Chants of Sennaar - a breath of fresh air in the puzzle genre

It's not often that you get to decipher languages as part of playing a video game. Heaven's Vault did it before (I haven't played it, but I want to) and now Chants of Sennaar (two n's and two a's). I can't compare them, but playing Chants of Sennaar is a very relaxing experience where you can take your time and enjoy the beautifully designed world.

You, and the character you control, don't know any of the inhabitants' languages and it's your job through the power of deduction to understand enough to keep moving forward. Everything you do, everything you see and everything people tell you is a hint to help you decipher the game's languages. The characters talk to you using symbols and you need to figure out what the symbols mean.

Every once in a while, the game will prompt you to assign the symbols to pictures and only if you can get all the pictures right will the game tell you if you were correct. If you played Return of the Obra Dinn, this will be very familiar (and if you haven't, I recommend you do). You can use a little trial-and-error here if you want which can help decipher the trickier symbols.

There are a few stealth sections throughout the game, but they're never difficult or very long and the checkpoints are very generous. The game is divided in a couple of sections, each with their own language. There's a faint connection between each of them and it's up to you to connect the dots if you want to get the most out of the game.

All in all, this game is wonderful, fun and definitely worth your time. It only takes about 9 to 10 hours to complete and all of it is interesting. Your brain will thank you.