Styx: Shards of Darkness brings the third instalment from the Of Orcs and Men universe, being the second Styx game, all made by the French studio Cyanide. Being my first game in the franchise I was keen to see what the goblin, Styx, had to offer but sitting here now I’m still torn between its positives and negatives.

Styx: Shards of Darkness is a stealth game that does stealth well.  Nothing feels overly original or too unique, but it blends different mechanics to be its own beast.   Take for example the game’s own version of Eagle Vision, called Amber Vision.  Can you guess what colour it tints the world?  Going into Amber visions shows hidden enemies and objects you can interact with.  While some aren’t big fans of the many knock offs of Eagle Vision, Styx is a game built around these kinds of mechanics.

The beautifully designed worlds are built with very tight and claustrophobic areas which would be near impossible to navigate without the use of a mechanic like Amber Vision. This is what makes Styx great, it feels built from the ground up to make stealth seem right and that’s something not too common.  Placement of objects or enemies feel important and by design, which makes it so much more satisfying when the Level suddenly clicks in your mind.

Amber vision isn’t the only stealth element available to Styx, he also comes packed with the ability to create and control clones of himself to distract enemies as well as the ability to go invisible for a brief period.  These both present unique ways to tackle a situation, whether sneaking passed or killing enemies.  Added to this is the ability to poison food, craft weapons and traps, amongst others. These abilities give enough to Styx’s arsenal to make tackling a situation worth thinking about.  Using a combination of these things among his other skills like being able to peep through a keyhole, or hide in a box, both of which jump into the first person view while you observe your surroundings. These gameplay elements add to the joy that is the stealth design.

Surprisingly the story is quite solid, with Styx coming up against his enemies the at the start of the game and winds up having to work with them for a great goal.  This is unfortunately undermined by his personality.  Styx breaks the fourth wall a lot, no more often than when you die and he addresses the player.  Now and then one of his quips would make me chuckle like when he suggests switching places with the player so they can die while he controls it, but most of the time it either seemed like an old joke or an uninspired one.  This is unfortunate as fourth wall breaking, arrogant, funny characters are great but his jokes don’t land anywhere near enough, which made him seem unlikeable.

On top of this is many annoying little bugs.  When you are trying to line up a way to get from A to B with no room for failure, when the game fails you it can be unnecessarily frustrating.  There were many bugs, for example, not being able to grab a rope for 10 minutes, despite jumping back and forth from different angles as well as heights, including climbing above the rope then jumping down so the rope went through Styx, it eventually let me slide down the rope.  Other quirks like AI acting unpredictably did add a damper on the game at many times.

It’s an unfortunate situation that Styx falls over in those two areas as for the most part it’s a great game, with a solid story built great gameplay.  Despite annoying repetitive death scenes and Styx’s personality, it’s still a worthy title for anyone looking for a third person stealth game.

The post Styx: Shards of Darkness (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

NOW CLOSED – Following on from the first Styx game; Master of Shadows comes Shards of Darkness, where we see the cursing and crude humoured Styx keeping to the shadows to steal and plunder.

Relying on patience and stealth as opposed to combat, Styx: Shards of Darkness will test your gameplay skills as you think outside the square to navigate around the open world environments to complete your objectives and not get noticed.

The story continues from the first game, following the fall of Akenash tower, where an extraordinary matter has forced Styx out of hiding to infiltrate Korrangar, the city of the Dark Elves. Supposedly impregnable, a diplomatic summit offers Styx a chance at slipping in unnoticed, as he learns that the event is nothing but a mere facade…

Embark upon a stealthy adventure with new enemies, new environments, and a plethora of new mechanics aimed at refining the abilities and movement of Styx; grappling around corners, climbing ropes, and using his trusty knife as a zip-wire.

Shards of Darkness aims to offer unparalleled freedom of movement, along with refined stealth and assassination mechanics, expanding and improving on the strengths of Styx: Master of Shadows.

Thanks to our friends at Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studios, StG has ONE PlayStation 4 copy to Giveaway.

To Enter our Styx: Shards of Darkness Giveaway you will need to Answer this Question correctly.

