Styx: Master of Shadows marks all the boxes on the stealth game checklist and makes some of the genre’s biggest pitfalls part of the core experience, but it fails to offer any significant growth or evolution of the same “Hide, Memorize Patrols, Repeat” formula that’s kept stealth gaming stagnant for years.
Granted, expecting Styx: Master of Shadows to reinvent the wheel – or, in this case, stealth-driven gameplay – is probably asking a bit much. But should we really accept anything less in 2014? The “new” consoles have been on shelves for almost a year now, and statements from industry folks suggesting the game-playing public wouldn’t see new leaps in graphical fidelity have largely proven to be true
Fortunately, a short story isn’t one of the complaints I have about Styx: Master of Shadows, despite shipping with a surprisingly low price tag. The game’s single-player campaign is a respectable length, and there’s enough side content for fans of the game/genre to justify second completion of the story.
Unfortunately, finding a way to make the game’s narrative even remotely interesting and/or engaging remains the tip of a problematic iceberg that makes Styx: Master of Shadows a hard recommendation for anyone other than the most diehard fan of the stealth genre. We’re not quite in “face only a mother could love” territory, but Styx definitely could’ve used a bit more polish before making its retail debut.
Styx: Master of Shadows is a prequel to Of Orcs And Men, an action-RPG currently available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Steam. Master of Shadows serves as both an introduction for those not already familiar with Styx and an origin story for fans of the 2012 action-RPG’s goblin protagonist.
Set hundreds of years before OOAM, Styx: Master of Shadows sees the world’s first goblin attempting to sneak deep inside the military complex that Humans have built around the World Tree. While it might seem like a strange target, the tree apparently serves as the world’s only source of amber; a magical liquid highly coveted by humankind.
Specifically, Styx is out to steal the Heart of the Tree and halt mankind’s otherwise unyielding production of amber. I’ll let those of you interested in playing Styx: Master of Shadows figure out the specifics of the story, but suffice it to say there’s a bit more to the story than a bandit in search of another pay day.
Styx isn’t your typical tale of world salvation, or even personal growth for that matter, but the unique setting certainly helps provide the necessary atmosphere for a game that asks players to place more value in quiet movements than cool kills.
The Styx: Master of Shadows campaign is divided into six distinct missions, each of which are broken down into a handful of single-objective stages, and you might be surprised by the size of the game’s explorable environments. For months now, I’ve been convinced Sniper Elite 3 would walk away with the year’s most-impressive level design, but the stages constructed by Cyanide Studios may actually outshine the level design in Rebellion’s third-person shooter.
Cavernous buildings seem to stretch for hundreds of meters in every direction, even on those stages that technically only ask you to travel half that distance, and seem to offer an infinite number of paths from one area to the next. Each stage also plays host to ten collectible coins, along with one or more secondary objectives, to try and encourage players to explore their surroundings.
Part of what makes exploring the sprawling military/industrial site so enjoyable is that Styx: Master of Shadows is still an early member of a new generation of console games with a real sense of verticality evident in their level design.
Rather than wandering down a series of connected corridors, like a less-nightmarish version of PT, Styx: Master of Shadows regularly asks players to climb over, under and around enemies who may or may not currently be on the same floor as Styx. In many cases, you’ll have the chance to drop large chandeliers on the unaware troops patrolling below you and a bit of searching will occasionally reveal hidden relics and loot-filled hideouts.
The problem is that Cyanide Studios can’t seem to step away from the wheel long enough to let you carve your own path through the Styx: Master of Shadows campaign. Sure, you could probably spend a couple of hours on each mission, tracking down hidden coins and completing secondary objectives, but the game will try and stop you at every turn.
Of course, such constant threat of death might be appealing if players were put in control of a character that felt remotely suited for the challenges that lay before him. Instead, we’re dropped into the body of Styx before our protagonist has learned how to attack from cover, how to perform aerial kills or how to carry more than two of anything. Yet this is the very same character that already snuck past the World Tree’s perimeter defenses and (presumably) found some success as a bandit before the opening moments of the Styx: Master of Shadows campaign.
