Attention, polyglots and puzzle lovers. If you’re both, you’ll want to pay especially close attention: Chants of Sennaar is a one-of-a-kind linguistic stumper that takes gamifying learning a new language to levels Duolingo can only dream of.

The Peoples of the Tower have been in conflict since the dawn of time, and at one point, they just stopped speaking to each other. Each of the tower’s five levels houses a different community with a different ancient language.

You, a visitor, will fulfill the prophecy that one day a traveler will break down the language barriers and restore balance to the Tower of Babel.

As you interact with the individuals, you slowly start to piece together their languages.Using a pictorial journal, you begin assigning every word you come across to a picture, using these words to solve other puzzles and navigate the tower.

Small wins feel big. Little by little, you’ll find yourself able to string together a full sentence. Once you realize that you understand what others are saying, even if they’re just complaining about killing their plant, the game becomes truly addictive.

One downside: Game progression is highly susceptible to human error.As long as you’re on a roll, the game flows beautifully. As soon as you get stuck, however, everything comes to a screeching halt.

The hints designed to help you out are redundant and unobliging, but the puzzles aren’t impossible to figure out, and you’re usually back on track in no time.

Switch players might get frustrated with autocorrect as they type, but that’s not the game’s fault.

PS players, beware: The game was developed for PS4. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t available or won’t run on PS5 — it simply means that it might be a little buggy.

⌛ Hours of gameplay: 10-14 hours.

? Price: USD 19.99, currently marked down to USD 15.99 on Steam. Demo available at no charge on all platforms.

? Platforms:Nintendo Switch, Playstation, Xbox One, Steam for PC.

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