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

[MicoSelva]

In Poland you can now buy a boxed version of this (no idea if Steam-locked) for around $12.

 

[Infinitron]

toro's suffering is not yet complete

 

[Abu Antar]

Hopefully it doesn't self the destruct every time I try to launch the game while being in the final mission.

 

[Roguey]

Some of youse guise thought it was delightful when the journos hated Alien: Isolation, but they ended up being right as far as I'm concerned.

This seems different though. Will check out during a lull.

And that lull was recently.

I was really impressed with the large and nonlinear level design, not to mention the variety in environments, and kept wondering what the catch was (this was made by Eurotrash after all). I received my answer halfway through when they ran out of budget and had me backtrack through all those levels. Guess I could have spoiled that for myself had I paid more attention to this thread.

I liked the string quartet soundtrack. This kind of music should be used more often (see also Arcanum). I also liked how they used paintings with voice-over since they didn't have the budget for fully-animated cutscenes. That should be done more often as well.

Everyone wasn't kidding when they talked about the clunky combat. Good thing they only force it on you thrice, but that's three times too many.

The dialogue was lousy and I wasn't fond of how they intentionally made the in media res beginning confusing for the sake of their plot twist. I was pretty surprised when I found out that not only is the lead writer a conformist (there aren't even any women in this game [I'm sure she'd justify it by citing budget] and none of the men have anything approaching what one would call a progressive attitude), Arkane was so impressed with her work on this title that they decided they also wanted her on board to sabotage Dishonored 2 alongside Ellison.

I'm being harsh, but this was an impressive first attempt at a stealth game from a European developer known for shoveling ware. Worth the time and discounted price.

 

[toro]

Worth the time and discounted price.

Exquisite trolling.

 

[Roguey]

Exquisite trolling.

By the way, you're wrong about the floating skulls. I never got hit or needed to use up a clone on them. There's an aural tell they have when they're locked in to explode, and you roll, drop from the ledge, or jump away as soon as you hear it and you're fine.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Worth the time and discounted price.

I concur. This was the best stealth game I played for a while. (after Invisible Inc. of course)

 

[Abu Antar]

By the way, you're wrong about the floating skulls. I never got hit or needed to use up a clone on them. There's an aural tell they have when they're locked in to explode, and you roll, drop from the ledge, or jump away as soon as you hear it and you're fine.

Yeah, the skulls are very easy to avoid.

 

[toro]

By the way, you're wrong about the floating skulls. I never got hit or needed to use up a clone on them. There's an aural tell they have when they're locked in to explode, and you roll, drop from the ledge, or jump away as soon as you hear it and you're fine.

You might be a genius. Or full of shit !? I cannot decide which one.

I'm being harsh, but this was an impressive first attempt at a stealth game from a European developer known for shoveling ware. Worth the time and discounted price.

The game is bad and your are just trolling because ... something something. But you are right about something, the game is shovel ware.

 

[Beowulf]

So what is the general consensus? Is it worth giving a try for one that like sneaking to play until you hit level repeats?
I've seen some gameplay videos but it looked a little too much on the action side to my liking. But those were promotional videos, and those always lie.
Can you go sneaky-beaky like ghosting the levels, or do you have awesome action moments?

 

[Cyberarmy]

So what is the general consensus? Is it worth giving a try for one that like sneaking to play until you hit level repeats?
I've seen some gameplay videos but it looked a little too much on the action side to my liking. But those were promotional videos, and those always lie.
Can you go sneaky-beaky like ghosting the levels, or do you have awesome action moments?

It is worth it if you like to be a sneaky bastard, just don't forget to play in goblin difficulty which means you're dead as soon as as guards engage you in melee.
You can ghost the whole damn game. (excluding them bugs) It gets a bit repeative after a while though because of level recylcing. You have to traverse some older levels. They'll have different guard routines and minor changes but mostly the same maps after a while.

 

[Beowulf]

It is worth it if you like to be a sneaky bastard, just don't forget to play in goblin difficulty which means you're dead as soon as as guards engage you in melee.
You can ghost the whole damn game. (excluding them bugs) It gets a bit repeative after a while though because of level recylcing. You have to traverse some older levels. They'll have different guard routines and minor changes but mostly the same maps after a while.

