Re-uploaded thanks to the fine folks who saved this piece.
Review copy purchased.
Stealth games have intrigued me ever since I first got my hands on Thief: Deadly Shadows, which taught me to appreciate and understand how a non-combative gameplay style could not only be enjoyable, but to view games from a more ‘background’ perspective. Styx: Master of Shadows, which was developed by Cyanide Studio and released about two months ago, is a fine tribute to the stealth game genre and spices things up with both a compelling narrative and unique gameplay elements such as invisibility, an impressive array of stealth kill options, and creating your very own clone. The game also makes references to both the rock band Styx, and secondly to Greek Mythology, which has extensive references to the river Styx that forms a bridge between Earth and the Underworld (Hades). I suspect the developers were aiming for the latter interpretation, since the game also has a character named Querberus, which is most likely based on Cerberus or the three-headed canine that guards the entrance to the underworld.
THE BREAKDOWN
To begin, Styx is very much an old-school stealth game. By that I mean that visually and controls wise, this feels like a game straight out of the nineties. I love high resolution graphics as much as the next person, but there’s a certain charm to these games that don’t have characters with ultra realistic faces, or perfectly rendered environments. With that in mind, picture yourself in a lush, fantasy world teeming with lore straight out of The Lord of The Rings and you’ll get a basic feel for the game. Chronologically, Styx takes place before action-RPG game Of Orcs and Men but is set in the same universe. The dark and always intriguing story centres around a goblin named Styx who is on a mission to reach the World Tree, the ultimate source of the deeply coveted amber. Guards, knights and creatures like orcs and roabies patrol the corridors and towers of Akenash, the main setting of the game, meaning that in order to infiltrate the complex, Styx can skulk around, assassinate, outwit, and poison them, or a combination thereof. The game starts off with Styx looking for his dagger, which is essential for silently taking out opponents later on in the game. Much like Assassin’s Creed, there is a distance display onscreen counting down as you approach your target, which you become accustomed to in the tutorial mission. The tutorial also teaches you basics like jumping onto walls, crouching in order to move by guards without alerting them, and lock picking. In a game like Styx, direct combat is highly discouraged, as it usually results in guards overpowering you and Styx meeting an untimely death. Although the vibe in Styx is similar to games like Thief, the fact that the protagonist is a goblin rather than a human significantly changes the way you play.
STRUCTURE
Before each mission, Styx receives objectives from his buddy Ozkan at the hideout, which is conveniently located in the inconspicuous depths of the sewers. The hideout acts as a basic hub that has exit points to all the different missions you encounter, and has absolutely wonderful background music which is the perfect combination of eerie and intriguing. There are health potions and amber to stock up on, and there are a number of unlockable skills that will assist you in various ways. Skill trees are available for stealth, agility, cloning, amber, equipments, and assassination, and two more ‘senior’ branches in predator and kill. Upgrading your skills enables you to manipulate your environment more easily, and though the upgrades might not be essential early on in the game, as the enemies become more complex and gain new armour and abililites, it’s nice to have some secret weapons up your sleeve. Each of these skills can be purchased using XP that you gain from completing each stage, collecting the coins dispersed here and there, and completing side missions for Ozkan. Should you manage to successfully complete the level without being seen (insignia of shadow), or without killing any guards (mercy), you unlock special in-game achievements which result in even more XP, and thereby more ‘spending money’ for Styx. You can always replay various missions from the hideout in case you’ve missed any collectibles or you feel like trying a stealthier approach-the game certainly caters to that.
GAMEPLAY
I enjoyed the fact that the protagonist, apart from being an anti-hero like Garrett from the Thief series, was actually a (rather foul-mouthed) goblin and not a human. Styx first made his appearance as a character in Of Orcs and Men, so technically this game is an extension of his character’s life and it is endlessly fascinating. Character movement in Styx feels completely free and unrestricted. There are no auto jumps ala Assassin’ s Creed or simplified movements like the latest Thief, which means players are given more manual control of Styx. You can latch onto so many objects in the environment: buildings, barrels, hooks, poles, wardrobes and more. It feels natural, fluid, and almost limitless, one of the best control systems I’ve seen for a 3rd person game that’s not about a person. And it’s largely because of the excellent control system that it’s so much fun to explore and freerun around the levels. On the downside, Styx moves quite slowly, which can be troubling when you’re trying to run away from guards. If they intercept you, Styx is automatically locked into combat which demands some fairly well timed blocks or you’re dead meat; you can either parry, or hurl a knife or two at them, but they usually end up overpowering you. What’s worse is that once you’re spotted, guards chase after you and have the power to unveil your hiding spot. Your best bet is to stick to the shadows, and avoid direct combat as much as possible. And if you do choose to seek solace in the many barrels, closets, drains and chests on offer to keep yourself out of harms way, don’t forget that the guards can be extremely astute. They will hurl creative insults at you like ‘greenskin’ , which for me brought back very fond memories of ‘taffer’ from Thief: Deadly Shadows.
