How to start this review. I've played the first and second Styx games and I liked them. First one was rough around the edges, but it had a vision. Be stealthy, don't get caught, find the tokens, get out. Second game kept this going and added the time function also into the mix. Both of them had a linear objective for the mission, and it worked.
This game? Open ended objectives in a semi-open maps. The maps are well done, that's what I like about it, but this openness of maps and objectives makes everything feel less valuable. Also, it doesn't really matter who you kill or how many you kill. You could run through everyone, go invisible and lose their chase that way, and still get your objective. It's.... It feels a bit lazy to say the least. It shouldn't be like that. In the first two games, I felt like I was a weak goblin, who should stay out of sight, and sneak past everyone and get the objective. Even without the new powers, you feel like you can escape enemies quite easily.
Mechanically it's better than the first two. That has been a constant change from the first game. Mechanics feel more smooth and better, when you compare them to one or two.
Voice acting is a bit iffy in places. Some characters sound exactly how they should, but others sound... Weird... Not at all what I'd expect them to sound like. For an example, the orcs do not sound like they should in my opinion.
Storywise.... I feel like they did the dwarves dirty. A burly female know-it-all dwarf and a smooth shaven, well-mannered dwarf as companions? I liked the way the dwarves were in the second game, so this is a bit of a letdown. It really feels like the studio got some money from some very nasty people, who wanted to change some of the aspects of characters, but I have nothing to prove this. It's just a pattern how these things go.
Should you buy it? If you liked the first two, but want better mechanics and don't mind worse story, by all means. If the story is important to you, get it from sale. I bought it from sale, so it wasn't that big of a letdown.
For the devs, I feel like shards of darkness Styx was good. A loner, looking out for himself, not really caring about others, nor don't really want to hear their problems, that's the Styx I like. Not this... Weird, not at all organic mishmash of people coming together to do... What exactly? Clear up the objectives, have Styx ditch all of them, even sacrificing them, cause he's a nasty goblin. I'm in it for the loot and booty, not hugs and friendship.
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