Chants of Sennaar on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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In this award-winning puzzle adventure game, play as the Traveler on a quest to reunite the Peoples of the Tower. Observe, listen, and decipher ancient languages in a fascinating universe inspired by the Myth of Babel.
Chants of Sennaar is a puzzle, adventure and singleplayer game
developed by Rundisc
and published by Focus Entertainment.
Released on September 05th 2023 is available only on Windows
in 14 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America and Traditional Chinese.
It has received 22,453 reviews of which 22,075 were positive and 378 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.6 out of 10. 😍
The game is currently priced at 19.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 8.68€ on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified Chants of Sennaar into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Chants of Sennaar through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: AMD FX-6300/Intel Core i3-6100
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: 1GB VRAM, Intel HD Graphics 530
- Storage: 601 MB available space
- Additional Notes: 30 FPS average, 1920x1080 with High preset
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
As someone who studies a lot of languages, it's uncanny how close this game gets to the actual problem of linguistics between cultures. A rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish, and the value of communication in an otherwise broken world. If they had made 20 other levels I would've played them with the utmost joy. 10/10.
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Chants of Sennaar might be one of the most important games of our time. At a time where protectionism and nationalism are on the rise again, this game reminds us of the value of human connection. It is a marvelous game about people and language. It gives us insight in how language is conceived as a means for self-expression but also how, in turn, language shapes our thinking as well. It’s a game I’ll be thinking about for a long time. But I’m getting ahead of myself. What is Chants of Sennaar? At its core, this is a puzzle game. You take the role of a foreigner, a visitor who embarks on a journey to climb The Tower , an enormous structure heavily inspired by the tower of Babel . Why do we do this? It remains unclear. All we know is that our purpose is to climb and reach the top. There’s a catch though. The tower is inhabited by various peoples whose languages we don’t speak. Yes, that was not a typo, it’s peopleS and each has their own language, culture and values. It is now your task to infer the meaning of symbols and words from environmental clues. Slowly, you fill your dictionary with terms. At first, you can guess wildly what something may mean. When the game has determined that you have gathered enough hints to deduce the meaning of a word, it presents you a new page with a bunch of illustrations. It is now up to you to input the correct word for each illustration and if you’re correct, the game will lock your choice and another translation will be added to your dictionary. This way, you slowly fill up the pages and eventually gain an understanding of the entire language. I love how, for each language you learn, and there are five in total, you not only learn words but also learn a lot about the civilization these words stem from. Let me give you an early-game example. The first group of people you meet are the Devotees a god-fearing people who are all about worship, prayer and devotion. Their language reflects that. Many terms are about exactly that – the church, god, lots of religious terms in general. On the next level, you encounter the caste of Warriors . Their language is completely different. Not only do their symbols look edgy, hard and abstract, their communication revolves around terms of battle and warfare, about duty, strife and the fight against the impure ones . As you ascend the tower, you will come across a whole variety of people and it’s fascinating to see how their language reflects their culture, societal hierarchies and religious beliefs. These differences are also illustrated by the visual design of each level. I haven’t mentioned this yet but let me tell you that Chants of Sennaar is mesmerizingly gorgeous. I’m sure this comparison has been drawn a lot in other reviews, but the style of this game strongly reminded me of the works of Jean Giraud aka Moebius . Seriously though, if you haven’t checked out his stuff, you absolutely should since this guy has created some of the most influential art for other contemporary media. Works like Dune , Panzer Dragoon , Sable and now, this game, are all heavily inspired by this man’s style. It’s one of my favorites and it is beautifully conveyed here. What stuck with me was how each level of the tower differs significantly from the others by its visual design alone. The plane of the Devotees is engulfed in warm orange and yellow colors. The architecture consists of large cathedrals, round arches, comfy banks and intricate balconies. On the next floor where the Warriors reside, the game draws a very different picture. Warm colors are replaced by a cold cyan and a contrasting magenta. Buildings are simple, no winding streets, no art or any kind of decoration, a truly “form follows function” approach to architecture. These are just early-game examples but the game keeps doing this as you make your way towards the top. You always feel like stepping into another world by leaving an area and entering another and in a way, you are. One aspect I didn’t appreciate at all is the occasional backtracking the game is requiring you to do. These areas tend to be huge and there is neither a map nor a quickly accessible fast travel option. You do unlock a teleportation system at one point taking you from one plane to the next but the levels themselves remain exorbitant in size and sometimes impossible to navigate. I’m not gonna give anything away but let me just say that there’s a sewer system and yeah, it’s just as bad as you are imagining it right now. Well ok, it’s actually not too bad but still, there are sections in the game that had me completely and utterly lost. Another mechanic I didn’t care for too much is the stealth. Yes, there are a couple of stealth passages and they’re just not interesting at all, not on a gameplay level, nor as some kind of narrative commentary or some such, it’s just annoying. Thankfully, there really are only a few but the game could do without them and not lose anything of value, it just feels bloated. Same goes for the replay-function this game offers at key moments. Sometimes, a conversation or an action of a character in the world can tell you a lot about a certain symbol’s meaning or give you context information about the world. Since you can miss those, the game lets you replay scenes at will. The thing is, whenever you do that, the entire thing starts from the beginning and you have to sit through everything at normal speed. These scenes can take foreeever and you have no way to fast-forward the dialogue. These are just some minor issues that, in no way, spoil the overall experience at all. I enjoyed pretty much every minute of this game despite the occasional backtracking or slow-down. This is a game close to my heart. The final stretch is nothing short of amazing and remains a testament to humanity and the merits of collaboration and communication. During your playtime, you will constantly be confronted with notions of isolationism, social hierarchies, supremacy and even truly grim topics like slavery. In a way, the true antagonist of Chants of Sennaar is segregation based on fear and I feel like there isn’t a timelier subject for us as humans right now. We have to do better.
