Styx: Master of Shadows - Of Orcs & Men stealth spinoff(!)

[Whisper]

Just finished it (i played a lot, took like 20+ hours).

Will redo all levels with bonuses.


Game is very hard unless you are thinking a bit ahead.

Also some some good strategies: if you are spoted, run around corner, summon clone and control it, now lead clone to another place. Most likely guards will run after clone.
Works best if you have invisibility when you control clone and when clone himself gets invisibility (to use when getting almost caught).

Also use clone to put off torches, to save uses of sand.

Also can setup easy kills with guard looking your way: run with invis clone to guard, use Bind, and then kill with Styx. Those situations when guard looks your way and never changes facing.

They are much more strategies, just trying to stealth without planning things ahead will make game very hard though.

 

[Whisper]

Revelation about Styx
watch last several minutes

 

[Infinitron]

More reviews: http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/114609-styx-master-of-shadows-3.html

PC Gamer, 78/100.

For all its openness, there were a few points in the game where I felt I was being funneled and perhaps the most disappointing aspect was the re-visiting and re-population of some areas, these levels being augmented with non-human enemies; the advent of the latter feels like gratuitous hurdle placement and the asset recycling in general gives the impression the game has been padded out. But those gripes aside, SoS weaves an entertaining Grimm-like yarn in and around twenty hours-worth of furtive fun.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun, scoreless.

You’re not going to love Styx. It’s not the kind of game you’re going to be itching for a sequel to. It seems kind of unfortunate that it was released within a week of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Alien: Isolation. But sometime five or ten years from now you’ll be talking about stealth games with a friend and you’ll go, “Oh, hey, remember Styx? That was pretty good.”

Your friend probably won’t have played it, but that just means you get to feel smarter than them.

The Xbox Hub, 4/5.

Styx: Master of Shadows is a joy to play as long as you set about things with the right mental attitude. If you go in all guns blazing, then expect to hate pretty much everything about Styx. But give it a little bit of love in the planning and prepare to take in a slow paced stealthy environment and you’ll find a game that has a hell of a lot of depth to it.

Styx is on the right path to becoming a Master.

PlayStation LifeStyle, 8.0/10.

Overall, Styx: Master of Shadows is a great game that completely took me by surprise. It is strategic, intelligent, and offers players hours and hours of sneaky gameplay. Although the game does have a cookie-cutter story and some goofy voice acting, it is a great buy for the $30 price tag. I recommend picking up a copy if you have ever played Of Orcs and Men or are a fan of stealth games.

The Game Scouts, 8.5/10.

A few complaints aside, Styx: Master of Shadows is a fantastic experience. The enemies are tough, the levels are beautiful and large encouraging exploratory gameplay, and Styx controls flawlessly. Cyanide Studio is a fantastic developer, one that deserve more credit and media attention. Anyone with even the slightest interest in stealth gaming should play through Styx: Master of Shadows at least once. It’s one of the finest downloadable titles this year, and deserves a spot among the best releases in the genre.

 

[Abu Antar]

My save is messed up. Have to start over because trying to restart the mission hasn't resolved my problem.

 

[toro]

Played like 4 levels, Goblin difficulty, no kills and so on - basically all achievement per level except the parkour one.

It takes between 1 and 2 hours to completely ghost an entire level and ... wait for it ... there is no challenge or satisfaction in the end. Which is what I've argued for like two months before the release but I still wanted to check with my own eyes.

The guards visual range is limited and once you realize its limits, you can hide in plain sight. Is true that they tried to spice this shit with different tricks: guards are relighting torches, blind cockroaches have hyper-sensitive hearing and orcs have hyper-sensitive smell. But it doesn't really matters because all obstacles can be avoided - there are too many obvious stealth paths everywhere in the level - the sickness of all new games claiming to belong to stealth genre.

On top of that, trying to get all the coins from a level is simply a soul-crushing experience: they are put in all the obscure places and getting them without a walk-trough means basically scanning the entire level. And there are 40 of them. One less and bye bye obsessive-compulsive achievement.

Visuals are good, story is good, atmosphere is good but game-play is dull. I give up. The game is a piece of shit. Watch the story cut-scenes on utube and don't waste a penny on this one.

 

[toro]

More reviews: http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/114609-styx-master-of-shadows-3.html

reviews

There is no fucking way this is a 8.0/10 game considering that it's got technical issues (bugged quick-save, funny controls) and design issues (cheating/retarded AI, stealth paths).

This is more like a 4.0/10 for a stealth game. On the same level as Thief 4.

 

[Infinitron]

You have some seriously bizarre grudges, toro.

JarlFrank, have you played this yet?

 

[toro]

You have some seriously bizarre grudges, toro

What is so "seriously bizarre"?

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've started playing this tonight and it's a pretty good game, surprisingly tough and bullshit-free for the most part so far. It looks good, has a nice atmosphere (if you discount the cheesy dialogue), and level design is quite nice.

In my opinion it's way better than the popamole AAA stealth games that have come out in recent years. There's limited handholding (you can turn off the markers and so on) and the AI doesn't seem particularly egregious - although alert patrol routes seem rather short.

Worth buying for sure.

 

[JarlFrank]

You have some seriously bizarre grudges, toro.

JarlFrank, have you played this yet?

I started it, not far yet though cause I'm kinda busy at the moment.

