The Chant played: It’s not enough for more than B-movie horror

Are you on? Halloween do you have plans already? No? Then have a look the chant on! Coming this fall, the third-person action-adventure takes you on a spiritual journey across a remote island, through a dangerous parallel dimension, and through the human psyche. Sounds like perfect fodder for the spook if you’re already through with The Quarry, Dark Pictures and Co.

In addition to cheap jump scares and atmospheric horror, The Chant wants to offer a lot more: Exploration, battles, crafting, skill trees and even one story, which adapts to your choices as you play. That seems pretty ambitious. During the Gamescom 2022 watched. We played a demo of the adventure at the publisher Prime Matter booth and we’ll give you our first impressions in the preview!

Supernatural Group Therapy

In the chant you slip into the role of Jess, a young woman who is struggling with a personal trauma that we prefer not to reveal at this point. All we can say is that she has a heavy load to carry and is about to collapse under this massive burden. The last hope seems to be a retreat into a spiritual retreat remote island. There Jess, together with some other participants, wants to leave her worldly problems behind under the guidance of a kind of guru. Quasi supernatural group therapy.

The Chant played: third-person horror adventure in the Gamescom preview. (2)

Source: Prime Matter



Instead of being released from her suffering, she only slips deeper into the mess: during a cultic one rituals there is a momentous incident, through which the islanders a Portal to a parallel dimension to open. Dangerous demons lurk in this so-called fog, feeding on people’s negative feelings. And of course there are more than enough of them among the traumatized camp participants. So the aggressive critters pour straight across the entire island, take possession of some of those present and drive them increasingly insane. The group spreads out in panic in all directions and absolute chaos breaks out.

Your job now is to somehow bring everyone back together and complete the ritual – in the hope of bringing a little peace back not only to the island but also within you. The chant is distributed over a total of six chapters and a short one prolog. Each chapter focuses on a different character who is slowly being consumed by his negative energy. In the one we played Chapter 3 it was about camp residents, for example sonnywho disappeared in the local mine.

Also interesting: All important news, trailers, previews on the Gamescom overview page

The Chant played: third-person horror adventure in the Gamescom preview. (3)

Source: Prime Matter

Our first order of business is, of course, to explore the area. The (until now) nameless island serves as a semi-open game world. From the center, i.e. the retreat, we break into different, interconnected areas. So that we don’t stray too far from the story-relevant path, magical barriers keep us from aimlessly rummaging around, which cause headaches when touching them. In the first few minutes, The Chant presents itself as right linear adventure.

It doesn’t get particularly scary at first. Sure, there is an oppressive atmosphere as we make our way through the night alone. Just because of what happened before. Also the The staging is consistent, with the moon occasionally breaking through the dense treetops, the appropriate background music and soundscape. But you don’t feel that your life is in acute danger, as if death could be lurking around the next corner.