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Think about it: Abrahamic God is the OG union buster. People got together, started building a tower, he didn't like it so he gimped their ability to communicate. Therefore, either union busting is biblical (and... ethical? If you're into that), or he's the proto Evil CEO. The friend that recommended this game to me called it "Unmaking the sins of God" and that just about sums it up perfectly. The Tower of Babel is built (sort of) but its inhabitants can't communicate, don't understand each other and as such are in conflict, which isolates them even more. So, who's a better mediator than you, who doesn't understand any of them? In the beginning was the Word For the record, even though the concept of the game is based on a biblical story, and the game's aesthetic can probably be described as "neo-mesopotamian", that's pretty much where the connections end. The story and the world are their own things. You start the game knowing literally nothing. Luckily, you get eased into your first language by a mixture of machinery labels and gesticulation from a helpful local - but that's merely a tiny foothold. There's still going to be a lot of guessing, inferring, mistakes - with words and grammar both. This one time, I understood a man thanking me as "Are you stupid?". I was, as you can guess, pretty confused... In this moment I am euphoric The game allows you to freely annotate glyphs you've found. Unlike in [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/774201/Heavens_Vault/?snr=1_1056_ajaxgetfilteredrecommendations_1056_curator-tabs&curator_clanid=42922988]Heaven's Vault , you don't get any guesses from the protagonist (who's completely silent), so the pleasant process of deduction is that much more satisfying. After you've encountered a few glyphs, the game opens up a "test sheet". It contains drawings of concepts, and it's up to you to assign a glyph to each of them. If you get them all right, you'll get them locked in, and the definitive meaning of the glyph will be revealed. In other words, it's the time-tested Obra Dinn method. And sometimes the revealed meaning might differ slightly from your guess... They have chosen their own ways, and they delight in their abominations See, the language is always informed by the culture - and vice versa. The different peoples have drastically different ways of life and value different things. A glyph might resemble another glyph of a different language, but its meaning can be drastically different. Even better, some words which have the same "absolute" meaning (as in, they refer to the same concept) have different tones, hinting at the culture's relationship to the concept. An example (which is not in the game) would be: you have a group of scientifically minded people in a generally conservative and religious society. They would probably call themselves "academics" or something, while others could call them "deceivers". Both words refer to the same group, and yet the undertone is completely different. Even the grammar can be informed by the culture. How concise is the language? What is the structure of the sentence? Which parts are given extra attention, and which are an afterthought? Yes, this is also something that's in there. Become fluent in just 30 days! And yet, since the game contains a few languages, by definition they'll have to be limited. All of them have maybe 40 words each (that you encounter). While this is enough for the purposes of the game - requests, history, chatter - it feels a bit stifled. At the same time, the words that each language consists of also show which concepts the culture in question considers relevant. They might have words for complicated numbers, but they lack the word for "music". What does this tell you about them? Also, this is a pet peeve of mine: the game's statement is that communication is a tool for peace and unity. I respectfully disagree; and I present the insane levels of hatred made possible by the advent of the internet to back up my argument. Then again, some amazing things have been made possible by that too, so eh, maybe I'm wrong. I hope so, at least. Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! All in all, it's a pretty sweet game. Figuring out one culture and moving on to the next without knowing anything at all is a great feeling. And the ending in particular is incredibly powerful, delivered in a quite unique manner. I don't think you need to be particularly smart to play this, either - the difficulty is pretty low, but not so low that it becomes boring. It's enough to tickle your brain, get it going a bit, but not overheat it. And that's perfect if you ask me. Oh, and an insane 54% of players have gotten to the end of the game. Considering it's not that short - 10 hours for me - that is one hell of a number. Should give you an idea of just how fun this game is to play. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42922988/]My curator page
