Styx: Master of Shadows

challenging and entretaining game i love it

The athmosphere of the game is good, the controls are good, the game is fun in general. Nothing big but if the game is on sale it's worth to buy. But... Don't bother about the achievements if you don't want your head to explode. There is an achievement for 0 alerts (no guards should detect you). I saved the game when I had 0 alerts. I loaded the game back to that point, it now shows 1 alert. 1 hour lost.

Personal background Played thief 1 - 3, really liked the atmosphere, story and open game design. Also liked thief 3, but the levels could have been wider with less loading screens Also played Assasin's Creed 1 + 2 and Splinter Cell 1 + 3 Playing with vega 8 iGPU (Ryzen 2500u) at 900p on med (works fine) What I liked + fair difficulty (played on medium), except for the final battle (strongly depends on proper equipment). Unlimited quicksave at least on normal difficulty + beautiful vertikal levels (especially harbour and the castles) + Story and presentation are really good. No masterpiece, but good and not too cliche + more on the open side of things regarding level structure and paths. Invites for exploration + Within the stealth boundaries you have some gameplay options. Also bonus points are not too rewarding, so you get along just fine with ignoring them + Mostly polishend. I had no critical bugs, maybe 10 clipping errors in the whole game, sometimes guards that wouldn't move or react properly. + climbing for me has a good balance between freedom and assistance. I played with mouse and keyboard. Although not perfect, I got along just fine. For me its refreshing that you can actually die from falling. Not so good - Some abilities are hard to controll (arial kill). Never managed to perform hanging kill - end fight not so great (too difficult without proper equipment), level doesn't allow much choices - Some storyline choices would be great - Indoor settings sometimes could have been better - Some trial and error Final thoughts For me this is en par with thief 1 & 2 and better than thief 3. It adds some nice verticality (more like Prince of Persia than AC). Optional stuff doesn't feel too generic. It is no revoltion but a careful and spirited modernisation of stealth games like thief 1 & 2. I'd love to see more games like this. Shards of darkness we'll meet in the next sale :)

Play as a thief, fading into and out of the shadows, neither seen nor heard. The only trace you leave behind are the missing riches and artifacts in your wake. Play as an assassin striking from the darkness to subdue your unsuspecting prey. Snap and sever necks while dragging your mark back into the gloom like a gator pulling a deer into the murk. Play as a lithe warrior. Parry blows with the grace of a mantis only to riposte at an opportune time and drive your blade right between the armored plates of an ogre juggernaut or elven sentinel. Play however you want in this grand adventure. The best part is that you play as a goblin; looking like you stepped right out of Stephen King’s “Cat’s Eye.”

Very pretty, original and challenging game with decent/good ai and a lot of possibilities to tackle the levels. Definitely check it out!