 

[Minttunator]

I have to say, the mainstream reviewers complaining about the game feeling dated and too difficult for them really made me want to pick this up. Coincidentally, it is 33% off on Steam today!

 

[Blaine]

Is this game any good, or what? I see toro up there bitching about it somewhat schizophrenically. No one else seems to outright despise it.

 

[Abu Antar]

My 2 cents.

What's there to despise? The thing that bothered me the most was that sleeping guards would be awake when you reloaded a game but that problem was patched a day or two ago.

You can disable map markers, and if you want to ghost levels, you don't really need to focus on any upgrades other than buying the upgrade for the amount of amber vials you can bring on missions. Enemies easily detect you on goblin difficulty if you're not careful and if you get caught, they kill you. There are different types of challenges, like: Ghost a level, Complete a level in a set amount of time, Collect all the loot ( just coins), and some sub objectives you can take. Nice use of vertical routes to take.

It's no Thief, but as I said, best stealth game in many years.

 

[toro]

What's there to despise?

The lack of actual challenge.

The game is more like trial-and-error instead of requiring proper mission planing: guards limited visual field, retarded patrolling routes and guard bloat. The levels are chaotic and there is no subtle narrative to bind all the elements in something interesting.

Is just the same incoherent design philosophy exemplified by games like Fallout 3. It's better than nothing but ... wasted potential really triggers me.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm not saying it's perfect, but I can't say it's a bad game either. There's trial and error for sure, it just doesn't bother me. Guard detection works better in Styx in any other stealth game I have played. It's still something all games need to work on. The story hasn't really interested me, but I enjoy the gameplay, despite some issues.

 

[MicoSelva]

Apparently there will be a boxed version in Europe Poland, priced at around $13 (40 PLN), courtesy of CD Projekt.

http://hatak.pl/artykuly/styx-master-of-shadows-bedzie-zlokalizowane-na-polski-jezyk

Note that previous Cynide games released this way (Game of Thrones, Of Orcs and Men) did not allow for Steam unlocks.

 

[retardation]

Disappointing game, modern grindy rubbish.
Illogical level design, artificial convenient alternate routes everywhere.
Nothing to discover in the levels.
Repeating the levels later in the game.

If you must, play the first two missions and then forget about Styx.

 

[Abu Antar]

Tried to start the game for times in a row and it locks my computer. Whatever they did to the game with the last update means I won't be able to finish the game.

 

[toro]

Tried to start the game for times in a row and it locks my computer. Whatever they did to the game with the last update means I won't be able to finish the game.

But you have Leaderboards ...

* only for Steam at the moment.

• Enabling leaderboards (visible in the Steam interface) for each mission, the fastest time for each player will be displayed on the leaderboard
• Reducing the distance of the last-chance mode to match with the backward roll distance. (You can use the backward roll to escape from fights!)
• Slight increase in the action area of the ledge-kill (murder when you are attached to a ledge).
• Slight increase in the action area of the clone-trap.
• Fixed a bug where sleeping guards awake when reloading a party in front of them: the guard now remains asleep when reload a save before him.
• Fixed bug where two guards are close to a clone-trap: Now, the clone-trap catch only one single guard.
• Fixed a bug with the clone-trap where the guard was not killed when he was in some state of detection: now a guard is always killed when caught by a clone-trap.

 

[Abu Antar]

Tried some fixes, nothing works. Had to watch the last 30-40 minutes of the game on YouTube because I want to know what the hell I missed out on. I did enjoy the game but the last patch truly fucked me over. Played it on the highest difficulty for nothing.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So it's better at being Thief than Thiaf, yet fails to be better than Thief?

Fair enough.

 

[toro]

One more try after a 1-month break.

Spoiler

- You are playing with a clone of Styx and not with Styx himself. In this context it really doesn't make much sense to call this game Styx: Master of Shadows.
- The story is completely retardo-land: I gave up on the diplomacy quest. Also features a Kill-All quest.
- The game is reusing almost all maps. Basically you will cross each map twice: in one direction and in reverse.
- Stupid stupid mobs like the floating red skulls. You cannot avoid them unless you or your clone* take damage.
- The entire game is designed to make the player waste as much time as possible. But not in a fun way. It's simply a drag.
*Clone-of-Clone-of-Styx shit.

I wanted to like this game but is really bad. Better watch the story on uTube and save the time.

 

[Abu Antar]

- Stupid stupid mobs like the floating red skulls. You cannot avoid them unless you or your clone* takes damage.

This one is untrue. You can run up to it and then run away before it explodes. Your other points are not wrong, though.

 

[toro]

- Stupid stupid mobs like the floating red skulls. You cannot avoid them unless you or your clone* takes damage.

This one is untrue. You can run up to it and then run away before it explodes. Your other points are not wrong, though.

Is not possible in all the places. For example, when a red skull is hovering over a ledge you cannot avoid this stuff because it takes too long to jump, grab, rise above and jump again.

Which means that in some cases, the only way to cross is (1) take 50% health damage or (2) use a clone. This shit is trivial and completely dreadful. Not to mention the stupid introduction of this mob and so on.

Anyway I saw the ending on uTube and ... I'm done with Cyanide.

 

[Abu Antar]

I agree that the skulls didn't make sense and I did hate them. I did enjoy the game but it got a little worse as you kept going. It didn't help that the game won't even launch anymore and thus, I had to watch the ending on YouTube just like you.