrop to what first seemed like paradise.
Your spirit is the only one that is a purely positive attribute. Spirit acts as a kind of mana for your special attacks, but can alternatively be used to restore your mind through meditation. So you need a constant supply of all three values. Through accumulated experience points in the three disciplines and hidden crystals, you can also expand your supply in a skill tree or unlock passive bonuses. These abilities are quite nice, but with the exception of the extended bar for health, mind and mind, they often only have a noticeable effect in very specific situations.
Review in German | Read full review
The Chant is a surprising horror adventure with an enormous capacity to hook the player.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Chant is another one of those games that don't reinvent, but entertain. Its plot brings something different from what we have seen in the horror genre lately. There's no such thing as haunted mansions, teenagers being idiots, or grandiose enemies here. The focus of the production is to bring a different story accompanied by some supernatural elements. Because it was being sold as a horror game, I found it weak in this aspect. I recommend it for those who don't like blood, violence or being scared. It is somewhat friendly to those who are no longer familiar with the horror genre.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
I can’t hide my disappointment with The Chant. I had a real hankering for a supernatural game this year, after getting some hands-on time at Gamescom. Instead, I’ve been left with questions about what this game could have been. It could’ve usurped Until Dawn, one of the best recent examples of a supernatural horror game, but with a more intriguing and deeper plot. It could’ve been a new fascinating way to approach and manage combat situations with three meters that operate together in harmony, giving you complex gameplay decisions to tackle alongside challenging combat. It could’ve been a new campy horror game, a guilty pleasure, similar to some of those dreadful TV shows I named at the start. But unfortunately, it’s neither of these things. Instead, you’re left with a story that feels incomplete and lacking depth. You’re left with combat that lacks any sort of meaningful challenge. And ultimately, you’ll be left like me: very, very salty.
The Chant has some good ideas, but unfortunately squanders its current-gen pedigree by delivering a straightforward survival horror that doesn’t innovate nor entertain. Featuring underwhelming visuals and repetitive combat mechanics, its short playthrough can be a challenge. What we have is a forgettable by-the-numbers survival horror game that tried too hard to become other games when it could’ve stood on its own with its charm and ideas. Truly a missed opportunity.
The Chant is a very atmospheric horror game that has a perfect balance of combat, exploration, puzzles, and frights. It’s refreshing to play a character that acts like a real person, not someone trained in martial arts or a closet bad-ass just waiting to beat the crap out of anything that moves – instead, she waves the weapons around, falls over when rolling, and reacts the way I would; she runs away! There were a few good jumpscares, the combat was heavy and satisfying, and the narrative had me hooked from beginning to end, I seriously can’t recommend the game enough. The only thing which would make it better is a robust photo mode and a NG+ mode.
While elements of The Chant are clichéd or clunky, there’s a surprisingly fun survival thriller nestled between its flaws. Creative monster design and excellent use of lighting (or lack thereof) can make for some nerve shredding moments too.
For how it turned out, The Chant isn’t necessarily a bad game. It just misses the mark where it counts, failing to provide any real scares or tension whatsoever. It delivers a serviceable action adventure horror romp that should take you a couple of sittings to get through. One with not enough reasons to come back to it once you’re done hearing what it has to say.
The Chant has arrived by surprise offering us a fun, entertaining and very affordable adventure for the general public thanks to its different modes of difficulty. With a graphic and sound section well above average, especially if we take into account that it is the prime opera of a fairly modest development studio. If we are fans of the horror genre and the theme of forbidden sects and rituals (which is something that just by hearing it already makes our hair stand on end) The Chant is undoubtedly an almost essential title in our survival horror game library. A horror adventure that should not be missed
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Chant tells a gripping cult tale and offers more than sufficient terror to have you quivering in your boots. However, the gameplay is pretty inconsistent, and the visuals are not current-gen standard. A lot of things to do and many resources at your disposal, but with very limited mechanics to work with. Nonetheless, if you’re looking for a game to occupy you until the release of a much bigger title, then this will do its job.
A horror game that frequently treads into the action-adventure territory, The Chant had me engaged with its awkward but functional combat, interesting visual design and lore. However, it was never able to consistently build and maintain tension throughout the game.
This action-focused, survival horror take features a number of magical attacks, enemy-specific consumables and the balancing of mind, body and spirit to brave the storm. However, Jess’ story isn’t memorable in the slightest, while other main character arcs come and go faster than green grass through a goose. There are some enjoyable puzzles and music scattered throughout, and the fast-travel, bestiary guides and skill tree upgrades complement the game quite nicely. But overall, The Chant doesn’t offer anything spectacular. It’s still worth checking out, especially considering the game’s low price point. Although, the best practice should be to keep your expectations in check.
The Chant has some interesting ideas, looks great, and starts its premise out well, but it just deteriorates so quickly into a convoluted mess. Between frustrating combat and enemy designs, characters that aren’t given time to develop, and a story that never really settles into a groove, the game just never fulfils its promise or potential.
The Chant doesn't stray too far from the manual to make a modern third-person narrative horror/action game, but it delivers in each and every one of its sections. Perhaps the combat is the point where it limps the most, but it remains fully functional. The premiere of Brass Token is a pleasant surprise and makes it a study to keep track of in future projects.
Review in Spanish | Read full review