The Chant - Island of Darkness

Developed by the Canadian company Brass Token and published by Prime Matter, Koch Media. Brass Token was founded in 2017, and The Chant was the company's debut. Although it was already known about its upcoming premiere in 2019, it did not see the light of day until three years later, on November 3, 2022. The company was founded by former Rockstar games designer (Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead, Manhunt, Max Payne, Midnight Club) Mike Scuppo. He was closely associated with such games from Rockstar games - Bully (2006) and Sleeping Dogs (2012).

In Search of Spirituality

The protagonist Jessica is plagued by nightmares after a tragic event from her youth. Jess blames herself for her sister's death, and inviting her friend Kim to an occultist camp seems like the perfect possible solution.

In addition to Jess and Kim, there are others in the camp who want to cope, through a kind of cleansing ritual, with their mental problems. But during the course of the séance, something goes wrong, a mysterious portal opens, a way into the Darkness, a mysterious world.

The plot unfolds quite predictably, so you shouldn't expect any special twists from it. But the developers paid attention to the characters, which makes the interaction with them interesting.

Confronting the Darkness

In addition to her fears and distraught companions, the heroine will have to confront various monsters.

To do this you have to search for resources, create, and improve your equipment. But sometimes the best way out of a skirmish with a monster is a tactical retreat. The game can hint you about it itself, when you suddenly break your stick in the middle of the battle, because resources are limited and escape will be the only way out. And how best to fight the monsters can be found out by reading the necessary information about them in the auxiliary sections.

Three of Jessica's parameters influence the ending, and there are three: mind, heart, and spirituality. But the mind is worth paying more attention to, as encounters with monsters strongly affect it. The emotional spectrum of the character is expressed through a bright and colorful prism of color. And, in general, the color-correlation here is lush.

The game will take 3-4 hours to pass, if you don't feel like wandering around the island, because there is no map. And the locations here are for every taste: the hotel where the characters live, the forest surrounding them, the mines, the community and the old abandoned cannery.

All of these places carry a mystical coloring. The island belongs to Tyler, the guru of the group. After the 1800s, the island was empty and soon passed into the inheritance of Tyler's mother, who guided her son to become a spiritual leader. But in 1970 she and the group there disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

The accompanying music only emphasizes the atmosphere of what is happening. Even though the game is declared as a horror, there are no full-screen screamers, but there are sounds that can send shivers down your spine, especially if you play with headphones.

Conclusion

The Chant is beautiful and atmospheric, but alas, it does not impress with anything original. The gameplay is lame, the combat is monotonous, and dodging sometimes does not work. But for the debut of the novice company is very good. And it passes pretty quickly.