Styx: Master of Shadows

Styx: Master of Shadows... Это когда ты играешь за зелёного гоблина-убийцу, который выглядит как будто его мама забыла выключить лампу в детстве. Я "прошёл" его... ну, почти. Ползал по крышам, душил стражников из тени, а потом бац — упал в пропасть, потому что "невидимка" работает только когда тебе не надо. Геймплей — как Dishonored, но без шарма и с гоблином, который хрипит "мой яд!" вместо "корво, я в деле". Атмосфера? Темно, мрачно, и пахнет плесенью. Саундтрек — будто кто-то забыл выключить флейту в подвале.Вердикт: если хочешь быть невидимым убийцей, но при этом выглядеть как жаба в плаще — бери. Если хочешь нормальный стелс — лучше в Dishonored. 6/10, потому что я всё ещё слышу "Styx... Styx..." во сне.

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trash. clearing the levels is too slow and repetitive with not much actually going on. the npc are just there to act as props. the game is unclear in how the progression goes and from what i've seen, there is no way to replay them. there are skill points that can be spent in "hideouts" which are safe areas, except when i reached one, i could not spend any point i had to upgrade the character skills, and there were not even any mention of said points anymore. it looks like hideouts are also linear in the progression so that we can't really go back to them either. the game says that they have stuff that we can get from merchants in them but of the two npc i found in the early hideout i reached, noone of them gave anything, i could only, as the game indicated, pickpocket from the friendly npc, which i did not do, and the "merchant" only tasked me with a stupid side quest. speaking of, the ui is garbage and the side quests are just unappealing chores that are shown as drawings with clues on them (the objects we have to look for, skills to use to find them, maps of the levels). it's very uninteresting and looks badly done and unappealing so it's just upsetting when there's no reason why i should even care in the first place another big negative is the scarcity of resources to use skills that require a finite amount of energy that are used to complete levels (i don't know if they are optional in that way) and, apparently, secrets/side quest stuffs. if i have to play through the entire game just to try again just because clearing a level is "not good enough" and when the game is otherwise not even interesting in the first place, i just don't even want to play the game anymore the game also quickly became very finicky in its mechanics. found two throwing knives, that are used the same way previous items, that were also introduced with a tutorial, and they simply disappeared in an invisible wall when i tried to use them. and they could not be picked back up. then i tried to do a muffle frag just like i did dozens of times in the previous levels, but the controls to enable it never showed up unlike the previous levels where it was not an issue, and the npc got alerted for no reason instead the levels take a while to complete, and games that are linear AND have finite resources are just garbage. and it takes too long to do anything, and if the character is spotted, it's game over and the level has to be restarted from the beginning every time. at least when it happens. it's very inconsistent, sometimes it's game over right away as soon as he gets spotted, sometimes we can fight, or try to run and hide back looked a bit promising in the beginning but it's a bad game

It's like Thief, but not so boring. Nice story, nice animations, interesting levels even when you need to walkthrough same levels 2-3 times :)

Итак, игра пройдена на 100%. Можно и отзыв оставить. В общих чертах игра понравилась. Сюжет простенький, но с крутым поворотом. Геймплей залипательный, искать оптимальные маршруты до цели в моменте довольно интересно. Не совсем понял, почему часто упоминали о неприязни к уровням на время. Я прошёл игру два раза. В первый я просто выполнял попутные доп. квесты, пытался пройти игру и смотрел за сюжетом. На это у меня ушло примерно 20 часов. Я бы, конечно, и быстрее справился, если бы понял, что в игре есть быстрые сохранения. В первом прохождении у меня даже мысли не возникло нажать F9 или F5, я просто начинал с точки автосохранения. Во втором прохождении я пошёл, чтобы выбить все ачивки и закрыть игру на 100%. Второй заход был гораздо приятнее первого. Понимание карты и имбовый навык "янтарного зрения" очень упростили прохождение, но сохранял темп, ибо надо было пройти уровень быстро, без убийств и тревог. Вот, кстати, и странно, что жаловались на таймер. У меня проблем на втором заходе с этим вообще не было. Я делал два захода на уровень: в первом я проходил без убийств, тревог и пытался закрыть таймер, и под конец у меня оставалось минимум 5 минут в запасе, а в каком-то я даже успел за половину времени, и это без убийств и тревоги. На втором заходе я уже просто бегал, собирал жетоны и искал сокровища (хм, получается, я прошёл игру три раза). Второе прохождение с открытыми навыками охотника было очень приятным и "потоковым". Если не торопиться и заниматься поиском оптимальных маршрутов (не забывая о быстром сохранении), то игра вызывает в основном приятные эмоции. Сделаю перерыв и, наверное, попробую и вторую часть пройти, закрыв на 100%.

