Chants of Sennaar review: decoding language in 2023’s best puzzles

Early in the year Chants from Sennaar, in a walled garden, someone spoke to me in a language I couldn’t understand. The dead plant next to them was clearly the subject of the conversation, judging by their body language and head shaking. An hour later, I’d come back to this conversation with more knowledge and understand everything they had to say. But this first time, although I missed some important context, I got the gist, and I sympathized; I’ve killed my share of plants, too.

Chants from SennaarThis is a puzzle-based game that uses language to tell the story of Babel. This retelling has your character making their way up five floors in a tower. Each floor is home to different communities, all speaking different languages. As you progress, you will slowly put together each language by assigning every word that you come across to the pictures in your pictorial journals. As you progress, the words will help you solve different puzzles, understand other people’s messages, and even navigate your way around the tower. All this is made possible through decoding language — and I can’t overstate how fun the process is.

The game runs beautifully on Switch, assuming you can put up with some annoying autocorrects (not the game’s fault) when you’re writing in your journal. The huge vertical towers and tiled corridors that make up the backgrounds are stunning, and the Middle Eastern architecture effectively communicates each community’s atmosphere, from an imposing gated castle to a laid-back, artistic city with a dark secret.

Image: Rundisc/Focus Entertainment

It is important to keep in mind the other characters that you meet on your adventure. The game begins with a wanderer asking you to help them open the door. They then apologize and bow before disappearing. The game is full of surprises. Chants from SennaarYou will be guided into the puzzles by the mysteries and revelations that language brings. The characters may not have a backstory other than their specific culture but they can still be seen as co-conspirators and antagonists. A group of masked soothsayers who mock you in silence will make you resentful, while an animal friend might bring you to laughter.

The conversations are similar to the feeling you get when learning a language for the first time and realizing you can speak a complete sentence. These conversations create the same magic feeling that comes when you’re learning a new language and you first realize you can utter a full sentence: Knitting together words into actual expression is intoxicating, even if you’re just listening to someone lament their dead plant. Even when you’re not speaking, you can come across people playing music or making pottery. The tower’s world feels vibrant.

Image: Rundisc/Focus Entertainment

Chants from Sennaar’s lowest points lie in the puzzles where you get stuck, and Rundisc gives you the most redundant of hints as to how to move forward. These challenges are sometimes appreciated as they allow me to find my own way. Some times, I would have liked a more solid sense of direction. When you’re crushing the puzzle solving, the game flows; as soon as you get stumped, it slows to a backtracking halt.

This loop includes stealth sections that allow you to avoid enemies trying to push you out of your tower. I’m not a fan of mandatory stealth modes, and I’m especially not a fan of trying to solve linguistic puzzles while I’m sneaking. And if the puzzles are the most difficult part, the stealth is no slouch, either — some levels feel a little ridiculous due to imprecise controls. However, frustrating as they are, the stealth sections do liven up the game’s pacing. Plus, they have the holy grail of stealth level mechanics — instant resets from the same room — so I could never be too mad when I got caught. The game also features fast travel points so you can bypass most of the stealth sections you’ve already completed.

Image: Rundisc/Focus Entertainment

The following is a list of the most recent and relevant articles. Chants from Sennaar is on a roll, there’s really nothing else like it. It never lasts very long when the game becomes boring. Fun is not the right metric to use for this game. Viewing ancient Egyptian sculpture is it fun? What about reading Ovid, Virginia Woolf or other authors? Does learning a foreign language count? Sometimes. We do this to access a shared understanding about what it is to be human across time and language barriers.

Chants from Sennaar folds every one of its puzzle-solving bricks into a Rubik’s Cube of a concept, and yet it revels most of all in pan-linguistic understanding. The figure taking their break on a roof, or the grunted “no” from a security guard, or the laughter of a child playing hide-and-seek all serve to remind you of your place in a community. Learning a language stands in for observing and appreciating a culture that’s unfamiliar to you. It’s a lofty goal for a game, and it’s one that Chants from Sennaar achieves.

Chants from Sennaar The game was released Sept. 5, 2018 on Nintendo Switch as well as PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Focus Entertainment supplied a Switch download code to be used for the review. Vox Media partners with affiliates. Vox Media can earn affiliate commissions, but this does not affect editorial content. This is where you can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.