At the bottom right hand corner of the screen, there are two coloured bars-one red, and one orange. The red one represents Styx’s health, and the orange one represents amber, a very important tool that has direct consequences on gameplay. Amber is always scarce, which is precisely what makes it so valuable. Apart from stumbling upon it on top of tables or behind secret doors, you can also pickpocket guards in order to acquire it. Amber lets you do a whole bunch of things like turn invisible, control a clone of yourself, and equip your amber vision, something that allows you to perceive the environment more clearly when you want to find hooks and alternate (and safer) routes of infiltration. Each time you perform each of these actions, amber is consumed-this is especially true of the invisibility feature which eats up amber like a smart phone eats up its battery. I thought the way amber was used in the game was effective, and very original, and it ties in well with the game’s narrative.
Monkey see, monkey do
Clones are essential additions to Styx’s quest. They have a great repertoire of sidekick skills like ‘bind’, which means they can latch onto an enemy and have them in a stranglehold, thereby delaying them while Styx slips by unnoticed. Styx can also use them as live bait to set a trap in a closet or a chest. All the clone needs to do is alert the nearby guard just a fraction, and then quickly run and hide under cover and wait until the enemy comes close enough to grab him. But most importantly, clones are sometimes the only way to weasel through doorways and activate the open switch from the other side, which makes them indispensible. At times, it feels like controlling two Gollums at once-which is exactly as awesome as it sounds.
Assassination with a creative twist
As a goblin, Styx’s strengths lie in sticking to the shadows, where he can pull the strings in a more subtle yet just as effective manner. There is a wide array of creative elimination methods you can use to deal with pesky guards and creatures, some of which include the hanging kill, setting a trap with your clone, poisoning the guards’ drinking vat, or my personal favourite, the aerial kill-which allows you to leap from a great distance above and take out guards like a bird of prey. Perhaps the safest assassination method is creeping up behind guards and employing the ‘muffled kill’ technique, which basically translates to Styx strangling a guard from behind quietly and sneakily. If you simply ‘kill’ a guard, he will shout and this raises the attention of any other guards who might be in the vicinity, and they will consequently come in as reinforcements. Styx can also pick up knives, which can not only be used as a ranged weapon and used to take out guards from a distance, but also to dislodge massive chandeliers and cause the ultimate havoc down below-perfect for creating a distraction.
DIFFICULTY
When I first got stuck into Styx, I thought that the easy-difficulty balance was fair. The levels have open, expansive designs which encourage lots of exploration and have a lot of potential for getting lost in. Although I did find myself confused a few times, locating the exit point in each mission was always doable. The only things that came across as somewhat vague where the side missions not clearly spelled out by Ozkan, but I imagine the explorers out there would search every nook and cranny and eventually find them. Sometimes Styx felt harder than Thief, but sometimes it felt easier. My reasons for this are as follows:
- Despite several other reviews I’ve come across arguing the opposite, I think that the AI in Styx is more alert in general, and has an annoying tendency to literally fish you out from underneath tables, chests, and so on. However, that also makes it a lot more realistic. They also see you in the shadows if they get too close which makes them more perceptive than the guards patrolling the streets of The City. When a guard sees you, a coloured ‘eye’ lights up on the page, which is like their attention meter. It starts off as yellow, meaning they’ve been alerted by a noise or movement you made, but this can quickly turn to red if you don’t get yourself out of sight. Instead of a light gauge at the bottom of the screen, the amber that fills Styx’s body acts as a natural mechanism, letting you know how conspicuous you are. The amber reacts to darkness, so the brighter the orange, the safer you are. At any rate, make sure not to repeat what I’ve done below:
- The puzzles are comparatively simpler in Styx, and though I wouldn’t call them easy, they didn’t leave me scratching my head in frustration like Thief did sometimes. For instance, in the example below there is a puzzle floor that guards one of the architect Querberus’ secret switches. In order to reach it, Styx must correctly navigate the tiles, as stepping on an incorrect one will cause the whole floor to collapse. The answer is located close by, and isn’t too difficult to find with some quick searching, so in this respect I think the game may have benefited with a few additional layers in finding answers to puzzles.
Why you should play it:
If you are a fan of the Thief series, Styx is very good at creating the feel of earlier Thief titles, and is a great stand alone stealth title. It’s fairly glitch free, and has a deep, immersive story that completely reinvents the levels, so even when there’s backtracking involved, it doesn’t get boring. The weaponry is basic, which is brilliant because it encourages the player to use the environment in their favour instead, and the amber governed gameplay is complemented by the impressive array of creative assassination options that make for an awesome gaming experience. I had a blast playing this, and I would strongly recommend it to fans of the stealth genre.
The Pros
- Captures the essence of a stealth game and augments it
- Rich narrative and consistently intriguing side missions
- Highly creative use of game elements, skill and weapon upgrades
- Movement is free-flowing, easy, and not oversimplified and with automatic gestures like many recent games
The Cons
- AI is extremely intelligent and hunts you out from most hiding spots
- Styx moves slowly, and doesn’t have much chance from escaping guards
- Styx is very weak in combat, and has little chance to fight back against enemies
GAMEPLAY: ★★★★☆
GRAHPICS: ★★★★☆
REPLAYABILITY: ★★★★☆
OVERALL: ★★★★☆
80/100
Styx: Master of Shadows is unashamedly hard, and endlessly creative. That’s what makes it great. Get Styx on Steam for $29.99 if you are a hardcore stealth fan, enjoy third person platforming, or find yourself constantly craving strong fantasy narrative.