Since I work at GamingBoulevard I know that not every game I will review is good. Some are fun and nice, but others are horrible and terrible. There are the nice, the bad but then there are the good games. The games that you will play for hours afterwards. Today we are reviewing one of those games: Styx: Shards of Darkness.
This franchise tends to stay under the radar and I don’t have a clue why. This is a very good game and I could not find many errors. Maybe it’s a personal thing and the game has things that I personally like. But you have to decide for yourself whether you like it or not. It is the same with its predecessor.
Anyways, in this game you play as a goblin called Styx. You live in a world where “the empire of man” tries to take over the territory of Orcs and Goblins. Above all that they also have the elves to deal with. It is a bit complex to get in the whole story because three games that Cyanide studio’s have made, take place in the same world. Namely Styx: Master of Shadows, Of Orcs and Men and this game Styx: Shards of Darkness.
Styx: Shards of Darkness is a pure stealth game and actually how a proper stealth game should be. Many of us have played Assassin’s Creed and however I truly love the series (even though they don’t deliver the past few years) it is not a real stealth game. You can just get in the front door kill everyone and just walk to the objective. In Styx you can’t do that. You are a little goblin fighting against humans or elves. You have to be sneaky and try to kill them assassin style. You can fight toe to toe actually if you really want. But you can’t take on 5 enemies at the same time. Heck you barley can fight one guy.
In the game you have some abilities typical of an rpg game like darts and potions. You also have a skill tree typical for rpg games.
When you start up the game you can already meet our horrendous main character. But you will like him soon enough.
Once I started playing I felt that the controls are really good. They are not too harshly and really feel well. Even though I died 5 seconds after I started. I did not knew I could not swim. After I died I got a nice reference from Terminator. This is something I personally really like. References and breaking the fourth wall. And this game does just that. When you die Styx speaks directly to the player and it is hilarious.
So when you start you will get a good decent tutorial. You walk around and will soon perform your first kill. It introduces you to all the things you will need. You learn how to climb and how to kill.
However the tutorial does not tell everything. It just tells you what stuff does, but it does not say how you can use it. For instances it says that certain things make noise. You have to make up for yourself that the guard ahead can hear you if you walk in stuff.
I love it when a developer puts work in his game, and when he does I will say that in my review. By work I mean working on little details. This game has those things. Little things that make your experience just that bit better. Like peeking through doors or making it more realistic. For instance you can only hide one body in a closet. Unlike games like Hitman where you can pile the bodies up. It is not that important, but it tells you that the developers put effort in their game. No hate on Hitman of course.
As you can read I really like this game. There are some little hiccups though. Like the textures aren’t that good and the A.I. is mediocre to straightly bad. Sometimes they just stand there while you are hiding. Until they finally pull you from under where your hiding. At first I thought that was a way to “cheat” the game. But I am happy that the devs took consideration of that. Also because this game is so relying on the stealth part, the combat is really bad. When guards find you and you try to run, they kill you before you can. But I am only at the start so my health isn’t that good. Also the climbing mechanics could be better. It is not clear what ledges you can grab and which not. Well sometimes they light up, but some ledges that don’t light up, you can grab too.
But I really recommend this game. I really do. The only thing I am scared of is that it may get too repetitive. But if you are a real stealth fan, then this game couldn’t be better.
Anyways I give this game a solid
