A Long-Awaited Return For The Master of Stealth
Full disclosure, I’ve never really gotten into the Styx games. I briefly played the first game – Styx: Master of Shadows – a good few years ago, but it never made a strong impression on me, certainly not enough to spend time with the follow-up, Shards of Darkness. Which is odd because in theory the Styx series contains a lot of elements that I should enjoy. Stealth based action games are fantastic, but the genre feels like it has had more misses than hits in recent years.
Metal Gear’s future is uncertain, Assassin’s Creed has been on a decline, and Arkane, the studio behind some of the best in the genre with the Dishonored series, is facing layoffs and shutdowns. So seeing any new entries in the genre with some type of name recognition is exciting.
Styx: Blades of Greed is the third mainline entry in the series, and takes place just seconds after the ending of the second game. It’s not the best entry point for someone new to the series, and with a nine-year gap between this entry and the previous one, it’s a bit surprising they didn’t do more to ease players in. But as someone who was probably going to be lost either way, this isn’t worth holding against the game.
The Caustic Goblin
What matters is gameplay. Now to quickly set the stage, Styx is a goblin that is capable of speech, an anomaly in this world. Such an anomaly that he is the only one that has ever been known to be capable of said feat. He’s also a thief and assassin, which means he is adept at sneaking around and eliminating obstacles.
In practice, this means sneaking under tables, jumping between columns, and scurrying up walls, all while taking out enemies in a variety of ways. It’s possible to poison food and drink around outposts, kill at a distance with a limited number of darts, or stick with the old-fashioned method of sneaking up behind an enemy and killing them with a dagger.
Lethal Stakes
Many of the methods to kill enemies in Styx: Blades of Greed are one hits, which is something I have desperately missed as many stealth games from larger publishers have adopted more RPG mechanics and implemented massive health bars or arbitrary level thresholds.
On the flip side, this also means Styx himself is prone to being defeated rather easily. On a higher difficulty, only a couple of hits is enough to put him in the ground. When enemies are alerted, the options are to either flee or try and fight. Styx can lock-on to enemies and dodge out of the way while swinging at them with his dagger. A perfectly timed dodge also gives Styx the opportunity to perform an instant kill move, although the tougher enforcer style foes may be able to withstand a hit or two before going down.
Amber and Clones: Mastering Goblin Abilities
And if Styx is surrounded, then the odds of successfully making a last stand go down dramatically. It’s not impossible, but this is a game that very much rewards stealth. That’s where Styx’s array of unique abilities come in. He is able to spawn in goblin clones that distract enemies and interact with the environment so that he can sneak by unseen. In previous entries, these clones were manually controlled by the player, but in Blades of Greed they perform tasks automatically based on where they are placed.
Beyond that, Styx has other abilities, like one that allows him to become completely invisible to sneak past enemies. All of these abilities though are dependent on Amber. There is a gauge at the bottom of the screen that will deplete as abilities are used. Some, like spawning in goblins, will have a fixed cost, while the invisibility skill will slowly drain Amber over time. There are perks that can be unlocked to reduce these activation costs, yet once the Amber gauge fully depletes, Styx must consume more from vials that are either found or crafted.
Quartz Progression: Artifacts, Experience, and Story Hurdles
To unlock perks, Styx must gain experience in a variety of ways, mainly by stealing artifacts or collecting Quartz. Each artifact or bag of currency that is stolen will add to one experience level, and collecting Quartz will add to a separate level.
Quartz is a rare and powerful resource that augments Styx’s abilities. He is the only one that is able to absorb it, as others who try will fall to the power it holds, and much of the in-game progression is tied to collecting Quartz, both from a story and gameplay perspective. And this is where the game starts to come apart.
Repetitive Rhythms
The gameplay aspects of Styx: Blades of Greed are really solid. It feels distinctively AA, but that’s not a bad thing by any means. The movement, platforming, and stealth mechanics work well together and the game feels good to play. The issue is found in the delivery of the story and mission design.
Story progress is made by collecting Quartz in various stages. Once enough shards are collected, Styx will comment about returning to the Zeppelin he uses to travel around to talk with his allies. Here a cutscene or dialogue sequence will play out, which directs Styx to another area. This typically is framed as another place to grab Quartz. The reason Styx is grabbing all this Quartz is framed as, let’s just see what happens. Which to be fair is a motivation that I can see plenty of people having, but it doesn’t make for an engaging story.
The result is a gameplay loop that mainly consists of ‘go grab these materials, come back here, then go back to that level with a new item to grab more materials’, and so on. It’s a repetitive loop that doesn’t keep the player engaged.
Much of the dialogue and story writing also falls flat, the little bit of it that there is. A lot of the voice lines feel like the writer had a joke or a quippy statement that they wanted to make, but they didn’t know how to ensure the conversation naturally progressed to that point. Instead of reworking the voice line, though, they just shoehorned it in and called it good.
Responsive Mechanics in a Lackluster Loop
And it’s a shame because the game does feel good to play. The actual mechanics for moving around, stealing, and taking out enemies is fun. The controls are responsive and tight, and dashing past enemies unseen is enjoyable. It’s a bit on the easier side, but sometimes it’s fun just to run circles around enemies.
But it’s the content that surrounds those mechanics that makes it hard to stay engaged. Ignoring those elements, it’s possible to have some fun with Styx: Blades of Greed. But playing for any prolonged session starts to show just how repetitive the game really is.
Important Links
Styx Returns In Blades Of Greed – Stealth, Quartz, And Goblin Mischief Await – https://www.thexboxhub.com/styx-returns-in-blades-of-greed-stealth-quartz-and-goblin-mischief-await/
Buy the Standard Edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/styx-blades-of-greed/9pdqzknk659r
There’s a Quartz edition too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/styx-blades-of-greed-quartz-edition/9PNG3DJH20RH/0017/9Q7QN3NTFPNX