Worse, the vast levels constructed by the Styx dev team prove to be far more-restrictive than anything you might have expected. Rather than offering a variety of paths to victory, the labyrinth of corridors, stairways, escape tunnels and medieval sewage/ventilation systems merely conceal an otherwise linear path that takes you on a guided tour of each level.
Sure, a few areas are left out by the tour guide, but a quick detour generally reveals an empty room or dead-end hallway. Sometimes, you’ll find one of the coins scattered throughout each level, but even those require a bit more backtracking than many players would prefer.
And don’t even get me started on the game’s abomination of a checkpoint system.
If it weren’t for the ability to save at-will – a system that I still find every bit as detrimental to the overall experience as it is complementary to each player’s individual schedule – there’s a good chance that I’d consider Styx to be entirely unplayable.
Death isn’t exactly a rare occurrence in Styx: Master of Shadows and, while the game’s loading screens may not be the longest in video game history, the frequency with which you find yourself sent back to your last game save can be pretty frustrating. Especially if/when you happen to find yourself in an area where death comes almost as quickly as you spawn. The result is far too much down time for a game that already requires a fair amount of patience from its players.
To be fair, Cyanide Studios at least has enough respect for its community’s time to give players the option of skipping most of the cutscenes from the Styx: Master of Shadows campaign. But not enough to abandon the multi-minute patrol memorization segments that have long prevented me from enjoying some of the world’s most popular stealth games.
Once again, in the interest of fairness, I feel compelled to mention that the early stages of the Styx: Master of Shadows campaign are mostly devoid of such segments. And many of my deaths were simply the result of lost patience, and an attempt to sprint through various segments of the Styx: Master of Shadows campaign.
But there were some moments in the later stages of the story when it felt like Cyanide Studios was trying to creep into From Software’s “so difficult you’ll want to break things” territory. We’re not talking about a full transformation into a rage-inducing product, but Styx definitely ships with its fair share of frustrating moments.
Styx: Master of Shadows Review – Final Verdict
Styx: Master of Shadows is an entirely competent stealth game, with enough challenges to guarantee you’ll get at least 15-20 hours out of the single-player campaign; plus, an assortment of extra tasks and collectibles that should give fans plenty of incentive for a second play-through.
Unfortunately, in the wake of the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, it's hard not to feel both frequent and overwhelming feelings of disappointment with the dated (and frankly, boring) mechanics cobbled together to complete the Styx experience.
Unlike the horror genre, which exists solely for the purpose of creating tension in the user, the appeal of the stealth genre are moments and set-pieces that leave little doubt about whether or not the previous 30-60 minutes (or more) of minutiae was worth the reward. Some, like Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, have made a career out of such moments.
Sadly, there was never a time during the Styx: Master of Shadows campaign when I felt like the story being offered to me was in any way entertaining enough to continue my slow march towards insanity. In fact, while I remain interested in playing through Of Orcs And Men as well, that interest is largely driven by my knowledge that Styx’s debut appearance is nothing like the stealth game I’ve been playing.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with Styx: Master of Shadows, and I have relatively little doubt that the game will ultimately find a niche audience in much the same way that its predecessor did. But, to be perfectly blunt about the matter, there isn’t anything in Styx: Master of Shadows that came close to changing my mind on stealth games and/or the genre as a whole.
If you’re consistent fan of the stealth genre then I’d say the thirty dollar price tag on Styx: Master of Shadows will probably feel like a steal. For anyone else, especially those who frequently don’t have the patience to complete stealth games, I’d recommend waiting for a price drop before checking out Cyanide Studio’s new prequel to Of Orcs And Men.
Styx: Master of Shadows is far from the worst game I’ve played in 2014, and could still end up on a few of our year-end lists, but I think the game could’ve used a bit more time in the oven if it really hoped to appeal to a wider audience.
Score – 3/5
DISCLAIMER: This Styx: Master of Shadows review is based on time spent with a Steam copy of the game provided to me (free-of-charge) by a representative of Focus Home Interactive; however, the publisher did not retain any say in the contents of this review.
Did you manage to score an early copy of Styx: Master of Shadows? Disappointed to hear that the Of Orcs And Men prequel didn’t prove to be significantly better than its predecessor? Still planning to pick up a copy of Styx: Master of Shadows whenever you leave work/school today?
Let us know in the comments section!
