Sequel to the 2014 game Styx Master Of Shadows, Styx Shards Of Darkness is a treat for the stealth game fans. Based on the OF ORCS AND MEN fantasy world, this Cyanide Games production reminds us of the old stealth games like Assassin’s Creed And The old Thief series.
Styx: Shards of Darkness is a stealth video game developed by French developer Cyanide and published by Focus Home Interactive. The game was released worldwide on 14 March 2017 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Styx: Shards Of Darkness
Detailed Review
Story And Narrative
With 20hrs of story walkthrough, our little green friend is unable to provide us with the same fantasy experience that its predecessor delivered. What shards of darkness delivered with gameplay, the story lacked the edge that would satisfy a true styx fan. Bland boss battles , unfunny humour and lack of memorable characters discouraged and made it hard for me to walk till the end of the game . Fourth wall breaks provide us with subtle comic reliefs and were the only interesting dialogue in the game.
Game-play & Mechanics
This time, the game provides us with a huge open worlds with a lot of area to explore and lots of collectibles to collect. This time the developers have considerably improved the game mechanics and have also introduced new movement features like rope swings ,jumps etc. These new mechanics allow the players to try out new ways to eliminate their enemies which were not available in the prequel .Even though the enemy AI has IQ lower than the room temperature, the game gives us a decent challenge at hard settings.
One experience that made this game stand out and drove me to the end was the old school gameplay (Alta’ir kind). Tons of gadgets and equipment and one of the best skill tree systems I have seen in a long time, the game gave me endless methods to take out the tangos. Like a true stealth game, the game forced us to come up with new ways to eliminate the varying types of enemies such as human ,elves or dwarfs each with different attributes. Staying true to its genre, being outnumbered meant being slaughtered (how can a small goblin fight a dumb AI mob). The environment also gives us plenty of shadows and environmental factors that help us to carry out our dirty deeds .
Co-op mode was a little disappointing and wasn’t exactly fine tuned .Being a stealth game unlike Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood ,I kept running into my mate and often fell victims to his traps(Friends no more I guess). I preferred playing it solo and saved myself from friendly fire.
Game-play & Mechanics
The game runs on unreal engine but doesn’t feel so (the graphics on PlayStation 4 are simply disappointing). The PC experience was good. Despite some heartbreaking glitches, my experience with this title wasn’t that bad. The landscape and areas for the open worlds were unique and frankly speaking one of them reminded me of Bioshock Infinity (comment if you know which area I am talking about). It was good to see that the developers came up with something fascinating and awe aspiring in the graphic design.
VERDICT
Being a Styx fan, may be I had set the bar too high and expected a lot from the game. All in all Styx Shards of Darkness was a nostalgic experience and was a good title if you wanna take a break from all the AAA titles in the market.
