[vsw id=”pacPaPfCbXs” source=”youtube” width=”640″ height=”360″ autoplay=”no”]
Prequel to cult hit Of Orcs and Men (also developed by Cyanide Studios); Styx: Master of Shadows follows the titled two-century old Goblin assassin on his way through the impossibly giant and dizzying heights of the tower of Akenash to obtain the “heart of the WorldTree“. The tree itself provides magic amber that is being shared in an uneasy pact between the Humans and the Elves. Between our green characters objective he’ll encounter numerous foes and only a few allies. Determining which is which proves difficult as poor little Styx has also lost his memory.
For an infiltration game, Styx picks all the right genre locks playing as you’d hope. He’s a very sprightly character able to perform rolls to dodge, long and high vertical jumps, shimmy along and hanging from the many ledges of the tower. Accuracy and finger dexterity needed to perform these moves is quite generous (gone are the days of the original Tomb Raider in which a millimetre off lending on a ledge would result in death), so you really do get a good feel of being a ‘Master of the Shadows’ when in fact you may not be even able to do a roly-poly in the real world.
Detection and avoiding the towers occupants is also desirable and handled well. Staying in the dark is certainly preferable and thankfully when you come across a well lit environment you are able to snub out torches or extinguish them from a far with balls made of a mixture of, I kid you not, sand and spit! Other than just avoiding scouring eyes, sound also plays a part in the game. Running or jumping onto certain objects or floor types will make noise and can alert people. The game is also stocked full of physics based items, such as chairs or pots. These are scattered deviously around the levels and are very easy to knock over or break. Many a time I’d taken 5-minutes to position myself for the kill only to knock over a mop and bucket and be subsequently swamped with angry officers.
The A.I will behave in a set routine (e.g. guards will patrol an area), however you soon learn that you can pull or distract them away from doors and corridors before they reset themselves. Often you’ll find the best tactic is to perch and watch for a few minutes before deciding on your path.
But you can’t be an assassin without killing people and thankfully the game doesn’t disappoint. Starting off simple over the first few levels, you have to attack undetected from behind to either perform a slow, quiet smothering take down or quick loud brutal stabby killing. More and more elaborate methods of dispatching enemies become available later on such as dangling from above, from behind cover, throwing daggers or to be simple; causing ‘accidents’. Bad news is that with new skills come new enemy types. Knights in full armour mean throwing knifes won’t work, insects twisted by the amber will hear if you run and chase and many, many more. Oh, did I mention Orcs also?
As you can imagine due to your small fragile stature, being resourceful and using stealth is key and needs to be mastered. The game does a decent enough job of hand holding very early on, but then quickly takes off and efficiently guides you through further tactics of movement, stealth and sword play.
Hand-to-hand combat is deliberately difficult as confronting enemies head-on will result in alerting others to your location and, in the majority of cases, your death. For those times that melee is needed, battles work on parry/block system in which you need to time your swing to throw an enemy off-guard. Once achieved a number of times (dependent on the enemies’ skill) can delivery of a killing blow be made. More than one opponent engaging with you in frontal combat and no plan of escape will more than likely result being loss of life.
Other than showing off your kill skills and just skulking, you start and unlock a few passive abilities to aid you. The first of which to use is summoning a disposable clone minion to do your bidding. This shadow of yourself can be used to squeeze into even smaller and tighter places than Styx could access to unlock doors and so forth. Later you’ll encounter puzzles that require two people (Goblins) to complete and you’ll need to use your green fodder as a distraction, level him up to guard an area or even turn him into a bomb! Consuming the magic amber also allows you to use a sight called ‘Amber Vision’. The view not only allows you to easily spot enemies but with ledges in the darkness, it also highlights hidden runes to unlock secret rooms. Finally, and the most difficult to use is the ability to become invisible. The time in which you can remain completely undetectable (to sight) is limited, but can be upgraded later on.
The levels are amazingly designed, intricate and quite enormous in size. Each is built with verticality in mind so you have multiple ways of exploring and experimenting. The waypointed story only has you exploring roughly around 20% of each section to reach your objective, which was a little disheartening at first, however once you reach your hideout, you are able to unlock the option to revisit these locations to search further for treasure and earn XP to buy new skills.
Due to the height and width vastness of each of the levels, one of the downsides to the game is that the time between automatic checkpoints can be quite large – especially if you want to go off track and explore for collectables or achievements. Frequently the final door or objective in the map will be heavily guarded so it did prove frustrating having to reply an entire section again until it was done right.
The interface is very clean. You can see the ‘gadget’ you have equipped in the bottom right corner and also a bar for health and amber levels beneath it. When in a darkened environments your screen around the edges will dim and when in very dark recesses the amber coursing through your veins lights up making it easier work your way around and out of trouble. Speaking of trouble, when an enemy hears/sees you briefly or feels something suspicious is going on (“Eer, I’ve found a body. He’s got imself killed!” etc.) a yellow timer will appear above them to indicate suspicion. This will show red if they are on to you – at which point it’s time to run and hide. Further traits purchased allow you to add markers showing nearby enemies to your HUD.
[vsw id=”PfPAj7n6fSE” source=”youtube” width=”640″ height=”360″ autoplay=”no”]
Playing the game on PC, I was surprised how well it ran on maximum settings. Draw distance was very good, however textures aren’t the highest resolution and the pre-rendered cut-scenes didn’t look the sharpest. Styx does though utilise some quite decent lighting effects making the experience feel quite atmospheric (good thing to considering this is a stealth game).
Voice work for key characters, such as returning actor Saul Jephcott as Styx, are strong. The lead Goblin in particular I found quite likeable – in a potty mouthed type of way – but for the no-named grunts you encounter it soon becomes clear that the same voice artists and dialogue are re-used quite frequently. That being said I’ve yet to tire of the cockney banter of the Akenash tower guards and the Downton Abbey-wannabe Commanders. Music is top notch, catchy and fits perfectly with the style. The game also carries a common theme throughout the adventure, so it makes the experience feel particularly cinematic.
Overall if you’re not playing that other big fantasy ‘Shadows’ game this week, Styx: Master Of Shadows is a great addition to the modern day stealth-em-ups like Arkham or Assassin’s Creed. The game is challenging without being too difficult, although it will take you a while to be a ‘master’. With around 20-hours of story to play, you’ll find plenty more hours can be spent revisiting completed areas to collect treasures and complete challenges and objectives. Styx: Master Of Shadows that is certainly worth your time.
In short my verdict? Pick up Styx. Styx: Master of Shadows is downloadable on PS4, Xbox One and PC.