What if you travelled to a foreign land and had absolutely zero comprehension of the language used there? How would you interpret their tongue, how would you go about translating it in order to understand, and how would you be able to correctly help them if they were in need?

Chants of Sennaar is a game with a unique gameplay mechanic that encourages you to unravel information and discover ways to decode the dialect in order to understand what is going on in its heavily stylised almost duo-chromatic, isometric world.

An Enigmatic Premise, Puzzles, Stealth & More!

Starting up the game it's clear that there is a large amount of exploratory gameplay to partake in. You immediately come across the game's core mechanic: solving conundrums via translation of foreign language and pictorial writing!

Feeling not unlike a Mobile or PlayStation Vita game with very minimalist aesthetics and an extremely intuitive control system, you have to use the built-in keyboard to take notes and write down what you think the word being expressed is, and I really enjoyed this idea for interactivity, as it completely personalises your playthrough.

As an example, a door has a switch with two glyphs on it that when clicked on comes up with the dialogue cue "??? / ???". With this you will instinctively associate one to mean "Open" and the other "Close". Automatically these glyphs get added to your notebook, along with a space next to them for you to fill in the proposed decryption of the thing at hand.

You might then see a shop sign with a simple image of an instrument hanging above it, but no one is there, and there is a sign hung on the door that says " ??? Close". Using this initial translation, you can infer that the music shop is closed. Opening your notebook again, a new glyph appears that you have seen but haven't translated yet, and you can therefore succinctly add the word "Music" to that new glyph. Re-reading that shop sign now that you have both words the sign makes more sense and converts itself to "The Music Shop is now Closed" for example.

Your notebook adds pages as you see situational words too. Diagrams of a door closing, a child beckoning, and a guitar creating sounds are added and it's up to you to place the corresponding glyph that you have found next to the relevant image. If you close enough the game confirms your translations and congratulates you with an affirming tone and the glyphs change colour to signify a successful decoding.

This continual snowballing of information allows you to comprehend that people nodding their heads in the streets to musical performers "Like Music" and your vocabulary grows exponentially, filling in gaps and adding glyphs to the mix.

Rewarding Gameplay, Cryptic Yet Refreshing

There is a massive feeling of reward in Chants or Sennaar, because of the way the game pushes you to take a risk and input something for the sake of it in order to try to understand what an NPC is trying to convey. The way you endeavour to string together sense and meaning then makes you adapt some other glyphs you were sure you had translated correctly, and the constantly evolving learning process really makes you pay attention and try to grasp the next section of the story.

In addition to the underlying baseline element that is translation, the game harmonises with additional puzzle elements, stealth and an undulating story that unfurls the further you progress. Some of the puzzles (no spoilers) see you translating directions that you then have to take in order to find a location, or you decrypt a tablet or monument that explains a sequence of objects you have to have pointed at each other or aligned in specific directions with a specific item from another puzzle mounted to it, Indiana Jones-like levels of adventure, to expose a secret chamber or pathway so that you can forge onwards with the story.

With stealth required in some areas, you have to pick and choose the right attire before entering certain areas that are secured by specifically detailed guards. You also have to distract them by throwing stones at bells or gongs and sneak past other enemies by timing your movements to avoid their line of sight, or by using further disguises and joining the tail end of ceremonially marching holy men.

Undoubtedly A Game To Check Out

One of my favourite elements was the areas where instructions were given to pick up certain objects and move them in a certain way to a certain place, all whilst in disguise. You had to quickly grasp what others were doing, note down the rough translation and quickly perform a task in an attempt to blend in and not arouse suspicion. Get busted and you will be apprehended by the evil guards!

These areas really build suspense and force you to think quickly, making a decision based on your previous knowledge of how to attempt translations. I found it quite captivating and luckily for me, I managed to scrape through a lot of these sections with a relatively minimal amount of times getting caught and sent back to the beginning of the increasingly stepped task sequences.

I really enjoyed the minimalist aesthetic, the sound effects are also minimal but serve to punctuate the actions, and the control scheme was perfectly intuitive throughout. The learning curve is perhaps a little steep for some, but once you have your head wrapped around the task and get a feel for how the language flows you will be up and running in next to no time.

Chants of Sennaar is a fantastic experience for those who like lateral thinking, have a penchant for languages, or like a cryptic adventure. I highly recommend it for its charmingly simple aesthetic, interesting storyline and organic interactivity it allows that I personally haven't seen much of in many games since perhaps Scribblenauts!