Over the years and with plenty of solid work, developer Cyanide established the Styx series as one of the most important stealth series still running today, combining a dark fantasy medieval world with a personable main character and some advanced gameplay mechanics to provide experiences like few others. The hardcore approach of the franchise will be turned up to eleven by Styx: Blades of Greed, which is setting out to become the biggest and most complex entry in the series to date.
During Gamescom last month, I had the chance to try out Styx: Blades of Greed in one of the longest session I had booked for this year's show, and, after a brief presentation, it was clear why I was given one hour and half to try out the game. Not counting the sheer size of the open map, which was really massive, featuring a focus on verticality that only opens a lot of possibilities, but also made it feel even bigger, Styx: Blades of Greed is a game that doesn't pull any punches. Though there was a bit of clunkiness to the experience, with some rather complex controls that required a little time to get used to, and enemies sometimes failing to spot Styx even though he was in plain view ahead of them, the experience was as hardcore as it could have been.
Not counting the above issues, which will likely get ironed out by the time the game comes out, enemies are highly attentive to their surroundings, forcing the player to take advantage of every hiding point or shadow in the environment, and are relentless in their pursuit of Styx if he is discovered, giving up the search only when the goblin is properly concealed, and out of the way. As Styx is not very good at direct combat, a stealthy approach is always the winning one in Styx: Blades of Greed, forcing players to think hard and proceed even more carefully, and to make them take full advantage of the environment by snuffing out candles to create shadows, where he is more difficult to spot, by making noise to distract enemies, or by simply choosing a safer route with fewer enemies. Thanks to a waypoint system, the general area where the main objective is located is easily highlighted, making it easier for players to focus on sneaking around without having to worry about getting lost.
Besides Styx's excellent agility, which allows him to climb pretty much anywhere to take advantage of the aforementioned improved verticality of the maps, the goblin also has many different abilities that can be learned via skill trees. These abilities were extremely varied in the Gamescom demo, ranging from creating clones to fight and distract enemies, setting down a coccoon to be used as a respawn and teleportation point, mind control, and more. These abilities further highlighted how this sandbox approach to level design is a great direction to take the series to, as the massive freedom left to players makes it very involving and engaging. With other tools added to the mix, like a grappling hook and a glider, it will really be interesting to see how stealth game experts will put everything at Styx's disposal to use.
Though a little complex at times, the Styx: Blades of Greed Gamescom demo did an excellent job showcasing how the third entry in the series will elevate the franchise to new heights. With the abilities and tools on show being so diverse and versatile, I'm really interested to see what else the game will offer when it launches this Fall on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.
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