[h1] INTRODUCTION [/h1] A long while ago, after playing Styx: Shards of Darkness, I decided to play its predecessor and, much like SoD, I fell in love with MoS (Master of Shadows). Recently, in anticipation for Blades of Greed, the newest installation in the Styx series, I decided to replay and fully 100% MoS, going for all insignias and skills and whatnot. And I had as muc ha blast now as I did all those years ago. [h2] SETTING [/h2] Styx: Master of Shadows takes place entirely within the Tower of Akenash; a titan-sized tower with one singular purpose: housing the World Tree, a tree that can supposedly produce amber. You play as Styx and must go through linear levels that have a lot of ways to get through them. Take up to the skies to avoid detection or try to go through the guards to find items, the world is your oyster! Visually, the Akenash Tower is a true masterpiece of engineering and art: the upper sections feature lush, lavish and beautiful decor, the average working site has a lot of cranes with boxes for either getting around or dropping them on guards and the lower levels are colored with green and brown, generally showing how dirty, grimy and kind of stinky they are. I like this setting a lot, it is one of my favorite areas in gaming period. [h2] CHARACTERS [/h2] Unlike any other game with Styx, MoS only has one noteworthy character, that being our protagonist. Styx is a foul-mouthed goblin who is tiny, mean and lean; his characterization perfectly fits the trickster archetype, someone quite full of themselves who can use their abilities to deceive others. He is a joy to listen to and honestly my favorite stealth protagonist of all time. Sorry, Billie Lurk, I love you, but you cannot compare to the Master of Shadows. Speaking of, why is that his title? [h2] GAMEPLAY [/h2] Styx: Master of Shadows is a complex true-stealth stealth game; unlike current stealth media that is more action with stealth elements, you'll find Styx to be ill-suited for combat. against one opponent, he can hold his ground by parrying their strikes until they tire out, but with more than one enemy on him, its either run or die. So, it is a real stealth game, where you HAVE to sneak around. What are your tools? Firstly, your race. You are a goblin; you are very agile, capable of traversing terrain faster than your typical guard, and you are tiny, so you fit in all sorts of nooks and crannies. These two aspects alone open up a variety of ways to sneak around not possible in other games, since Styx is perfectly built to go through areas others can't fit in and cross areas with parkour skills. But the abilities are what make Styx. Firstly, you have Amber Vision, which is a night vision combined with an enemy highlighter. When upgraded, this turns into actual wallhacks. Second, Invisibility, which works exactly as you'd think. But the REAL reason you are here is for his most notorious ability; The ability that sets Styx apart from any other stealth protagonist, the ability that makes him stand out: his clones. Styx is able to create and control clones of himself and they can do most of what you can do. With the exception of killing targets freely, progressing through areas and other tiny restrictions, clones have the exact capabilities as Styx with one major difference: they are expendable. You can use clones to stun enemies by binding them, drop chandeliers while you are away, attract attention to itself and away from you, block doorways, help you move corpses, they uses are genuinely near-limitless. They have a ton of utility and it is very hard to give you just one example on how to use this very-potent tool. Clones are expendable but also invaluable in their uses. In a pinch, you can throw them to save your skin, but it is best to try to avoid such situations in the first place. In this game exclusively, Styx cannot go below 20% of his Amber bar, his special resource. 20% is enough to use Amber Vision or Clones, so no matter what, you will always be able to use them. [h2] PERFORMANCE [/h2] Made on Unreal Engine 3 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows, Styx: Master of Shadows has 0 problems with performance. The game runs very smoothly and has no issues with lagging due to graphics or any of that sort of stuff. The game is somewhat buggy and occasionally throws a fit, but this generally will not impede your gameplay. The most that will happen is some funny bug happens and you quickload. Probably the worst thing that will happen is that your game crashes, but again this doesn't happen often enough to consider it detrimental. [h2] MUSICAL SCORE [/h2] Made with love and care by H-Pi, the soundtrack for Styx: Master of Shadows is genuinely beautiful and I listen to it on my phone a lot because it is very calming. Shoutout in particular to "Hideout", "Mother Tree" and especially "Main Menu". Check them out when you can. [h2] VERDICT [/h2] Going on sale often for -80% and usually costing 2-5 euros maximum, Master of Shadows is a real joy to play through. If you go in with the mindset of guns blazing super combat, you WILL suffer. But if you embrace your nature as a goblin, you'll find out why a lot of people dig this "underrated gem". If you are a fan of pure stealth and do not enjoy the current "action game with stealth elements" game market, give Styx a go. You might just find your next treasure.

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