Wednesday 12 November 2014

VIDEO GAME REVIEW: Styx Master of Shadows - Focus Home Interactive

Release Date: 07/10/14
Publisher:  Focus Home Interactive

SYNOPSIS:

Styx: Master of Shadows is an infiltration game with RPG elements taking place in a dark fantasy universe, where you sneak, steal and assassinate your way through as Styx, a Goblin two-centuries of age.

Deep inside the vertiginous and multi-layered forsaken Tower of Akenash, where Humans and Elves protect the World-Tree, source of the Amber – a powerful and magical golden sap – is hidden Styx’ chance to understand his true origin... and to make a fortune at the same time.

Prowl through the huge, miles-high Tower of Akenash, completing various missions (assassination, information recovery, etc.) and avoiding detection. Progress in the shadows, assassinate your targets in close combat, or orchestrate «accidents». RPG mechanics let you unlock new powerful skills, impressive special moves, and an optimized equipment. Amber will grant you spectacular powers such as invisibility, «amber vision», and the ability to clone yourself. Explore the levels to discover every bit of information about your past, and steal prized treasures to acquire equipment upgrades. Embrace the shadows!

Rock Paper Shotgun “Pleasantly surprised by how focused it is, by how systemic its stealth appears, and by the physical way the player moves through the world.”

Gamespot “Styx could be one of the most competent stealth games since Dishonored itself.”

KOTAKU “Styx: Master of Shadows is an upcoming stealth game that looks awesome."


REVIEW:

I’m a huge fan of the stealth game, I love hiding, sneaking out and to be honest with you being a backstabbing sneak git. (Yeah, that’s a Gobbo reference right there. LOL) Here in this title, the gamer plays the role of Styx, Master Assassin (originally seen Of Orcs and Men) on his own quest.

Whilst there’s a few Assassin games out there to choose from (obviously the Assassin’s Creed series and the more recent Shadow of Mordor) Styx offers the gamer a title where you get to play what most people would consider the villain. Its definitely a quirky title and with his smart asides Styx is character that’s a huge amount of fun to hang around plus with multiple free roaming options available it allows the gamer the chance to really do something that the designers may not have been expecting.

Now whilst I’ve had fun with this game, there are a number of points that I need to make. Firstly I don’t feel that the control system is as refined as it needs to be, it feels a little clunky and its quite easy to either over or undershoot a jump that will either lead you to a violent death at the hands of the guards or a very long drop. Its something that I found more than a little annoying and when added to a system where the character can easily be spotted when you think he’s hidden all round makes this a difficult as well as frustrating title to play at times especially when you add a combat system that see’s you dead with no real chance to beat it.

All round, it is a game that I had really high hopes for as I love the character, sadly the execution (no pun intended) feels more than a little lacking.



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