Styx: Shards of Darkness review

Reviewed on: PS4

Judging a stealth game is a bit tricky. Basically, you judge the tools the game gives you to stay hidden and how well they work in-game.
Here, you follow Styx right after his last venture. For those who don’t know him (the first game was given away on Plus, but it’s no technical or graphical marvel), Styx is a foul-mouthed goblin with terrible manners, like vomiting clones or putting poison in the guards’ food. One of the most interesting ways Styx interacts with you is that he curses at you every time you die, and that happens quite often.

With rather clumsy level design, Styx became an annoying game. The mechanics that are there to help you aren’t well implemented. That said, let’s get to the facts:

Story: 7
A bit convoluted and narrated by Styx himself, it gets an extra boost at the game overs, where he mocks your incompetence.

Gameplay: 7
It feels like playing a PS2 game that aged badly. The movement, the mechanics, everything seems two steps behind current animation.

Audiovisual: 8
There’s not much to say. The character is extremely well detailed, but everything else looks like rushed 3D design work. Still, it produces some impressive scenes.

All in all, it’s an interesting game, but with enough flaws to stand out for them rather than for its qualities.

PlayStation 4 version