I'll state first that this game does have bugs at the time of this review, nothing game breaking, but did require me to close and reopen the game. Also I don't tend to type reviews so this will probably be formatted terribly. Sorry. We seem to be in a renaissance of Lovecraft mythos inspired games right now, from the action oriented Lovecraft's Untold Stories and Tesla Vs Lovecraft, which are fun but capture none of what the Mythos is supposed to feel like, to the story heavy narrative RPGs like Call of Cthulu or Sinking City, which strike the right tone but have some massive flaws. Stygian is a masterpiece in atmosphere, the hand drawn aesthetic paired with the horrific attention to detail means that every area you visit feels so alive! I never thought a top down isometric game like this could spook me, but some parts of the game are downright bone chilling! The gameplay is divided into 2 main parts, exploration and combat. Exploration is on par with Baldurs Gate. You walk around the ruined town of Arkham, interviewing the weary townfolk and using a variety of investigative skills to uncover evidence. Combat is the second half of gameplay, and is fought turn-based on a hex grid. It's very reminiscent of the classic Heroes of Might and Magic games. It's a little slow and clunky at times, but still plays quite well. The game also focuses on the stress of combat, and encourages you to avoid it where possible. The devs have stated that they wrote every quest to have at least 4 solutions: direct, cunning, intellectual and costly, so even characters with no combat expertise can solve quests with minimal fighting. In summary, Stygian is a masterpiece in the genre. A horror isometric detective rpg that reuses themes and characters any fan of Lovecraft will recognize, and makes the best use of them to build an incredible world. TLDR: An atmospheric masterpiece.
