The Chant

**DON'T LAUNCH THIS FROM STEAM, LAUNCH IT FROM THE INSTALL FOLDER** that gets rid of all the hitching and stuttering that everyone complains about.
decent little game, especially for the $2.50 it drops to on sale. look real nice and feels good to play. not too tough, but you definitely feel kinda helpless in the beginning with just a smudge stick to smack baddies with.
ultimately survival horror lite with some neat cosmic horror vibes.

Tl;dr: A generally fun horror experience that is carried by great atmosphere, great worldbuilding and good (and not annoying) puzzles. The clunky combat and at places lacking characters drag it down. A good purchase if you get it on sale, underwhelming when you pay full price.
I am a casual gamer that enjoys immersive experiences, and The Chant delivers this. Especially the worldbuilding is really good with lots of lore scattered throughout the game in easily digestible chunks. The world feels alive, and the atmosphere is great.
I struggled a bit with the clunky combat, feedback isn't great and it's hard to gage when you actually can hit something or something can hit you. Also, most abilities feel pretty useless.
The puzzles on the other hand are fun. Definitely not challenging, but also not annoying - it's giving you an opportunity to see more of the well designed world and to learn more about it.
I didn't like the writing of most characters, they felt pretty bland to me. The main character is okay, and two of the characters you meet actually have some depth, but they are not special or elegant in their delivery.
All in all a good experience. But I would wait for a sale to actually buy it.

Honestly, I had way more fun playing this than Silent Hill f. Some good story points, the found reels are great to watch, and overall I wanted to keep playing. A lot of games I play these days feel like a chore and I don't finish because I realize I'm not having fun. This one was short, engaging, and had more combat mechanics than I expected. But most of all, it was fun.

For anyone experiencing stutters each second, go to the game folder and execute "Chant.exe", the game will start without stutters, it's a good game though

Clever games curator review: 8/10 A horror / adventure game that leans on storyline and complex set pieces rather than jump scares for the horror. At times it sort of feels like a modern take on the Resident Evil series from the PSX era, but without the emphasis on avoiding combat. Gameplay consists equally of the following components: Getting lost in somewhat maze like naturalistic scenes, looking for both the quest items that advance the storyline and also the supplies for building your weapons and special attacks. These are needed for the fairly frequent combat, and especially these special attacks are key to keeping the combat from becoming oppressive. There’s also a decent amount of running after characters while they engage you in spoken dialog, and even more storyline being told by picking up copiously strewn about notes written by both present day characters and also those long dead.
The game has several strengths. I think the storyline, while not especially surprising, is fairly interesting and well written if you enjoy stories about multi generational cults that surprise (not a real spoiler) have stumbled upon real magic/occult powers. Also the environments that you play in are pretty fun, and lean heavily into abandoned / decayed structures ravaged by time and also some occult happenings. While varied, by the end they do start to all run together a bit though. While the game is fairly linear in that you have to proceed through each chapter in order, they do a decent job of making the levels feel like you’re actually exploring a space rather than just running down a cleverly disguised corridor. Indeed it is possible to get lost, though only for 10s of seconds at a time. Indeed I think in terms of actual gameplay, the best part of this game is the exploration. EG seeing various pickups that you really want but can’t reach directly and have to get to by going around obstacles etc.
The game has two weaknesses that matter enough to be worth complaining about. First is the combat. There is some skill, which comes down to knowing when to wail on enemies versus dodge, and also how to apportion your various special attacks to weaken the enemies that would otherwise be overly difficult. That said it’s kind of a melee brawler stuffed awkwardly into the middle of an exploration / story heavy game, and I never was pleased to see that combat was coming up. I personally set the game to the easiest difficulty level and still died some of the time. Thank goodness like many modern games you have the option of changing the difficulty level at any time, so feel free to start on normal, but I think easiest is probably the best unless you are into God of War type games.
The other flaw is that the game is thoroughly stuck in the uncanny valley, graphically. This is especially true of some of the character animation and texturing, and somewhat true of the environments that you run through. I think they could have gone for either more realistic, OR more stylized and had a better result. Where it stands it’s a bit disquieting but honestly I got used to it after the first 10 or 15 minutes and if you aren’t picky you probably will too.
In the end there is no single aspect of this game that stands out and makes it a classic. At the same time there is no single flaw that ruins the experience. It is simply a well made game that should appeal to fans of the genre and might convince a few people who like to dabble in the genre as well. I thoroughly enjoyed the 10 hours that I put in, but upon discovering that there was a free DLC for even more content I decided that I was done and was happy to move on instead. Indeed I probably kept on playing for at least a couple hours longer than I would have otherwise simply because I wanted to see the story through.

This is one of my favorite games of 2022. Brass Token put their heart and passion into this game and it was stunning. It gives some Silent Hill vibes mixed with a creepy cult, and some heart. I appreciate the addition of the panic meter, as someone who suffers with panic disorder it was really relatable.
My favorite parts:
The graphics/environments are amazing and unique. I appreciate both the island exploration and the Gloom exploration.
The combat mechanics are fun and easy to use, and feel like the character would use the items in the manner she does.
The enemies are unique and fun to interact with.
The voice acting was top notch.
THE FREE DLC was a welcomed departure from the original game, with its rogue like mechanics and amazing level design.
My least favorite parts:
The way we earn different endings can be difficult and confusing. It's easy to earn the same ending every time.
I wish there were more costume customization that could act as armor against some enemies.
The swarm creature that constantly hunts you is a resource waster and bothered me.
This game is a modern classic that everyone should play and enjoy. I can't wait to see what Brass Token does next.

Played for about 3 hours. Pretty good so far.
Decent survival horror based on "New Age" type mysticism combined with Lovecraft style horror, which isn't something I've ever seen before. A breath of fresh air for a survival horror genre that's been stagnating.
More "Silent Hill" than "Resident Evil". It reminds me a little of playing D2 back on the dreamcast.