Styx: Master of Shadows

[Summer]

Have any of you played Styx: Master of Shadows? Steam recommended it to me as a stealth game. A goblin is sneaking and assassinating through a fantasy town. Is it worth the money and time? I could always go for a good stealth game Not enough of those around.

[STiFU]

Yes, we have!

[Summer]

Yes, we have!

 

Cool. Reading it now. I hope there's an option for first person. I've never liked third person stealth games. Being able to peek beyond corners feels like cheating. Plus the camera's always angling the wrong way. If there's an option to play first person, I'm getting this.

[DirkGildun]

Nope, only third person.

[Destined]

I would still recommend it. I liked it very much. I only had one problem: when I start the game, VC Redist tries to install, but does not succeed. The installation just sits there and nothing happens. The easiest way around is to not allow the installation. The game runs just fine without it, I always just have to remember that I have to decline the installation (btw: I have the same problem with "Invisible Inc.").

[Bikerdude]

Yes its a great little game, not up there with Dishonored but good non the less.

[SteveL]

I pre-ordered it but only got round to playing last month. It's a fun stealth game, so yes I'd recommend it. The levels are very vertical and you can often see and scope out where you need to go well in advance. That's a good plus. I found no use for most of the skills on offer, but again that's not a bad thing: core stealth tactics are pretty much all you need. I generally only used my clone when I got to a door which only a clone can pass, which feels a bit contrived. But it's pretty to look at (if same-ish after a short time) and the creators have put in some proper stealth situations that reward you for studying the ai before you move.

 

The one big negative for me: it ends with a fast-action fight that requires you to use skills that you've had for some time but that have not been required at any point earlier in the game, and as a stealth player I hadn't even learned what keys they were bound to. It probably wasn't too difficult but I couldn't be bothered, so I just watched the ending scene on YouTube and considered it done.

[Destined]

I have to agree. The last fight was unnecessarily unstealthy. Regarding the skills: you can do very well without them, but some situations are much easier, if you use them.

[brethren]

Great game. I usually stick to first person games only, but this felt enough like Thief that I could overlook the 3rd person. There's supposedly a sequel in the works.

[Bikerdude]

There's supposedly a sequel in the works.

Nice.

[Summer]

I got Styx on sale, and I've played about forty hours now. How geeky of me. I'm not even halfway through though. I take my time, so no swiftness insignia for me. Plus, I kill pretty much everyone I come across, about 95% of enemies, so no mercy insignia for me either. I wait for the perfect opportunity and can replay a certain scene a hundred times till I get it right. Thus far, I've only gotten all the tokens, and that's just because I look and go everywhere.

The game's quite beautiful and vertically fascinating. I don't think that more than a few dozen Thief and TDM missions have gone all-out with such vertical challenges. Except for vertical competitions, of course. Nonetheless, the vertical aspect doesn't distract enough, IMHO, that the game areas are quite small. Often you can see where the level ends almost at the very beginning. Plus, some areas are quite linear, bad the way NuThief was linear. Not all though, which is good.

Two things do bug me: First, the music. It's really loud, and when I shove the slider down to nothing, it does... nothing. The music remains there. And when I return to the game later, the music starts off loud again, only I have no room to push the slider to silent. Kinda sucks. Second, the fighting. Maybe I'm not getting the combos right or something, but I suck at it. In the tutorial mission I did the compulsory fight scene and succeeded with pure luck. I have no idea what I did, only that he died and I lived. I haven't fought with any enemies since. I avoid it like the plague. Now I hear the end has a fight scene, and I have no clue how I'm gonna manage that without dying....

Anyway, big thanks for recommending this, guys. Overall it's been quite a treat

[Gast]

The Styx sequel seems beautiful, and from what I've read about it, even more vertical. Yummy !

http://www.styx-thegame.com/en/news/39-new-screenshots-reveal-huge-environments-of-styx-shards-of-darkness.html