Styx: Master of Shadows PS4 Review: "A challenging old school stealth game that lets itself down due to inconsistent polish."

Styx: Master of Shadows PS4 Review

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Patch Version:  -- 1.00

Having watched the opening cutscene, which sees your character captured and questioned by the humans of this world, Styx: Master of Shadows, begins in the past.  Your first taste of gameplay tasks you with navigating your goblin character through the underbelly of some castle-like dungeon in pursuit of your dagger.  This, your main weapon that was taken from you when you were captured.  All of this serving as a tutorial that teaches you the systems and mechanics of the game as you traverse your way towards your objective.  Your overarching goal though is very clear right from the start.  To reach and steal the heart of the world tree.

The majority of this early portion of the game revolves around sneaking through the environment, snuffing out torches and clinging to the shadows to avoid the humans that will kill me in seconds if they become alerted to my presence. 

Having claimed my dagger though, it is now that the game opens up.  Killing and fighting my adversaries becomes available.  However, it quickly becomes apparent that Styx: Master of the shadows should be played exactly how it sounds.  This is a stealth game.  Make no mistake.

Upon completing this tutorial-like section, you are then transported to the distillery.  Your new goal?  To locate some amber, a magical substance that comes directly from the world tree and when consumed grants the drinker special abilities.  As a goblin, the abilities you acquire at this point being three-fold.  Invisibility.  Amber Vision.  Cloning.   The last of which is the most interesting.  This ability allows my goblin character to create a smaller version of himself that you can directly control.  A factor that soon comes in handy considering you are trapped in a room where the only way forward requires you to move your smaller clone self through a tight little gap.  All this reinforcing the sneakiness of the game.

The stealth aspect to the game is simple and refined.  Creep up on someone unaware and you can either kill them outright or kill them in a more silent fashion.  This, all done with one button, which you either press and hold or release.

Adversely, alerted combat is a messy affair.  Once engaged, you become effectively locked into the affray.  Your only options: roll and dodge an attack or parry it.  If you parry it enough times, the option to kill your target becomes available.  Problem is, parrying, it seems, is a fine art and took a while to get to grips with it, and even then I found myself failing to parry more often than I succeeded, but having somewhat grasped the basics I move on.

Initial Impressions:

Styx: Master of the Shadows is a stealth game.  Let me make this point and add an exclamation point to it!  I’ve only been playing for two hours and this point screams from the game louder than anything else.  In fact, one quick look at the skills menu will hammer this point home for those who are still unsure. (I will talk about the skills later.)

Subsequently, the second thing I learn is to avoid direct combat with enemies unless I can kill them without alerting them or someone near.  Why?  Because once you are spotted, and if your enemy is able to close the gap between you and him, it will lock you into the encounter completely.  There is no way to break free of it naturally.  You can only dodge,  parry and kill them.  The kill option only becoming available after you successfully parry a set amount of attacks.  The problem?  Parrying attacks is horrendous.  Horrendous because it requires extremely precise timing.  Frustratingly precise!

However, once you get to grips with it, your chances of successfully parrying attacks increases, but still, so far I have failed more times than succeeded as I have said.  The result?  Respawning at the last save point.  This being frustrating in itself because save points are few and far between.  Luckily you do have the option to save the game whenever you like.  A fact I suggest you do and do often, especially if you are attempting to achieve certain challenges called Insignias.  (I will talk about these later.)

So far though the gameplay from a stealth perspective has been impressive.  There is certainly plenty of ways in which to traverse the world.  Nooks and crannies aplenty.  The first level (after the initial intro mission is complete) consists of a labyrinth of rooms with multiple ways to reach your objective.   The challenge?  Reaching the objective without being spotted by the guards. 

Reaching your objective comprises of several systems.  All of them revolving around stealth of course.  Climbing is simple.  Hiding under objects is both smooth and fluid.  My only gripe so far (combat aside) is the lack of an easy way to hang from objects.  You can do this mind, but there’s no designated button for it.  You have to edge yourself off exceptionally slowly else you’ll just fall.  I did not like this at all, it feels tremendously weak from a game design decision and severely lets the game down.   Once you are hanging from a ledge though, moving to another is simple and easily done by moving your camera in the direction and just jumping towards it.

