Up ahead, a heavily armored knight stalks along his chosen guard route, mindlessly pacing back and forth. A torch burns nearby, illuminating the small, narrow passage. Naturally, I spit up my clone, a poor version of me and command it to pounce onto that knight, distracting him while I send my little goblin past, undetected. A destroyed clone and a thoroughly confused guard are far more appealing than a dead Styx.
Fenix Rage: A Punishing But Fair 2D Platformer
Another room, this one bigger, a small platoon of guards wanders. Do I kill? Do I go high? Low? Decisions, decisions.
Of all the weapons and abilities in Styx: Master of Shadows, the new game from Cyanide Studio, 'choice' is the one you will utilize most often. It is set in the same world as the studio's 2012 effort Of Orcs And Men, and is an impressive display of game design. Each level requires you to reach a certain destination, but how you get there is entirely in your hands. The extreme vertical nature of the level design (which sometimes threw me into vertigo-like headspins) accommodates varied playstyles. The titular character Styx may be a master assassin, but you do not have to kill everything you come across.
The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter Review: Exquisite Lovecraftian Goodness
In fact, killing may be the most frequently underutilized asset in Styx's bag of tricks. It is easy to sneak up behind a guard, kick him to the floor and dispatch him quietly. But it is a lot more rewarding to distract him and sneak on by. Killing should only be a last resort in Styx: Master of Shadows. The game puts the 'stealth' back in 'stealth action'. When you alert the guards (much like in Metal Gear games, a red icon appears over their heads), you should pretty much resign yourself to starting over. It is possible to fight back against a guard or two, but if you're being assaulted, you have already lost. This is not the game you can bully your way through; it requires finesse and a whole lot of patience.
That patience will be tried and drained. Styx: Master of Shadows is a good game that is almost a great game. It hints at greatness, flirts with it, but is otherwise content to hang out by the punchbowl at the senior prom. Frustration will come easily. The controls are a little bit unresponsive; I don't know how many times I died falling off a ledge I was trying to drop down onto. Styx may be a more stealthy version of Assassin's Creed, but it lacks the grace and controls of those games. The edge mechanics are wobbly at best, fickle at worst. Now, I could just be a horrible jumper, but I know I should have grabbed that platform by now. These are small issues that start to pile up and pull you out of the game.
Eventually, it stopped being a game I wanted to play and became a game I had to play. It became work. The constant dying forced me to question my entire skillset, the seemingly supernatural ability for the guards to find me out rubbed me the wrong way. Yet, perhaps that is the point. One should not go into Styx expecting an easy walk through the park, where you can just duel your way out of a tricky situation. You walk into the great Tower of Akenash and expect to die over and over and over again until you get it right. However, it is too quick to punish and demands a near-perfection you may just not have the time for. When confronted, it is almost impossible to escape and you're forced to start over from your last autosave, which is never where you want it to be. Save early, save often.
The punishments may be severe, but the rewards (when they come) are great. When you finally slip past that pack of guards or assassinate one guard without his nearby friend noticing, the feeling of accomplishment is like none other.
Styx begins in media res. Our hero, a 200 year old Goblin, has been captured attempting to steal the magical Amber from the World Tree, a gigantic golden tree that sits in the middle of the great tower of Akenash. Humans and elves, in an uneasy truce, stand watch over its legendary branches. He is going to steal the golden liquid because it offers a quick payday. However, there is far more to the story than a simple paycheck; it quickly becomes clear he has lost some portion of his memory and that the Amber from the tree is the key to unlocking his past. The story is very long and involved, but well done. Styx is a fascinating anti-hero, a diminutive Riddick with just a dash of Mal Reynolds (for the roguish charm he brings).
To help him accomplish his aims, Styx is armed with a number of Amber-infused abilities. The one you'll use the most is the clone skill, because two Styxs are better than one. The clone is magical being that can be killed instantly, but can be utilized to distract, bind (by jumping onto guards) or even explode into a thick cloud of dust, to provide cover. As the loading screen will remind you, with enough patience and ingenuity, the clone can get you out of almost any situation.
The game utilizes a simple, intuitive RPG-like skill tree. You gain Skill Points by completing missions and side-jobs, and can invest those points into any of the seven skill tree options available. You can focus on one to fit your playstyle; such as tossing them all into Assassination because you're just leaving bodies left and right, or slowly build up all your skills over time.
The game runs on the Unreal Engine 3 and it looks exquisite on a powerful rig. The sound design is also superb. This is a game where hearing is sometimes more important than seeing, for both you and your enemies. Turn the sound up high and you'll swear you'll start hearing footsteps, even if there aren't any.
The game will take you about 20 hours to complete. Now, that's 20 hours of positive game-time; that figure does not take into consideration the sheer amount of times you will die over the course of the game. Plan on 25 to 30 for a simple run through. There are certain achievements you can obtain which require a little more finesse, such as not killing anyone in a level or not setting off any guard alerts. For the obsessive gamer, who needs to 100% everything, Styx will provide hours and hours of replayability. The many paths you can take will make every playthrough different. You can even try your hand at Goblin mode, which will end the game as soon as you are discovered. It is somehow even more fun than on Easy or Normal, because it demands perfection.
Styx: Master of Shadows is not a perfect game, but it does enough right to make it worth your time. Yes, it feels like it's missing something; different ways to assassinate foes, more ways to distract, but when it works, it really, really works and you stop thinking about what's not here and better enjoy what is here. For those seeking a challenge, or those who want a stealthy alternative to the glut of Assassin's Creed titles, it should scratch that particular itch. Or better yet, it will silently stalk that itch and then gut it in the back. Then hide it in a nearby chest. That's the Styx way.
.---------
Styx was reviewed from a near-final Steam code provided from the publisher. We highly recommend using a controller when playing this game. The game is out now for PC, Xbox One and PS4.
