I got both Styx games on Steam years ago. I recommend them as stealth games, and I really like the platforming elements and how well they fit into the overall stealth mechanics. The world is dark and gritty, a nice mix of steampunk and weird magic. Sour Spots: -The optimal way to get points to level up Styx's abilities is by avoiding killing people. After about the third stage I said 'cuss it' and went back to pushing people off cliffs and spitting in their food. I do not like when games give you cool, fun things to do and then punish you for using them. Not a deal breaker imo, just annoying. -Styx is a fun, snarky character but I feel they were too influenced by Deadpool in the sequel. There's a lot more fourth wall breaking humor which does reduce overall immersion. Some is fine, but they went too far in the sequel. (I did like the references to Garret and Corvo though, those were good nods)
The game is beautiful. Both the artwork and music are reason enough to give this a try. The gameplay and story are where it struggles. GoG’s character limit is painfully low, so I’ll just post a list of points: Story: -You start with the full cast of characters and are given a brief exposition for their goals and state of the world -This method of storytelling makes character narratives told retroactively, which makes it feel like more exposition -Not enough time spent on main cast and villains, perhaps too many side characters -The cosmology is interesting and there are dark secrets beneath the bright, cozy exterior -The story works better in the broad strokes. Narrative engagement feels too spread out and thin to be as impactful as it should be Gameplay: -Class system with interesting abilities, lots to experiment with -Interesting counter table for deeper strategy -Difficulty holds it back. Swingy difficulty and hard battles will make you want to min-max your party class choices. Some classes are just flatly better than others -You can change the combat difficulty in the settings. ‘Easy’ is the sweet spot imo, ‘Very Easy’ when running back through dungeons for side quests Overall I’d give the game a 7.5/10. It was slow starting out but picked up for me. A lot of people barely scratched the surface and turned their noses, it seems. There are problems but it doesn’t deserve the negativity it’s received.