In regards to features thus far, there’s certainly been enough to keep me engaged and make the gameplay feel diverse.  If I’m not creeping through the environment, or climbing or descending, I’ve been hiding inside chests, grates and cupboards as the A.i passed me by without a clue as to my presence.  You can even hold R2 when near to walls or any object for that matter and you will snap to it, effectively reducing your character’s signature even further as you move while in cover.

The key tool in your arsenal though is the shadows.  Key is in the game’s name really.  And as long as you remain in the shadows you are relatively safe from being spotted as long as the enemy is not too close or directly looking at you.  This is further signposted and made clear because a mark of amber on your right shoulder will illuminate to further reinforce this fact.

The game does not make it too easy though.  You see, as part of the gameplay, you have the ability to snuff out torches either when near to them, or if you have sand in your inventory, you can throw and extinguish it from afar.  Be warned though.  Any A.i. that are close will be alerted by this and investigate.  They will even re-light the torch too, which I thought was a nice bit of polish.

In regards to the A.i so far, again, combat aside, you have two types:  Those that guard or stand at a fixed point, and those that patrol.  Taking them out is simple enough from a stealth perspective if you can sneak up close, but the second one becomes alerted, any that are nearby will become alerted and investigate.  After which, if they have not found the source will return to their assigned area.  However, on numerous occasions, this has seen to break.  For example. If one NPC was hammering an object, gets alerted, investigates and then returns having not found the source, he will just stand there doing nothing, and will not re-enter the hammering animation again.  Not a big issue of course, but it’s shame.

One plus side to note about the A.i. is that when they are investigating an area, any hide spots within that vicinity they will open and check.  There have been a couple of occasions now where they have pulled me out of the hides pot, given me a swift kick with a harsh word thrown in as well, and then forced me into combat.  This certainly has added to the tension!

Another interesting point to note is that there is no minimap in Styx: Master of Shadows.  You do have a map of your environment, this being viewable via the menu, but it does not show your present location.  So you will need to remember your surroundings and take stock of where you have been if you wish to find all the secrets the game has to offer.

Styx: Master of Shadows, also makes use of skills, all of which are locked, to begin with.

• Stealth
• Agility
• Cloning
• Amber Vision
• Equipment
• Kill

Each tree comprising of 4 elements that will enhance your character and give him new abilities. There’s a 6^th skill tree that is not available yet or selectable so I cannot say at the moment what this is or what it has inside. (See overall impressions section)

The unlocked skills though are made available by spending points that you accumulate for completing main and optional quests during missions.  You also get bonus points if you manage to complete any of the insignia challenges.  For example: complete a mission under a set time, or complete a mission without being spotted, etc…

Already I’m keen to replay the first mission and try and complete this challenges for extra points to unlock new skills.  An option made easy, because at any point while in the hideout you can choose to replay a mission from a menu you have access to there.

I’m really enjoying the game so far; the graphical bugs aside, which I will talk about in the overall impressions section next, but it’s a very challenging stealth game.  The combat side is annoying, but it forces you to play in stealth at all times keeping the tension going.  The story as yet has not hooked me, but it’s still early.  We will see how things play out…

Initial Score after 2 hrs of play

Full Playthrough Score after 22 hrs of play

Overall Impressions

It's always a shame when the lingering after thought after completing a game is negative rather than positive.  More so when the game, on the whole, had been enjoyable, albeit, after putting all the faults and floors aside.

To be fair, Styx: Master of Shadows, does have some really interesting and well thought out mechanics, but flip that coin, and the smooth and sharp edges quickly become dull and rough.

By far, the worst and most annoying problem inflicting Styx comes in two forms.   A bug; a glaringly bad bug that occurs throughout every level.  The other is the world design and how the missions are set up.

Let us start with the bug.  Whenever you move around, aspects and areas of the world will vanish.  It's brief and the area always comes back of course, but it’s rather distracting seeing the world flicker grey for a second as you move about it.  This is what we call occlusion problems.  And I'm rather surprised the game passed submission to be fair with such an obvious issue plaguing it.  The fact the issue is so prolific leads me to think it was not in the originally released version, meaning, a later patch must have introduced it.  It won't spoil or block you from playing the game, as I said it's a distraction more than anything else, but still…

The second problem is that around the 40% mark of the playthrough, the game starts to put you back into levels you've already played.  Your mission is different.  The end or start location is changed, but it quickly becomes tedious weaving through the same recycled levels over and over.  What is worse, is that on some occasions, having painstakingly worked your way through to your goal, the game then tasks you with the next mission, only it's in the exact same level, forcing you to work your way through the world in reverse!  This must have tagged on an extra 10-12 hours to the game, and being honest, felt really cheap and drew out the game far longer than perhaps it should have been.