Thanks for the reply. So I guess that it will be in my next steam sale/bargain bin purchase.

 

[Roguey]

The recycled levels aren't bad, just disappointing in the level reuse. They're definitely more demanding than the first four.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Thanks for the reply. So I guess that it will be in my next steam sale/bargain bin purchase.

It's on %66 sale right now.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/290890

 

[potatojohn]

Well he's right

I don't remember loading times being long though. I guess that was just the peasant version.

 

[Ivan]

Playing thru this and having a blast. Finding the tokens is p. damn fun and levels are impressively open.

 

[bertram_tung]

just picked this up on sale on steam. it was like $5.75 or something.

it's enjoyable so far

it feels like a game from a previous generation, in a good way. I JUST started though. just got the clone ability. so it's very early. But so far I think it shows promise.

the combat seems shitty but why the fuck would I care about in depth combat when the whole objective is to avoid combat in the first place? It doesn't need to even be included for me to enjoy the game

picked the game up because the sequel is coming and I am sure it will be even better

 

[Ivan]

one of those weird games i dropped halfway through, picked up and realized how short the game is, especially conisdering it recycles all of its four levels. lulz

 

[Alphard]

i bought this at discounted price and it's one of the best purchase i made recently.
i didnt reach already the point where levels are repeating, but having a blast so far.
the game is open, level have multiple paths, ai is not that bad, ghosting gives you that sweet sweet adrenaline if you manage to do it without savescumming each 2 minutes ( but don't feel bad doing so because the game is hard on goblin difficulty)
if you like stealth games playing this is a must.
once i finish this i might think of buying the sequel

 

[Konjad]

I should like this game, and yet I don't. Because in theory it is a stealth game with open levels and difficult combat. I love such games. I revere Thief. However, this game does a lot aspects wrong. In fact, the longer I played the more I realized it's actually not the kind of game I enjoy.

First of all, it's not really a stealth game. It's a half stealth and half platforming game. With terrible controls, especially in the platforming part. I usually died because I jumped wrong - a milimetre or two from where I was supposed to, or it turned out that the goblin cannot hold onto that object, even though he dangles on many similar.

Second, the AI is extremely predictable and dumb. That's a problem with many stealth games, but this is extreme version. So many years have passed since the first Thief, and the AI seems even dumber than there. It's not that this game is easy, but AI feels too much like a robot. Hivemind robot, because if one sees you, everybody on the entire planet knows where you are.

Third, inconsistency. Jump 5 meters down on a carpet or walk right behind a guard and he doesn't notice you. Throw some sand nearby, and he's hunting you down.

Finally, lack of controls over the goblin. I guess his short legs can't run, but why do I get locked onto an enemy if he discovers me? Why can't I even attempt to hide? And again, why jumping is so frustrating and I fall to death even on easiest of obstacles because I aimed camera slightly different...

Overall, weak and frustrating platformer-stealth mix. However, 90% of the reviews on Steam are positive, so maybe something's wrong with me? But I did not enjoy the 4-5 hours I spent in this game.

 

[Butter]

Most people probably didn't finish it. The game gets noticeably worse in the second half.

 

[kreight]

What I would like to know is the story behind this french movie Elle. The strong woman was the head of a video game company making the Styx video game. It does have some weird french shit in it. How did that happen?

 

[RoBoBOBR]

Most people probably didn't finish it. The game gets noticeably worse in the second half.

True, but same (esp. not finishing the game) can be said almost universally — people abandon games and rarely finish them, achievement statistics prove that. And devs know that, thus they usually focus on early parts of the game.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i was perusing my steam library and found out i had this despite not even remember buying it.

I think i'm gonna give it a go as i wanted something slow and relaxing after doing my Sekiro run.

Question: can you paly without Display of Detection and Display of Objectives on?

I am of course playing at Goblin difficulty.

 

[Great Deceiver]

You should skip straight to the 2nd game, it's categorically better in all respects.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Just played a little bit. Interesting atmosphere, but the AI is a bit too easy to cheese methinks:




All i did was make some noise to lure them for a stealth kill.