The mythical Tower of Babel tells a story of the people of the world, once united, separated by confusion as their one, unified language becomes many. This tale from the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament is meant to serve as a parable explaining the origin of language. It explores language’s incredible power in uniting and dividing people. Based heavily on this story, Chants of Sennaar challenges you to unite the citizens of The Tower by deciphering and translating the many languages that divide them. Only through clear communication can players navigate the many puzzles of this game and discover the secrets hidden within its poetic and enchanting world.
Before getting into the gameplay, I feel like the art of Chants of Sennaar is worth delving into. If you have eyes to see, you’ll notice the game employs a minimalist art style with the use of vibrant colors and simple, yet complimentary color palettes when creating its landscape and characters. This simplistic style can go unappreciated at first, but it’s remarkably good at triggering the theater of the mind. There were times playing Chants of Sennar where I was picturing vast, intricate landscapes beyond the simplistic deco presented to the eye. It’s only in reflection after my time with the game did I really come to appreciate the way Chants of Sennar managed to use my own imagination when viewing the Tower and its people.
The game also cleverly uses its color palettes, lighting, and shadows to present the differences between people living on the Tower. Beyond just a language barrier, the many cultures you must unite in Chants of Sennaar are presented with different clothing, sounds, and different environments to call home. A simple color palette can be used to explain ancient differences between the monastic people living in the Tower’s abbey and the armed guards who prevent access to higher levels of the Tower.
Music also plays a strong role in the presentation of Chants of Sennaar. More than anything else, the music was a reminder that I was free to take my time exploring the Tower and translating glyphs. The relaxing score also gives off ancient and mysterious vibes, reminding you of the great hidden history of the Tower that you’re seeking to discover.
Chants of Sennaar is a point-and-click puzzle game. You’ll have to solve puzzles to navigate the map, unlock doors, clear flooded walkways, and other traditional puzzles that you might expect to find in other games of the genre. However, the game also features a completely different, unique puzzle mechanic that’s core to the game as a whole. Deciphering the multiple languages of the Tower is a puzzle constantly going on in the background as you play Chants of Sennars, and is key to understanding and progressing through the more traditional puzzles laid out on the map around you. That means you’ll be solving puzzles to solve puzzles to solve puzzles.
If that sounds a little complicated, that’s because it is. But therein lies the fun of Chants of Sennaar. It’s a game about discovery, learning, and chasing that desire to learn more about the world and languages around you. Having a desire to learn is paramount for enjoying the game.
You learn languages in Chants of Sennaar by deciphering glyphs. Imagine each glyph sort of like a letter in the alphabet, though representing an entire word. Discovering one glyph at a time will slowly fill in the gaps in spoken and written sentences throughout the map, progressively making it easier to understand what you have to do to progress deeper into the Tower.
Learning a glyph is a game of context clues and logic puzzles. The meaning of each glyph is hidden behind the expressed function of the word and how the many people of the tower use it. With no hints beyond context clues, it’ll take even the most intelligent and determined player a while to decipher what each glyph means, and there are multiple languages to learn, so you can expect a full completion of Chants of Sennaar to take a while.
Some glyphs are more easily discovered than others. The first three glyphs you discover are pretty obvious and should take you no more than a glance or two to figure them out. The next three glyphs, however, set much better expectations for how difficult deciphering these languages is gonna be. I certainly didn’t figure these three out right away and it would be a while until I did.
Though the challenge is, of course, part of the fun, the game could certainly use some pointers in a few places to smooth the experience out. One noticeably difficult aspect of the game is that you have to discover glyphs three at a time. If you’re not sure of just one word in a section, you won’t be sure of the other two, as the game won’t confirm if your discovery is correct unless you discover all three.
An optional tip feature to figuring out the meaning of glyphs would also be appreciated by more casual players (me) who struggled with even the most basic glyphs for a long time (also me.) Though the challenge of uncovering glyphs is fun, you’ll quickly realize that glyphs could either mean words or entire phrases. I won’t spoil which it is, but realizing that each glyph had a 20-character limit led to a lot of confusion that wouldn’t have been there if the game was more clear about the rules behind the puzzle solving.
You’re going to struggle in this game, and that’s by design. Chants of Sennaar is a game that undeniably made me feel stupid as I attempted to navigate a world alien in both design and language. I can only imagine this game is what it’s like going to a foreign country for the first time with no knowledge of the language; confusing, at times frustrating, and makes you question how good of an education you got in school.
Confusing though it may be, and while you may sometimes feel stuck, you will never feel rushed in Chants of Sennaar. The game is utterly relaxed and can be discovered completely at your own pace. If it takes you ten minutes or ten hours to decipher a page, it’s no big deal and you’re encouraged to take your time if you need it. The game can be played completely with the mouse, further accentuating its relaxed nature.
There are very few moments in Chants of Sennaar that will simply hand the answer over to you, and as tempting as it may be, looking up a guide to this game completely defeats the purpose. Though the barrier to entry for this game felt neigh insurmountable, I didn’t feel like the inherent difficulty of deciphering language with nothing but contextual clues was an unfair challenge. If anything, it simply underlines the biblical (pun intended) challenge of unscrambling the Tower of Babel and reuniting peoples who have been separated by the powerful force of language.
The Final Word
Chants of Sennaar presents you with a big world, a big secret to discover, and a monumental task to complete. Though daunting at times, the peaceful experience of exploring, solving puzzles, and deciphering ancient languages is a unique experience that anyone of a scholarly temperament should enjoy. If you love puzzles, language, ancient lost secrets or all three, Chants of Sennaar is definitely a game you should give a try.
8
Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Chants of Sennaar is available on Steam, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.