Home
Action game
Adventure Games

The Chant Review — Psychedelic Cult Horror on Glory Island (Now Dirt Cheap)

The Chant review covers the cult horror game: Gloom premise, survival combat, the 2023 overhaul patch, free Gloom Below DLC, multiple endings

The Chant Review — Psychedelic Cult Horror on Glory Island (Now Dirt Cheap)

The Chant review showing Jess exploring the colorful Gloom-infested island

A wellness retreat goes cosmically wrong — heavy incense, broken minds, and creatures crawling out of another dimension.

The Chant is a third-person horror action-adventure from Brass Token — a Vancouver studio founded by veterans behind games like Sleeping Dogs and Bully — published by Prime Matter in November 2022 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Current-gen only from day one, it drops an ordinary woman into a spiritual retreat that accidentally tears open "The Gloom," a psychedelic dimension that feeds on negative energy. Think 1970s cult thriller meets survival horror with crafting, and it's held up far better than its modest release reception suggested — especially post-patch, at its new ~$5 sale price.

Quick verdict:

Play it if you want a short, atmospheric, story-driven horror game with a genuinely unusual setting. Skip it if you demand smooth, Souls-grade combat or deep survival systems.

The Chant at a glance

Game The Chant
Developer / Publisher Brass Token / Prime Matter (PLAION)
Release 3 November 2022 · PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (current-gen/PC only)
Genre Third-person horror action-adventure with crafting
Length ~6.5h main · ~8h with extras · 3 endings (Mind/Body/Spirit)
Post-launch Big overhaul patch + free "The Gloom Below" story DLC (Sept 2023); permanent price cut
Reception Metacritic 68–71 · OpenCritic 70 "Fair" · Steam Mostly Positive ~75%
Price $24.99 list (was $39.99) · routine 80–90% sales to ~$2.49–$4.99
Rating ESRB M (Mature)

Table of contents

The premise: do not trust the crystals

Jess Briars is still drowning in guilt over her sister's death when she flies to Glory Island to visit her best friend Kim, who has moved on by joining a remote spiritual retreat. The community welcomes a small circle of damaged people, hands everyone a white outfit and a colored crystal, and kicks off a ritual called The Chant — led by the retreat's founder Tyler, who claims his "Prismatic Science" will unlock spiritual enlightenment.

Instead, it opens The Gloom: a psychedelic dimension of psychedelic color and cosmic horror that infects the island, feeding on negative energy and its residents' psychological trauma. Parts of the island vanish into rainbow mist, monsters crawl out with human-ish heads on animal bodies, and Jess — an ordinary civilian who has literally never been in a fight — has to gather the retreat's scattered survivors and reverse the ritual. It's a lean, well-told story about grief, cults and energy beliefs, and the 1970s New Age aesthetic gives the horror a flavor almost nobody else has tried.

The Chant spiritual retreat environment with Gloom corruption

Glory Island was peaceful about two hours before you arrived.

Survival, crafting and scrappy combat

The Chant plays deliberately unlike power-fantasy action. Jess is not a secret kung-fu master — she waves flaming sticks and magical weapons around with visible panic, rolls away from lunging creatures and tumbles to the ground on bad landings, and her best defensive move is a polite defensive shove. It sounds clumsy on paper and it's honestly the game's biggest charm: you feel like a normal terrified person.

Resources drive almost everything:

  • Weapons: crafted from plants and sticks — burning branches, sage sticks, glimmer wands and the like — and they're intentionally breakable or single-use, so combat is always tense about what you have left.
  • Throwables: stun, fire and repellent items crafted from ingredients you find while scouring the island.
  • Crystals and abilities: six prismatic "psychic" abilities unlock as you gather colored prisms — force-push effects, ground spikes and summoned projectiles — each draining prism energy.
  • Ginger: the only health-restoring item. Manage your inventory or you'll be fighting a boss with an open wound and zero ginger, which is exactly as bad as it sounds.
  • The Gloom zones: walking through the corrupted mists drains your Mind meter; deplete it and you briefly lose the ability to attack until you retreat and meditate — which costs prism energy, meaning sanity is a resource that competes with magic.

Exploration replaces handholding: the island uses physical signage, projectors and collected notes rather than objective markers, so you'll actually get lost occasionally. Puzzle solving tends toward environmental work — finding shapes to form a key, harnessing light through mirrors, gathering specific plants. It's never brain-bending but it breaks up the combat nicely.

The Chant combat gameplay showing makeshift weapons against Gloom creatures

Combat is scrappy and panicky by design — you're surviving, not power-gaming.

Mind, Body, Spirit — and the 2023 overhaul

Character progression runs through RPG-lite skill trees: by collecting prismatic crystals you boost Mind (prism energy, abilities), Body (health, combat) and Spirit (sanity, speed) branches. Nearly every upgrade matters on the harder difficulties, and the three separate pools feed into the three-endings system — Mind, Body and Spirit-oriented runs each take you to a different ending depending on which playstyle dominates your game.

Two things matter more than anything that shipped at launch, though, because they came after. A major free patch in September 2023 remodeled the game:

  • Enemies got smarter and more aggressive AI and can chase you further.
  • Combat was reworked — better auto-targeting, cleaner hit collisions, and a Mind/Body/Spirit enemy typing system where weapons and abilities deal bonus damage when matched to the same type, with color-coded health bars showing the matchups.
  • The Gloom got a visual overhaul with clearer, more vibrant corruption effects.
  • The base game's price was permanently cut, which is why it's such a steal now.

