Styx: Master of Shadows Review

You can get Styx: Master of Shadows as downloadable version on Steam only. After download it is also playable in an offline-mode. If you put stealth elements from games like Thief, Splinter Cell and MGS together, mix them up with a fantasy setting, you get an idea, of what it feels like playing Styx.

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Styx is the hero in Styx: Master of Shadows. He is a character that suits perfect in a stealth game, because he preferres magical powers and cunning. You play In this game his history. To play a goblin assassin sounds interesting, but the plot is similar to every 2nd other fantasy story. Players have to find a mysterious artifact. Styx, the first Goblin, wants to steal the heart of a World-Tree, enclosed inside the huge and terrifying Tower of Akenash. This game contains some awesome characters and that’s why we like the story.

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In this game it’s Important to stay hidden. For that players have to sneak in shadows and turn off torches. If players catch an enemy standing alone, they are able to use their dagger and hide the corpse in the next cabinet or let it permanently disappear by using acid. Styx is also able to clone himself. This ability gives the player a 2nd character for purposes such as scouting without risk.

If a player completes the missions without being noticed or without killing an enemy, he will get some bonus skill points. Those points are important to skill Styxs weapons.

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Unfortunately you play in this game one mission after another, but you can use diverse routes through the multi-level fortresses. The level design is very good. But we didn’t like that players need to play the same level twice or 3 times either inversely or with different enemies.

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In the course of playing you come across of more and more powerful enemies. Therefore, it is increasingly important not to be seen. Have they found us once, they call for reinforcements. It’s pretty difficut to escape them, but they forgot us very soon if players flee successfully. This is a weakness of the AI, but the enemies are placed very well in this game. The imprecise controls can drive you nuts. But one positive note, we can save the game at any time.

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Halls and towers of Akenash are looking fantastic. But if you take a closer look, you can see that the animations are not well implemented and the texture resolution is pretty low. In our humble opinion: The soundtrack should be sold separately! The sound, story and world design are just fitting, creating a unique athomsphere.

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Despite some flaws, Styx: Master of Shadows is a great game. It is not designed for everyone. Players need to be patient and should enjoy challenges and an overall high difficulty level. We do not want to say too much about this game, you should play it by yourself.

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Tested and written by Pascal van der Meer & Marcel Krafczyk

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