Styx: Blades of Greed (PC) Review

I am a diehard fan of the Styx series – while other stealth games withered and died, or evolved into amalgamations of RPG and stealth, Styx has remained a stalwart in old-school stealth design. From its origins in the game Of Orcs and Men, through to the two prequels, Styx has made sure that the principle is ‘if you are seen, you are dead’.

Each iteration has added new toys for the green-skinned, foul-mouthed, anti-hero, but the bones of the game are about skulking through shadows, checking enemies’ patrol patterns and then murdering people and hiding their bodies.

The first mainline game was a classic example of enthusiastic Eurojank. It was a game that’s was batting above its budget with a solid story line engaging (but occasionally broken) mechanics, that over stayed its welcome by repeating stages near the end of the game without really adding anything new to mix. The second had a weaker plot but refined gameplay with more variety, it ended on a cliffhanger and the team that made it went silent.

Now, almost 10 years later, we have a sequel and it starts almost exactly where the last one ended.

That sense of it only being a few seconds since the last release carries over into the Tutorial. Styx: BoG feels instantly recognisable as the titular character has all his old moves back – there is platforming, double jumps, stealth kills, Styx’s special abilities (stealth, decoys, and goblin vision), and tools like throwing knives and bottles to distract enemies.

And Styx is going to need all of these items as he is in deep trouble, after managing to dismantle a giant golem, the airship he is on is forced to crash land in hostile territory. Alongside some unlikely allies, he is forced to track down Quartz to fuel their escape. Between him and his objective is a whole army of soldiers, giant bugs and more.

Anyone that has played the previous games will be right at home. For those curious about the title but weary of jumping in to third main instalment in a game, there is an official recap you can watch, but I would say if you want to play a good stealth game they should just jump straight into this one.

The new world feels more open – with Styx being able to tackle his objectives in any order he chooses – with hubs of activity with soldiers keenly trying to take down the goblin. Among these areas are also save/fast travel points that can be unlocked to make navigation easier. It is not quite Assassin’s Creed levels of open world and formula but these changes feel evolutionary in a good way.

The same goes for the development of the controls, a lot of the jank has been cleaned up, transitioning between hiding spots feels smoother, the new aiming of tools is more intuitive. With all these improvements, there was a danger of the developers over compensating and making the game too easy. Fortunately, the enemies have new tricks to add complications. Some enemies are highly tuned to sound, others have longer range, and bigger enemies cannot be quickly dispatched. The opening area’s level design is phenomenally good too, the arrangement of the buildings feels both credible as a living, breathing space, and as a puzzle box for the player to traverse. There are little tunnels, crawl spaces, high-up walk ways, and myriad other ways for Styx to hide away and pick off enemies from the shadows.

This feels like an old school stealth game with its limitations, and insistence on never going loud, but that ends up feeling fresh given how few good examples there are of this type of game.  

The unlock system also adds new ways for creative murder – acid vials to dispose of bodies, ways to make clones of yourself and then have them ambush enemies that cross their paths. New here are some traversal options including a glider and a grappling hook. These become key items as the game expects the player to revisit earlier areas and it the new way to interact with these environments give it a much needed Metroidvania feel whereby I felt like I was seeing traversal differently the second and third time around.

The downside is that not all environments are as strong as the first, the swamp/jungle section in particular suffers from it being too easy to whiff a jump or grapple attempt, the level also feels a lot more linear, and the bug enemies are never as compelling to fight.

Also, for as much as they have smoothed out most of the traversal, there are still moments where I pressed a button expecting Styx to do one thing, and instead he would do something else completely (invariably this was jumping off a cliff to his death). Some of the jank remains, but ultimately that is part of its charm.

Conclusion

Styx: Blades of Greed is unrepentantly a stealth game, and this instalment adds a lot of new features and mechanics but makes sure to never move to far away from what has made this series appealing – skulking in the shadows.

This game was tested and reviewed on PC (via Steam). All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by the publisher.