Review – Styx: Master of Shadows on Xbox One
Styx: Master of Shadows is an infiltration game with RPG elements, developed by Cyanide Studios and published by Focus Home Interactive. Styx: Master of Shadows takes place in a gloomy fantasy world within the Tower of Akenash. This game was released on the 8th of October 2014 for the Xbox One, (the platform I am basing this review on) the PS4 and the PC.
You take on the role of a goblin assassin named Styx, whose quest it is to steal the heart of the magic World Tree, the source of a powerful nectar called Amber. With this Amber, Styx can create and destroy a clone of himself which can get through locked gates – these will be found a lot throughout the game, Styx can become invisible for a short time, or you can use “Amber Vision” to highlight the way to your objective or show important people and objects.
The sneaking mechanics are fluent and are satisfying when you complete a “muffled kill”, a mechanic which allows you to sneak up on an enemy and take them down silently. In addition to this, you can also choose to “kill” your opponent, which will take a shorter period of time but be a lot louder and other enemies in the surrounding area may be able to hear the cry of your victim. In Styx: Master of Shadows, you can also hide under furniture such as tables and hide inside furniture such as a wardrobe, which allows you to hide from your enemies and sneak up on them when they least expect it.
There are also parkour elements in Styx: Master of Shadows, which are again very satisfying when you manage to get to a hidden area using a concealed ventilation shaft or manage to kill an enemy from dropping down off a high ledge. The controls for parkour work well which you will notice while playing through the game, and are fun to use.
With the “Amber Vision” you can identify consumables such as the “Vials of Health” which will restore your life, and the “Vials of Amber” which restore your amber gauge which you can use to activate your invisibility, amber vision and creating a clone. You can also find knives collectively spread around the map to use on enemies and piles of sand which you can extinguish torches with, another mechanic which allows you to create a dark area for you to sneak around in. You can also extinguish the torches by hand, but this gives a risk of a guard seeing you.
The direct combat system is hard to work with at first, which is a bit of trouble for people like myself who sometimes like to go in and not be sneaky, but it becomes progressively easier to work with as the game moves along and more infiltration mechanics are introduced. Many dynamic features are introduced, such as when you can spin a wheel in the first level and turn gas on to kill enemies, which allows you to sneak past. RPG elements such as the skill tree which you gain points for after completing your main objective, however, make direct combat easier, as well as stealth and agility which are also included in the skill tree.
Styx: Master of Shadows is a game which nails its hardcore stealth elements, but lacks in direct approach, which may not even be necessary for many players. The game is available right now on Xbox One, PS4 and PC for £23.99/$30.00/€30.00.
The game unfortunately does not have Smartglass integration.
Pros –
Excellent hardcore stealth mechanics
Easy to control parkour system
RPG elements such as the skill tree to help improve your goblin, Styx
Only takes up 6.4 GB of memory (Xbox One)
Cons –
Hard to get used to direct combat system
Difficulty can be quite high even if playing on Easy
Overall, Styx: Master of Shadows is a great game and I am honored to have made it my first review. I am giving Styx: Master of Shadows an 8/10!
Game developed by: Cyanide Studios
Game published by: Focus Home Interactive
Thank you to Dead Good Media for giving me the opportunity to review Styx!
8/10
– CameronMines
