It won’t have the identical type of ambition or bells and whistles as its contemporaries, however Styx holds a particular place in my coronary heart as considered one of only a few pure stealth sport sequence now we have left. Will you discover the extremely inventive situations of Hitman or the insane stage of polish and replayability of Dishonored? Nope. As a substitute Styx contents itself with merely being a dependable means for stealth followers to get their repair, and Styx: Blades of Greed isn’t any exception. Most of the time, the standard playbook of sneaking round, stealing and assassinating all the pieces in sight, is as enjoyable because it’s ever been, and this sequel makes some vital tweaks, like eradicating weak multiplayer mechanics to refocus on a solo stealth expertise and swapping smaller, mission-based maps for completely huge areas. However it’s additionally saddled with fairly just a few of the identical points it’s all the time had, finicky motion, efficiency points, and an unremarkable story, that are as disappointing as they’re fully anticipated.
Like its predecessor from 2017, Blades of Greed places you within the leather-based boots of an aged, grumpy goblin as you sneak into small areas, stab people, elves, and monsters of their tender locations, and use an arsenal of devices and particular talents to beat the truth that getting noticed will get you killed in two seconds flat. There are some modest additions, like a few new devices and skills that allow you to do issues like thoughts management NPCs from afar or use a grappling hook to shut massive gaps in a brief time frame, however for probably the most half there’s little or no that’s modified concerning the moment-to-moment gameplay. You’ll nonetheless discover, for instance, the ol’ dependable means to show your self invisible for a brief time frame, and can nonetheless end up hiding inside closets and barrels earlier than coming out to slit the throat of some fool guard. Good occasions. As ever, stealth is completely the star of the present, and Blades of Greed has the identical top quality sneaking round that you simply’d hope it might.
The story in Styx has by no means been superb, and Blades of Greed lives as much as these low expectations by having a totally forgettable story regardless of the truth that its protagonist is inherently fascinating and distinctive. After creating a yearning for magical talents granted to you by quartz crystals discovered all through the world, you start a repetitive journey to, properly, discover extra of it, and 90% of the marketing campaign is simply going from place-to-place stealing these glowing rocks to energy your self up with little in the best way of plot in between these scavenger hunts. You meet some characters alongside the best way, like a gadget-obsessed dwarf and an orc who turns into your religious information, however they don’t get sufficient display screen time to depart a lot of an impression and what they do get isn’t used successfully, with everybody spouting off explanations of telling you what you’ll want to do subsequent and little else. You’re unlikely to have come to the Styx sequence searching for an interesting story, however simply in case you had been hoping to be pleasantly shocked: I wouldn’t rely on that.
Although the overwhelming majority of Styx’s bones stay the identical, one main change is that as a substitute of treading (and typically retreading) by mission-specific ranges, Blades of Greed allows you to free in three extraordinarily massive maps stuffed with each obligatory and non-obligatory areas to discover, pilfer, and fall to your demise inside. It’s a neat concept that enables for considerably extra freedom over prior adventures, and it’s fairly simple to grow to be distracted and assassinate your means by a complete area earlier than realizing you didn’t even actually have any goal behind any of it, besides that it’s simply arduous to see a guard strolling by unaware and never take him down. These enormous ranges additionally help you categorical creativity in the way you navigate the world and clear up the issue of getting round when each 10 toes there’s somebody who might kill you by respiratory on you. Once you’re observing an goal that’s a mountain’s distance above you, you’ll want to simply creep round and check out issues to determine easy methods to get there – possibly you’ll discover a good spot on the facet of a tower to make daring leaps whereas avoiding the discover of guards alongside the best way, or possibly you’ll discover a quieter path by way of a sewer system that leads you to the identical spot, however is infested with big bugs that may swarm you for those who get too shut.
That may be a extremely fascinating stealth problem to determine, however comes with some distinctive drawbacks as properly. For one, it may be exhausting to should cross such a large space slowly sneaking alongside all of the whereas, and for those who attempt to simply dash previous all the pieces to get to the target, you need to be ready to reload an entire bunch as you’re employed by the trial and error technique of doing so. That journey time feels considerably much less centered and curated than the extra linear mannequin for stage design as properly, and oftentimes you’re kinda simply half-assedly sneaking by ruins and throughout rooftops with no actual obstacles alongside the best way till you get to the place that the target marker needs you to be, at which level issues begin to really feel way more centered. In different phrases, it’s an entire lot of fats earlier than you get to the meat of the principle aims. I really spent the overwhelming majority of the greater than 20 hours it took me to beat Blades of Greed attempting to determine the place precisely my subsequent goal was and easy methods to get there, moderately than really pulling off the heist in query.
The excellent news is that every of those maps is fairly superior throughout the board. The Wall is an absurdly cool vertical labyrinth of concrete castles and rickety slums, Turquoise Daybreak is a jungle of timber, swamps, and big, lethal roaches swarming in darkish areas, and the Akenash Ruins are a ruined, kingdom the place all the pieces floats within the air unnaturally and enemies are extraordinarily bizarre monsters, like one thing out of Elden Ring. Every go to to those locations all through the story unlocks new areas to discover, although you’ll additionally do fairly a little bit of backtracking by areas you’ve already been, which is a little bit of a drag. Nonetheless, these are a few of the extra fascinating areas I’ve stalked the halls of in a stealth sport and highlights the distinctive, unusual, and magically-infused world that this curmudgeonly goblin calls house.
Although the massive quantity of house these maps have will be fairly nice to discover, they generally really feel a bit too large for the a lot smaller aims inside them. The story’s primary aims are a lot smaller than a typical stealth mission, often simply requiring you to steal a key and open a locked door, or shut down a machine so you’ll be able to attain your goal – miniature quests that often solely take a pair minutes to finish, if that. When you’ve checked it off your listing, you’re again to the largely uneventful touring stealth as you discover a strategy to the following goal, usually requiring you to backtrack by a few of the identical spots within the course of, which is how I’ve spent the majority of the journey to date. On the brilliant facet, this format means you’re mainly simply locked into a relentless stream of pure, unadulterated stealth situations for hours on finish as you’re employed your means by every set of missions, and since that’s Blades of Greed’s robust go well with, you’re getting precisely what the physician ordered.
Should you’re accustomed to the shortcomings of the earlier Styx video games, you then’ll in all probability be less-than-stoked to listen to that Blades of Greed doesn’t deal with most of those. Fight, which is a final resort, however typically required, is sort of sloppy and overly simplistic, and shifting round, particularly leaping onto ledges and the like will be finicky at occasions and brought on me to fall to my demise or get caught out within the open dozens of occasions by this level. Worse than these although, are the standard efficiency points and technical challenges, like NPCs turning into invisible whereas speaking to them and frames dropping to horrifyingly low ranges after prolonged play classes. Framerate points are literally a good bit worse than I bear in mind them being in earlier video games, presumably as a result of considerably bigger maps, and it might get fairly dangerous for lengthy stretches when there’s so much occurring on display screen. Most of those points are form of baked into Styx by this level, but it surely’s nonetheless value shouting out that the majority of these things has largely gone unaddressed, seemingly.