Styx: Shards of Darkness is the third game in the series titled:

A: Of Orcs And Men

B: Goblins and Me

C: The Adventures of Styx

You can give us your Answer by placing a Comment below, hitting us up on Facebook, Tweet to us, or Email Us

* Winner(s) will be randomly selected from those that Comment below / Facebook Comment / Email in accordance to the above Question. Winner(s) will receive a physical copy of Styx: Shards of Darkness for PlayStation 4. Competition ends on the 2nd of April, 2017. Styx: Shards of Darkness game for PlayStation 4 has a R13 Age Rating in New Zealand.

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Styx: Shards of Darkness, sequel to Cyanide Studios’ stealth hit Master of Shadows, comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in Q1 2017. Shane the Gamer (StG) has been given a few game screens which show off the heavily guarded Port of Korrangar, airships in flight, and the impish nature of our green-skinned thief himself.

The only thing sharper than Styx’s wit is his knife, and both will be put to the test in his deadly adventure across land, sea and sky. After taking care of business in City of Thieves Thoben, Styx agrees to steal an ambassador’s scepter – in exchange for vast quantities of highly addictive, magical Amber of course! It’s not long before this seemingly straight forward task takes an unexpected turn though, as Styx is thrust into a dangerous world of shady politics and powerful magic.

This time around, Styx has access to a far greater arsenal of tools and abilities to fit with a range of different play styles. Avoid or hunt guards with potent Amber powers, including the ability to instantly teleport into a newly hatched Styx clone. The newly-added crafting system lets you adapt to situations as you progress, allowing you to craft lethal traps and other devices from components stolen on your adventure.

This open-ended approach extends beyond Styx himself. The game once again features highly vertical environments, far grander in scale and non-linearity than ever before. Every objective is achievable through many different routes and tactics – from lurking through shadowy depths to unleashing silent attacks from above, how Styx progresses in each mission is entirely up to you.

Following its positive reception from press and players, the centuries-old goblin assassin Styx returns in a new stealth game, Styx: Shards of Darkness, with a bigger budget, bigger ideas, and a new engine: Unreal 4. Master of Shadows was a valiant exploration into the world of the green goblin thief, but Shards of Darkness will delve deeper into a complex narrative and fully realized world.

Following the fall of Akenash tower, an extraordinary matter has forced Styx out of hiding to infiltrate Korrangar, the city of the Dark Elves. Supposedly impregnable, a diplomatic summit offers Styx a chance at slipping in unnoticed, as he learns that the event is nothing but a mere facade…

Embark upon a stealthy adventure with new enemies, new environments, and a plethora of new mechanics aimed at refining the abilities and movement of Styx; grappling around corners, climbing ropes, and using his trusty knife as a zip-wire. Shards of Darkness aims to offer unparalleled freedom of movement, along with refined stealth and assassination mechanics, expanding and improving on the strengths of Styx: Master of Shadows.

Players who preorder now get exclusive access to the Akenash set, granting them the iconic outfit and dagger seen in Styx’s first adventure.

The post New Screens Released for Styx: Shards of Darkness appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Styx: Shards of Darkness, the sequel to Cyanide Studios’ stealth cult-classic Master of Shadows, comes to consoles and PC in 2016. Styx creeps back in a new adventure packed with bigger production, tonnes of new features and a new engine: Unreal Engine 4.

One of the hostile factions you will meet in the huge underground city of Korrangar is composed of the Dark Elves. Dark Elves were previously Elves who had to live without any amber for multiple generations. Slowly, they have been turning into fanatic and bloodthirsty creatures. They became masters in Quartz fabrication, a new, much more dangerous, source of power. They are also experts at goblin hunting and the Exterminator Dark Elf is proof of that. He has honed his skills to perfection, and is able to flush out pesky creatures hiding in dark corners and hard-to-reach places with toxic bombs.

If there’s an even more dangerous place than Korrangar, it would be Wildoran, the city of goblin hunters.

Wildoran inhabitants are stout people wearing heavy armour – the powerful Dwarves. Styx is unable to breach their impenetrable defence, so you must innovate and adapt to disable or avoid them. Every dwarf also has a supernatural sense of smell, and is able to slowly track Styx as he moves from cover to cover.

This is only a small example of the many enemy types Styx will face in his journey. Each faction has many unique classes of enemies and will require you to creatively utilize all of Styx’s tools to overcome them: assassination, amber powers, talents and skills, equipment, etc. But that’s not all! Deep in the most dangerous of areas lie greater foes and obstacles that are epic in size and scale – monstrous beings that overshadow anything Styx has ever seen!

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