Styx: Master of Shadows

There are parts of the game that might make the game overall better. Unfortunately, whoever made this game decided to lock the most amount of points per mission that you need to upgrade your abilities behind a gameplay style that requires you to not even engage with whole swathes of the game. For example, combat. You have a combat system and lethal throwables, but if you engage in any of these you are penalized at the end with less points. According to the developers, you are playing the game wrong if you choose to engage with half of the mechanics in the game. I hope this design philosophy dies.

Styx: Master of Shadows to bardzo solidna skradanka, która zamiast udawać grę akcji naprawdę wymaga pozostawania w cieniu, obserwowania przeciwników i dokładnego planowania kolejnych ruchów. Wcielamy się w Styxa – goblina, który zdecydowanie nie jest typowym bohaterem fantasy. Jest cyniczny, bezczelny i świetnie pasuje do ponurego świata gry. Naszym głównym celem jest infiltracja ogromnej Wieży Akenash i odkrycie tajemnicy związanej z pochodzeniem Styxa oraz magicznym Drzewem Świata. Największą zaletą są rozbudowane, wielopoziomowe lokacje. Do celu zazwyczaj prowadzi kilka dróg – można wspinać się po elementach otoczenia, korzystać z ukrytych przejść, przemykać pod stołami albo eliminować strażników i ukrywać ich ciała. Gra bardzo dobrze wynagradza cierpliwość i dokładne poznawanie map. Ciekawie wypadają również zdolności Styxa. Możemy tworzyć własnego klona, stawać się chwilowo niewidzialni czy korzystać z różnych przedmiotów pomagających odwracać uwagę przeciwników. Rozwój umiejętności stopniowo daje coraz więcej możliwości podczas infiltracji. Nie wszystko jest idealne. Walka bezpośrednia jest celowo niewygodna, ale czasami potrafi bardziej frustrować niż motywować do skradania. AI również zdarzają się dziwne zachowania, a część lokacji jest później ponownie wykorzystywana. Mimo tych niedociągnięć Styx ma własny charakter i pozostaje jedną z ciekawszych skradanek swojej generacji. Duże mapy, sporo swobody i bohater zdecydowanie odbiegający od typowych protagonistów fantasy. Dla fanów klasycznego skradania zdecydowanie warto. Polecam.

Great game, if a little repetitive. I beat it yesterday, yet I can't remember many unique areas. Either a lot of the map design simply blend together or they reused a lot of design sections. I have this feeling that I've seen some specific maps maybe 3 or more times during the playthrough. Weird. The stealth holds up quite well. I saw a review stating that enemies can see you across the map and I can see why someone would think that. In the beginning I found it difficult to understand from how far the enemies would start detecting you but after the first full mission and maybe halfway into the second one it all began to click. You can always get closer than you think if you're in darkness, I could actually sneak around most missions at a quick pace so overall I'd say it felt really smooth. Something that stood out to me is how versatile the toolkit is. I found myself using every single item and skill in the game frequently. Very few stealth games do this part well. Normally in stealth games I've played, you either get an ability that is so OP that you can easily rely on it to beat the game or you get a ton of items but only a couple of them are useful. Not in Styx, here *every item* is handy and so is every ability. Sure some of them gets used more than others but it really shows how well made the game is when the entire toolkit is relevant across the whole game. The game is great, If you enjoy pure stealth then I recommend giving it one playthrough at least. I played through it in a week in 2 hour sessions before going to sleep. The game length is almost perfect though I think it should maybe have been 2 hours shorter since it kind of drags on just a little bit by the end.

absolute goblinema. i expected it to be more old and unpolished, but it nice to play even now. still not perfect tho: some colliders are strange and you need to overcorrect your jumps, some patrol points are wild (witch i found more interesting this way), at some point you notice that everything around you made of same assets. and i wish i had like 2-3 quicksave slots. but problems are so minor, and actual gameplay is so good, you will forget all the cons after few alerts.

[h2]Styx: Master of Shadows Review[/h2] Review is after 100% the game, completing the story and obtaining all collectibles. [h3]Pros:[/h3] [list] [*] Stealth! Yay! [*] Cool stealth based skills. [*] Ability to undo skills and redistribute/re-spec as needed. [*] Can replay missions to earn extra skill points. [*] Very player friendly game. [*] Cool fantasy world, setting and lore. [*] Quick save and manual save work well. As it should in a stealth game. [*] Story has unexpected twists that kept things interesting. [*] Dropping bodies off of ledges is glorious fun. [*] Lots of verticality and secret passages. [/list] [h3]Cons:[/h3] [list] [*] No knockout ability. It’s just killing enemies. [*] No map, so collectible hunting is more difficult. [*] Level: Master key had an issue where if you drop a certain box, a collectible becomes inaccessible. [*] Level: Architect had a bug related to the Clone Trap Kill skill that caused a secondary objective to not register. Not fixed even after a decade. Had to restart the level. [*] The first 4 mission levels are very good, but after that levels repeat, making collectible hunting so tedious, mundane and unfun. [*]On reused maps, they reduced brightness to force usage of (fantasy) night vision power all the time. Very annoying. [/list] [h3]Advice:[/h3] [list] [*]There is no need to clear the entire map to find collectibles. [/list] Let the bodies hit the floooor!! Overall Score: 9/10

One of the best stealth game ever exist but tainted by bug. 8.5/10

[h1] 100% Stealth[/h1] 🔹 Styx é um jogo 100% focado na furtividade, de fantasia medieval em plataforma com uma ótima ambientação, sombrio e muito perigoso. É um game de [b] PACIÊNCIA[/b] onde o mínimo erro é severamente punido. 🔹 A gameplay consiste em escalar, se esgueirar por buracos, saltar, apagar tochas, se esconder em locais específicos, utilizar habilidades de invisibilidade , criar clones, arremessar facas nos inimigos e areia para apagar tochas à distância. [b] A campanha possui 7 capítulos, dos quais o 5, 6 e 7 você literalmente tem que voltar pelo mesmo cenário.[/b] A variedade de inimigos é baixa, possuímos apenas uma adaga e nenhuma outra arma (além das facas arremessáveis que podemos coletar no cenário). 🔹 [b] Não é um Assassins Creed !!!! [/b] Você é fortemente desencorajado a iniciar um combate direto e essa é a [b]premissa PRINCIPAL do jogo[/b], mergulhar de cabeça com uma ideia distorcida, irá frustrar totalmente o jogador. O game está um pouco datado, a gameplay não é fluida e eu SUPER recomendo [b] somente para os fãs de Stealth. [/b] É um prato cheio nesse gênero!