If you read mixed launch reviews from November 2022, big chunks of their combat criticism were addressed in that patch. The 2026 version of The Chant is meaningfully better than the day-one one.

The free Gloom Below DLC

Alongside that patch, Brass Token released The Gloom Below — a completely free story DLC for every owner of the base game on all platforms (it's a manual store redemption, not an auto-install). It continues the story after the ending events, digs into lore the base game only hints at, and adds new weapons and environments — about two extra hours. Since it costs nothing, there's no reason not to grab it; just remember to redeem it separately on your platform's store.

The Chant screenshot showing the psychedelic island setting and enemies

The full look: horror rendered in lava-lamp colors instead of the usual grey and brown.

Pros and cons

Pros Cons
Unique psychedelic New Age cult setting Combat is functional, not graceful — even post-patch
Lessons in vulnerability: scrappy, genuinely scary combat No photo mode, New Game+, or chapter select
Nice 2023 overhaul patch + free story DLC Multiple endings need multiple playthroughs
Short, focused ~6.5h story — zero fat Some animation and voice work shows indie budget
Ridiculously good value on sale (~$2.49–$4.99) Horizontal exploration easy to get lost in

What holds it back

  • The combat ceiling: Brass Token improved it a lot post-launch, but "intentionally scrappy" still means imprecise swings and occasionally frustrating hit detection at higher difficulties.
  • Missing quality of life: no New Game+, no chapter select, no photo mode four years later. Multiple playthroughs for the three endings mean starting over with no carries.
  • Secondary characters are thin: the main cast gets some TLC, but the supporting survivors mostly exist to dispense exposition and look troubled.
  • No markers: the realistic, signage-based navigation is atmospheric but will absolutely get you lost at least once, and it comes at the cost of accessibility.
  • The island projectors and note scatter recall Control, but Jess can't smash TVs and doesn't get supernatural mobility — traversal is deliberately grounded.

Buying advice for 2026

  • Price: list is $24.99 (permanently cut from $39.99 after September 2023), but the game now runs 80–90% sales constantly — expect $2.49–$4.99 on Steam, Fanatical and Humble, and $4.99–$6.69 on PS Store during its frequent promotions. At those prices this is a no-brainer.
  • Bundles: the Limited Edition on Steam (game + soundtrack + art book + outfit + filter mode) is the package to buy at sale prices; skip the tiny $2 outfit/filter DLCs a la carte.
  • Free DLC: after buying, manually redeem "The Gloom Below" for free on your platform's store — it isn't included automatically.
  • Deck and PC: runs great on Steam Deck (official rating is Unknown but owners report smooth play) — and on console, PS5/Xbox Series targets are solid at 60 FPS.
  • Skip the FLT repack parts: the six-part MegaUp archives this post used to link are a pirate build of an unpatched launch version (game is now substantially better — and legally cheaper).

Safe official links

Only download from official stores. This post previously linked pirated FLT archives; the current, heavily patched version with the free DLC is available on every official storefront for a few dollars.

More from IGGG

The Chant FAQ

What kind of horror game is The Chant?

It's a third-person survival-horror action-adventure set on a remote spiritual retreat. The hook is a psychedelic "wellness cult" premise — think 1970s New Age communes meets cosmic horror — rather than the usual zombies or serial killers.

Who made The Chant?

Brass Token, a Vancouver indie studio founded by industry veterans from studios behind Sleeping Dogs and Bully. It was published by Prime Matter (PLAION) and is their only released title so far.

How long is The Chant?

About 6.5 hours for the main story, 8 to 12 hours with exploration and multiple endings. It's deliberately compact — no padding, but no open world either.

How do you get the different endings?

Three endings hinge on whether your gameplay and dialogue choices favor Mind, Body or Spirit statistics. There's no NG+ or chapter select, so seeing them all means full playthroughs.

Is there any free DLC?

Yes — The Gloom Below continues the story, adds new weapons and lore, and is completely free for owners. It must be manually redeemed on your store, not auto-downloaded.

Did the game get better after launch?

Significantly. A major September 2023 patch improved enemy AI, combat responsiveness, added a Mind/Body/Spirit enemy typing system, enhanced Gloom visuals, and came with a permanent price cut.

Does The Chant run on Steam Deck?

Yes — owners report smooth performance and it's a great handheld experience, even though the official Steam Deck compatibility rating is "Unknown."

Is The Chant worth buying in 2026?

At ~$2.49–$4.99 during routine sales, yes — easily. It's a flawed but genuinely distinctive 6-hour horror story with two extra free DLC hours, perfect for a weekend binge between bigger releases.

Final verdict

The Chant came and went quietly in 2022, but four years later it's one of the best-value horror games on any storefront. The cult premise is genuinely fresh, Jess is one of gaming's more believable "ordinary person" protagonists, and the 2023 overhaul plus the free story DLC smooth out most of the launch edges. The combat will never be bad-ass; that was always the point. If you like survival horror that's a little smarter than its jump scares, Glory Island is waiting.

Best for: survival-horror fans, players who like scrappy "civilian" protagonists, compact weekend horror stories, deal hunters.

Skip if: you want polished action combat or a 30-hour open world.


Post a Comment