The only redeeming aspect about recycling the levels in the way they did, is that the challenge changes.  This is solely due to the A.i. you will face.  Not only do they patrol the levels differently, but also the archetypes you have to contend with become progressively harder, preventing previous routes from being easily accessed.  Even forcing you to use different abilities whilst others are rendered useless.

In total, there are 11 types:

• Standard soldiers
• Slaves and librarians
• Archers
• Soldiers who will re-light torches if they see them extinguished
• Knights who cannot be killed with your dagger or knives
• Robies.  Blind bugs that can hear very well
• Inquisitors, spell casters who can paralyse you and cannot be killed with throwing daggers
• Orcs, massive beasts that will kill you with one hit
• The doomed, floating ghost skulls that explode if you get too close
• Elves, which can only be killed with environmental hazards or knives or aerial kills

I've played games with more archetypes of course, but I never felt in Styx that it was lacking in this department.  It certainly kept me on my toes and gets my praise because of it.

In regards to their A.i., it was a mixture.  Sometimes they would do things that impressed me, for instance, if they lost sight of me, they would actually search nearby hidespots, and if they found me would drag me out, give me a swift kick and toss in a harsh word for good measure. 
However, they would do so in a very limited set of voices.  All the human enemies speaking in one of two voices making encounters feel quite repetitive.

Adding to this insult, on quite a few occasions I became trapped due to the A.i. pathing to a location, but then stopping and never moving on.  This required a reload of a checkpoint to fix each time and made my heart sink every damn time.

This leads me to next aspect that lets the game down.  It's inconsistencies.  There are a lot of features and mechanics which are extremely well thought out, and to say other wise would be a lie.  Takedowns for example: brutal and varied, bordering contextual at times depending on your angle of attack.  What's more, you can choose to do silent takedowns or risk performing quicker ones, your unsuspecting target releasing a scream of pain alerting anyone within earshot if you do the latter.

However, later you unlock the ability to perform aerial takedowns from above and takedowns from below.  Problem is, it's extremely hard to perform them.  The former primarily because you have to get the positioning just right, and the latter because hardly any enemies are positioned or patrol near places that allow you to perform the move at all. It's a shame.

The gameplay on the whole though succeeds in being what it was designed to be.  And that is a stealth game.  You can if you choose to engage in open combat, but to do so will be at your own peril.  There are no restrictions on how many enemies can attack you at once for one.  And combat locks you to a singular target.  9/10 times, open combat against more than one adversary will lead to your demise unless you have amber to turn invisible and flee.

Your best bet though is to playthrough the game stealthily.  Use your wits, your abilities and your surroundings and stay alert.  Everything you need to solve every problem is right in front of you.  For this I applaud it.

The only aspect in this area where it falters is not really a bug, but a limitation of the game.  And that is you are unable to navigate around corners when hanging from a ledge.  It's very annoying and would have come in exceptionally handy.

As you progress through the game you'll earn skill points.  Completing missions and secondary objectives will earn you points, but there are also insignias as lightly touched upon earlier.  Each level has four insignias to earn, and they are all the same for every level.  So knowing what you have to do to earn them won't be a surprise.

As mentioned in the initial portion of this review, one of the skill trees, the 6th, is locked, to begin with.  It only becomes available once you have maxed out certain combinations of the other 5 trees.

For example:  Maxing out cloning and stealth will make available the manipulator of shadows ability from the 6th tree.  The other combinations are below:

Combinations:

• Cloning and Stealth = Manipulator of Shadows
• Kill and Agility = Born Killer
• Amber Vision and Stealth = Omniscience
• Agility and Equipment = Master of Vials

The 6th abilities & Cost:

• Manipulator of Shadows = 230 SP (You automatically become invisible when controlling clone)
• Born Killer = 260 SP (Aerial and covered kills are now muffled)
• Omniscience = 300 SP (Amber Vision allows you to see tokens & enemies through walls)
• Master of Vials = 200 SP (Vials of life and amber fully refill your gauges)

Spending these points can only be done after completing a level.  The end of each level either loading you directly to your hideout or, tasking you with reaching it.  You can also unlearn any ability to regain the points and spend elsewhere.  There was no penalty for this either, so it does allow you to experiment to find out what you like early on.