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Alright. Chants of Sennaar is done and dusted. This is an interesting isometric adventure set on an enormous tower where all the world's people seem to live and yet are separated via six levels of said tower. Each level represents a society, be it a religious society, a warrior society, a society of builders, of bards, of scholars, or, well, something else. Each society has its own unique language which features different runes to represent words, as well as different sentence structure in some cases. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3357573204 You play as an unnamed heroine, who wakes from some sort of crypt and whose goal is to reach the top of the tower. In order to do so though, you must learn each society's language and rules. And unfortunately, each society/level of this tower is separated from the others via policies of fear that keeps them divided. There is certainly quite of bit of subtle social commentary to be found in this premise, and one which feels important for people to acknowledge. As you learn each society's language, you will use this to solve a number of puzzles in order to breach through to the next level, all the way to the very tippy top of the tower. In some areas, this takes the form of simple item puzzles, in others, you will play cat and mouse with enemies while still also trying to find necessary items. Some of the puzzles can actually get somewhat complicated. In order to learn these languages, you will need to speak with everybody possible and read everything possible. You will then begin to associate certain runes with certain meanings. These will all be stored in a journal. The game allows you to type in your guesses, and there will be multiple times in a level where you will be given a journal puzzle wherein it shows you various images that can be associated with various runes, and you need to correctly guess or surmise which rune is needed for which image. Completing these puzzles will reveal the actual meaning of each rune used in these puzzles. There are ways to find enough of these puzzles to solve every rune's meaning for each language. It is also possible to miss some of these, and so being thorough is your key goal for each level. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3358324082 You also will find ancient terminals that are/were used to communicate between levels. These have three features. First, they serve as a fast travel system, and you can freely travel between any of these terminals you have found. Second, they serve as an essential story unlock system if you intend to see the game's true ending. Third, they each also feature a puzzle which unlocks...something important. Some of these puzzles will be correctly translating and matching runes from two languages to complete a conversation stored in the terminal. The other puzzles are more complicated and require you having reached a certain point in the story to access them. I thought the level design in this game was particularly well thought out. The devs really put a lot of thought into sensible interconnectivity, and it shines throughout the game. The story itself, as mentioned, is all about reconnecting people who are divided by fear and hate and a lack of understanding due to language and cultural differences. In so doing, people have a chance to do something better with their world. Visually, this has an almost cel shaded appearance. It's a lush and vibrant world filled with really cool and distinctly different levels/societies. The vistas as you enter new levels can be simply stunning and do a great job of showing off the sheer scale of this tower. the actual lives in areas make you wish you could visit them IRL. The graphics style is reasonably unique IMO, and everything is done by incredibly talented artists. The audio tracks are likewise well done with very believable sounds provided by living breathing societies and a soundtrack that is always perfect for the moments of the game it represents. When at certain points, people are laughing, it kinda made me chuckle, lol. I encountered zero technical issues while playing this game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3357766991 Personally, I thought this was a fantastic and challenging experience where words are central to everything. Very cool, very well thought out, and a lot of fun. I received this as a gift, but it 100% earns its $19.99 asking price. And I'd say there is nothing else quite like this game on Steam. Definitely worth a look. If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews , it would be appreciated. Cheers. Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems for more reviews like this one.
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Perfect game. Wish the endgame was a bit longer, felt like it ended right as you achieve mastery. I was itching to do more full translations. What am I supposed to do now with these languages I've learned.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Chants of Sennaar is currently priced at 19.99€ on Steam.
Chants of Sennaar is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 19.99€ on Steam.
Chants of Sennaar received 22,075 positive votes out of a total of 22,453 achieving an impressive rating of 9.59.
😍
Chants of Sennaar was developed by Rundisc and published by Focus Entertainment.
Chants of Sennaar is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Chants of Sennaar is not playable on MacOS.
Chants of Sennaar is not playable on Linux.
Chants of Sennaar is a single-player game.
There is a DLC available for Chants of Sennaar. Explore additional content available for Chants of Sennaar on Steam.
Chants of Sennaar does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Chants of Sennaar does not support Steam Remote Play.
Chants of Sennaar is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Chants of Sennaar.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 06 June 2025 20:03 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 12 June 2025 10:50 |
| Steam price | 14 June 2025 04:48 |
| Steam reviews | 13 June 2025 23:57 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Chants of Sennaar, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Chants of Sennaar
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Chants of Sennaar concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Chants of Sennaar compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
93
Developer
Rundisc
Publisher
Focus Entertainment
Release
05 Sep 2023
Platforms
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