Stealth Gaming At It’s Finest | Styx: Master of Shadows Review

Cyanide Studios is back at it again with Styx: Master of Shadows, a brand new stealth RPG for your gaming pleasure. Styx: Master takes place in the same setting as 2012’s Of Orcs and Men, but the timing of both games does not match up. In the game you play as Styx, a goblin thief who makes a plan to steal the Heart of the World Tree from the human faction that controls it. It is a lofty plan, but since he is a master of shadow, he has the tools to accomplish it.

As mentioned above, Styx: Master of Shadows is a stealth game before it is anything else. In that respect, this game has some of the best stealth mechanics around. The game does a great job of teaching you how to get around, how to manipulate the environments around you and how to get the most out of your character’s skill set. Styx: Master of Shadows will long stand as one of those games that showed you how stealth was done. Unfortunately, there are a few issues with the game that hold it back from being an instant classic.

One of the worst issues with this game is the combat itself. Sure, it’s a stealth game and what does combat have to do with it? Well the problem lies with the annoying parry system. If you are spotted, and chances are this will happen a lot, whoever spots you will run over to you and start attacking. You can not attack back but instead, you have to time a counter-attack to do any damage. Basically, you are on the defense constantly. That would be fine if you could break the combat cycle and retreat to the darkness. Instead, you have to see the battle through; live or die. In other stealth-based games, you’ll at least have the ability to drop a smoke bomb or outrun your opponents to try the area again without having to restart. With the battle system in place, you have to engage in battle which just shows the weakest part of the game.

When you are not engaged in battle, which thankfully is most of the time, there are a lot of fun tools to take advantage of. There is plenty of cover and places to hide while the guards are patrolling, you can also hide bodies in all these spots to avoid detection. Down the line, you’ll be able to create clones to distract the guards and drink some sap from the World Tree which gives you special vision to better plan your route through the stage. Everything works well together and gives you a nice set of tools to master the game. In addition, everything is accessible and can be climbed on or in with ease. You can also control the lighting in certain situations by throwing sand on a torch. This is especially important in the later stages of the game.

From a technical aspect, Styx: Master of Shadows looks great on the PC. It is comparable to the quality we are seeing on the current consoles today. Everything ran smoothly and looked good even up close. The voice acting and sound design was also well done, so nothing really got in between fans of the game and the experience in the world. It also does a nice job of keeping the world of Orcs and Men alive and well. While the stories do not necessarily continue or add anything to one another, the world is intact and was used well in this game.

Even the characters in the this game, particularly Styx, were likable and fairly well done. This may not win any awards for best character, but Styx was a pretty good anti-hero. The story of Styx isn’t necessarily about revenge but rather about the World Tree itself. It manages to stay away from the revenge aspect and the story is better for it.

The only other issue with Styx: Master of Shadows lies with what could have been rather than what was. Underneath the stealth game lies an RPG-like system of improving Sytx’s abilities. You can choose to make Styx better in combat, improve his magical goblin powers or even make him better at stealth. The only problem with this system is that it doesn’t have as much of an impact of the game as it should have. The upgrades make a small difference one way or another, but it would have been great to see a system that affected the story and the character more profoundly. It was a great idea, it just didn’t go far enough.

In the end, Styx: Master of Shadows is a good, not great, game. The stealth mechanics are excellent, and if you enjoy this type of game, you are going to love Styx. However, there are a few issues that don’t necessarily break the game, but it gets in the way of it being a better game in general. If you can look past the awful combat and the weak underlying RPG system, there are the bones of a great game. When you consider that the game retails for $30, this is a steal for the quality you get right from the package. We give this game our highest recommendation for stealth fans and a thumbs up for those that may have some interest but aren’t completely committed. Either way, it is hard to lose.

This review is based on a review copy of the PC version of Styx: Master of Shadows published by Focus Home Interactive