Within the hideout location, you can also refill your potions, both healing and amber, but also collect some acid vials along with some knives.  The acid vials unlock in the hideout after you pick up your first in the latter stages of the playthrough.  There are hard to come by, but are extremely powerful items, as they quickly and completely dissolve a dead body, saving you from disposing of it.  It comes in very handy in moments where you literally have seconds to make a kill and move on, else risk detection.

In regards to the storyline, it’s interesting.  The majority of it is told from the perspective of your character recalling what he had already done before being captured.  A large portion of the levels therefore flashbacks.  Time eventually catches you up, allowing you to continue the story in real time, and on the whole made sense.  It even throws a little twist that I didn’t see coming.  

However, it took twenty=two hours to complete the game, a fact, which, considering the gameplay and the recycled levels felt way too long after the first ten had passed.  Styx does toss in cutscenes from time-to-time, both during missions and after them, the mixture, both 2D animation sequences with a few in game sequences as well, but they didn't impress me, and the lip syncing was often off.  They served their purpose though and did do an adequate job of detailing the story, so perhaps I'm being a little harsh.

By far, the most rewarding aspect of the game comes after you have unlocked a fair chunk of your skill trees.  Doing this really opens up the game and allows you to plot and kill your enemies with precision while you stealth and navigate the levels whilst clinging to the shadows.   One aspect I loved, was how you and your clone can work together.  I’ve already mentioned that clones can be used to squeeze through gaps too small for you to pass, but their function and role in the game are far greater than I originally thought, something I didn’t truly grasp till much later.  You can ultimately use them as complete cannon fodder, either to scout out a route or destination without fear of death, because if they die, you don’t.  They also have amber related abilities too, such as invisibility and bursting into a cloud of smoke to disorientate anyone nearby, allowing you to slip by or kill without fear of being spotted.

Another powerful feature I either missed the instruction for or was something thrown in to be discovered by accident is the ability to whistle and lure enemies.  Both you and your clone can do this, however, be warned, it will lure everyone within ear shot.  So take care when using it.

The game doesn't hold your hand much either, something a lot of games do nowadays.  Your only guide in the world, an objective marker, but there are hardly any breadcrumbs.  Your marker could be a mile away.  Getting there is all down to you!  I liked this.  It forced me to explore and solve the game, rather than be told where to go at every step.  The below image is just one example.  This being the only clue as to where you locate one of the relics.  Bonus items that you can collect from certain levels.

Being careful here to not give away any spoilers, the end of the game concludes after you face off with your nemesis.  This being the only boss fight in the game, which is simple by design, but depending on what you have in your inventory will determine how difficult or easy it is.  For me, I had no knives, no health potions, no amber to use, so it was just me and my ability to call forth a clone.  Needless to say, I died many, MANY times trying to complete this fight with such a lack of inventory.  Frustration was my only friend!  Eventually, I managed it, but it was not enjoyable and tainted my experience.

On the flip side, had I have had a full inventory, the fight would have been completely too easy.  Either way, the design for this segment was really bad.   The placement of cover points was bad.  The A.i. that navigate the area too sweeping and quick.  The lack of verticality rendered the whole scene flat and left me with a very one-dimensional space.  It was a shame.  It could have been far better!

After completing the fight though and having watched the end cutscene, the game returns you to the hideout.  This allows you to replenish your stock, buy or swap new skills, and replay any of the missions in order to 100% the game by attaining all the insignias.  However, I fear only the most methodical of players will want to do this.  One playthrough for me was enough

Overall, Styx: Master of Shadows is an enjoyable old school stealth game, which, at best, is inconsistently polished.  At times it will look stunning, then others will be spoiled by obvious bugs.  
Some aspects are refined and work exceedingly well, whereas others are not so clean and can be broken with ease.  
However, if you can see past the bugs, of which there are quite a few, it will offer quite the challenge for gamers who like to take their time and plan every move then carry them out with perfection, but for players who are easily frustrated and are used to a more polished and consistent experience, then this might be one to miss.

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Styx: Master of Shadows: PS4 Gameplay

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