Styx: Shards of Darkness Released, Reviews
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Styx: Shards of Darkness, the newest entry in the eponymous stealthy goblin's saga, is now out across the platforms(PC, PS4, Xbox One). Buying it on Steam will set you back $39.99 or your regional equivalent. As is often the case with games developed by Cyanide Studio, the reception is generally positive, with most reviewers citing a number of issues that prohibit the game from reaching its full potential. The current Metacritic score sits at 74.
Here's the official description to remind you what the game is about:
Explore and master huge open environments, sneak past or assassinate new enemies and bosses, and experiment with the new array of lethal abilities and weapons in our goblin assassin's arsenal.
Sneak your way alone, or with a friend in coop mode! Climb the dizzying Elven city, traverse the perilous territory of the Dwarfs, and survive vast unexplored lands filled with lethal dangers to fulfill your mission… failure to succeed could have huge consequences for your kin.
Climb, swing, and hang through multi-layered sandbox environments brought to life with Unreal Engine 4. Creep and hide in the darkest corners, or reach heights to avoid detection. Spend experience points in assassination, infiltration, magic, etc. to learn new skills and abilities. Explore the world to recover valuable artifacts, find ingredients to craft deadly traps and useful items, and create clones of yourself to distract and deceive the many types of enemies on your way - the choice is yours!
And now for the customary review roundup:
PC Gamer 79/100:
Shards of Darkness presents like a further episode of Styx’s adventures rather than any great leap forward from Master of Shadows. But this is a generous game with a huge amount of stuff to do, some wonderfully realised levels, all of it augmented with an admirably flexible skill system that encourages and rewards creative thinking. And while Styx’s sarcastic and belligerent shtick makes him hard to love, in terms of player agency and agility, if you have to usher anybody through this challenging world it’s probably best that it’s this disagreeable little green shit. See? Not big and not clever.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun Styx/10:
Clearly, a lot of money and skill has gone into making Shards Of Darkness, which only makes the fact that you have to battle past this woeful characterisation to get to the strong stealth meat below all the more tragic. Give me a mod that lets me turn off Styx’s comments and I’ll like it a whole lot more. Until then, Styx out of ten.
Destructoid 7/10:
Not only does Styx have a personality all of his own, he also lives in a very unique and strange setting. Styx has inherited a surprisingly developed and lore-rich world from the previous games. While there's plenty of fantasy cliches to go around, there are also interesting characters, elaborate environmental set-pieces, and fun twists in the plot. I didn't expect to find myself so invested in the story of a greedy little goblin snot rag, but here we are. What a pleasant surprise.
And really, pleasant surprises are what we're talking about with Styx: Shards of Darkness. Don't let the reduced price tag or the fact that Styx's previous titles aren't exactly household names fool you. Once you get past the slightly budget look of the UI and occasional control jank, there is a solid core of a pretty damn good stealth game here. Give him a chance, and Styx might just steal your heart (only to pawn it at a fraction of its value, the little bastard).
Trusted Reviews 3.5/5:
This second helping of Styx won’t set any benchmarks or redefine the genre, but it’s a good, solid stealth game played with humour and a smidgeon of style. It feels a bit old-school and slightly hardcore in the age of MGS5: The Phantom Pain, but there’s something enjoyably tight and focused about its gameplay and a real sense of fun in Styx’s sneaking, sabotage and slaughter. It won’t kick Styx into the big leagues, but Shards of Darkness makes you glad to see him back.
PlayStationLifeStyle 7.5/10:
Styx: Shards of Darkness improves on its predecessor significantly without having to steer away from its core attributes. Everything from its visuals and dialogue to its gameplay and story have been upgraded and polished to an impressive sheen. It’s still far from being perfect and its style of stealth and combat might not be for everyone, but it’s definitely a challenging and enjoyable experience that sometimes forces you to think hard first before acting. The foundation that Of Orcs and Men built set the perfect stage for both Master of Shadows and Shards of Darkness and it can only get better and more interesting from here.
Critical Hit 7.5/10:
It’s also worth noting that the game is not without bugs. I had quite a few frame drops, particularly in the brightly lit, colorful maps. Additionally, the AI seems to get confused far too easily. I’d get guards that got stuck and couldn’t patrol, or trolls that were locked into a pillar. Even detection didn’t always seem to run smoothly, where simply being in the same area with a guard could lead them to detect me at some times, other times they appeared to have no peripheral vision at all.
Still, with many hours of stealthy gameplay on offer, Styx: Shards of Darkness can be a lot of fun to play. Thanks to plenty of secrets, and the promise of good emblems and extra skill points if you complete levels quickly, without detection or killing, there’s plenty of replay value as well. Plus, if you want to kill with others, there’s even an all-new co-op gameplay mode. I still prefer my stealthy murder games on my own, but this is nice for those who want an accomplice in crime.
TheSixthAxis 6/10:
Shards of Darkness could have been a big step forward for the series, giving you a more rounded set of gameplay possibilities, alongside the better looking environments and other areas. Alas it’s not as big an improvement as I’d hoped and is let down by bugs and inconsistencies. It’s a stealth game with one foot stuck in the past, and that remains both a blessing and a curse.
WCCF Tech 6.8/10:
There is a lot of good in this ungraceful game. At times, you can see the length of its budget, with looping, clunky animations and awkward, jarring controls, but there is a strong, satisfying game behind the flaws. With a dedication to old school, pure stealth gameplay, you might at first feel constrained by what you are able to do in the game, but the avenues to explore and abilities to use open up quickly, letting you find an enjoyable, sneaky playstyle to call your own. Styx: Shards of Darkness is not a game for those in need of a good story. You won’t be emotionally invested in our Goblins exploits or adventures, but for someone that yearns for the olden days, when stealth games were about stealth, this game lets you relive that experience. From memorizing patrol routes and planning all the scurries into the light, Styx: Shards of Darkness is a proper stealth game, albeit rough around the edges, just like the goblin himself.
GameZone 7/10:
If you’re in the market for a pure Stealth game, particularly one that doesn’t retail for full price ($39.99), Styx: Shards of Darkness certainly does its best to appeal to this demographic as an under-the-radar type game. The game excels at its focus, and improves on its established formula, but struggles in its secondary offerings. Suffice it to say; if you can overlook its flaws, there’s a lot of fun to be had with Styx: Shards of Darkness. You will also get a pretty nice amount of value regarding game time, as most playthroughs should last you above the 20-hour mark, at least on the first run. This is dramatically reduced once you have an idea about how to get through each level, and your death count plummets.
Ultimately, Styx: Shards of Darkness should please fans of the original, but its improvements are closer to marginal rather than revolutionary.
Hardcore Gamer 4/5:
A wisecracking goblin assassin may seem like an odd choice for a protagonist, but the titular character of Styx: Shards of Darkness is enjoyable to control. The game mechanics are on par with some of the better known stealth titles out there, and taking place in a massive and beautiful fantasy world only enhances the experience. The typical stealth elements such as hiding in the shadows and hanging off building ledges mix well with the more unique abilities such as invisibility and having a clone run amok to take the focus off of Styx. The intriguing story and dry humor make this title quite entertaining provided some vulgarities aren’t a problem, but this is an M rated game after all. For a title that does not have household name status, Styx: Shards of Darkness is recommended to all fans of stealth games as Styx can hang with the likes of Ezio and Solid Snake.
