LDR: The Chant is a game that resembles an old fashion Resident Evil in 3rd in third person but peppered with a bit of crafting, leveling and melee combat. While the game has a very interesting premise, the execution is mid level. The DLC, at least to me, was fun(er).
Story: Jess, a woman trying to both get away from a past trauma and rekindle a friendship, decides it's a good idea to go to a island retreat that reeks of cult within 2 seconds flat. And, of course, everything goes wrong and you summon the Upside Down from Stranger Things (The Gloom). You Will spend the majority of your time exploring zones that get progressively unlocked and as you go through the ''gloom'', you will hear inner dialogue of different NPCs, understanding their different traumas or better understanding their personalities, all the while trying to save them. Sadly, it isn't greatly executed and the story tends to take a backseat and make much less sense as it tends to make bounds and leaps.
Gameplay: The game attempts to include dodging mechanics, melee combat, a sanity gauge, a leveling system and a few spells to boot. It's a lot for how small a studio it is, and while the main game handles it in an acceptable fashion, the DLC manages to do a lot better.
There are resources to loot and they are scarce, making them very important, as they allow you to craft weapons and items to use in combat.
There are 3 types of melee weapons to craft (each more effective towards a specific enemy type and situation) and 3 different consumables. You WILL want to switch a lot.
It is important to use said consumables, combat will get much easier once you accept you can't just melee through the whole game.
The gloom, a place that hosts parasites, a strange flora and enemies, is a basically the focal point of the story as it it locked behind many different colored gems that you will accumulate over the story, thus allowing you to explore further (and unlocked new spells). Though it initially feels like you can explore a lot, it's mostly linear and involves a bit of backtracking along with some light puzzle solving.
Different spells will unlock as the game progresses, however the cost to use said spells tends to be too high, IMO.
You gain 3 different types of XP (each go along with their respective gauges); mind, body and spiritual energy. Using restorative items will restore the corresponding gauge and give you a bit of XP, downing enemies with specific colors will also grant you respective XP. Even dialogue choices will give you respective XP (While it's probably the biggest XP amount, there'S like 5 or 6 times in the whole game you get to pick dialogue).
Graphics: The gloom environment especially stood out with its originality and attention to details. It's no triple A game, but it looked good overall. I did not experience at glitches.
Audio: The majority of the tracks fitted well, and the atmosphere is well executed. While not every dialogue flows in a manner that is logical, the voice actors did a fine job.
I recommend it only if the trailer interests you, and try to get it under 20$.