The Chant is a third-person indie-horrorgame that puts you in the shoes of Jess, who starts the game by joining a cult. Things somehow get even worse from there. Not only does she have to contend with an island full of supernatural creatures, but the slowly dwindling sanity of the other cult members as well.
Related:Lingering Questions We Have After Finishing The Chant
It might be an indie game, but it hits above its weight class and is overall a fun, if brief, experience. However, it might have missed a brush with true indie greatness, thanks to a few things that hold it back. Here are a few things that would make The Chant go from good to great.
Warning: There are unmarked spoilers below
6Better Endings
Easily the worst thing about The Chant, other than maybe its brevity, is how it ends. Or rather, the possible ways it can end, since you can getone of three endingsbased on the highest of your Mind, Body, and Spirit stats. These range from passable to nonsensical, and all of them have the feeling of a requisite bad ending at the end of a horror movie — made to meet an arbitrary expectation of horror media rather than being true to the rest of the story.
If the devs adding another ending is out of the question, maybe one where you balance all three of Jess' traits, then you should consider the scene after the last boss fight to be the finale. Jess' acceptance of her role in her sister’s death is a far more poignant finale than the schlocky endgame twists can manage.
5More Island To Explore
Glory Island is an interesting locale, living up to the overplayed concept of a location being so well-defined that it almost functions as another character. It’s a beautiful place, but it’s a stark, harsh beauty that is dotted with the literal and figurative corpses of all who have tried to settle it.
Given its rich history and treacherous geography, it feels like we never got to truly explore the island. That goes double for theGloom that crosses over into it. It would have been nice if there were more parts to the island, or even new sections like an abandoned underground lab. After all, why would it just be cultists interested in the Gloom?
4More Time With The Characters
If Glory Island can be considered one of the characters in The Chant, it is unfortunately one of the better-explored ones. Aside from shallow and impersonal looks at their personal history via questionnaires they filled out, we don’t get much of a look into the inner lives of most of the characters.
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Beyond Jess and maybe Maya, we don’t really spend much time with any character at all. It leads to most of them feeling flat, more like horror movie archetypes than living, breathing people. Even Kim, Jess’ best friend, doesn’t get much screen time. Though her anger is an intriguing trait, we don’t ever get how it links to their shared trauma.
3Answer Some Burning Questions
A lot of good mysteries answer some of the questions viewers have, while still leaving enough of them to leave behind some intrigue. Unfortunately, The Chant doesn’t pull this off, leaving us with a lot of holes in the story that shouldn’t really be there.
Most of them center around the characters. Who put all of this into motion? How much of it was accidental and how much was intentional? How much of it was malicious? What happened to previous inhabitants of the island and why doesn’t anyone know about what happens there? Answering these would lead to a more fleshed-out world, and likely a more satisfying arc for the characters to follow.
2More Combat Options
Combat in The Chant was serviceable, if a little repetitive. Itstrikes a decent balanceof giving you the feeling of helplessness that tends to divide action horror and survival horror games, while still allowing you to fight back and not just make the whole game a stealthy slog.
Related:Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting The Chant
Still, most of it boils down to dodging, laying traps, and what flavor of hippie herbs you’re repeatedly bashing the enemies with. There’s very little difference in range or application. It would have been nice if Jess had more tools to use in a fight. They could have even added tension that way, like if Jess were to find a gun on the island but it was so old that it fired unreliably and its ammunition was limited. Even a rusted-out relic of a revolver would be a powerful weapon against most enemies, but can you risk it jamming or misfiring in the middle of a fight?
1A Sequel?
All its problems aside, The Chant is ultimately a good game, perhaps only hampered by its indie budget. However, with just a little more financial support or even just using their resources better, they could make a fantastic horror experience, especially if they address the things that held it back.
The sequel would likely feature a whole new cast of characters, since Jess’ story is (mostly) wrapped up. Given Glory Island’s rich and sordid history, as well as the weirdness that goes on, there are a lot of places they could go with a sequel. It could be about the miners who lived there, the cultists before they all went mad, or even a team of government researchers who go there to experiment with all the weirdness.
Next:Games To Play If You Like The Chant
