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It might not have the same kind of ambition or bells and whistles as its contemporaries, but Styx holds a special place in my heart as one of very few pure stealth game series we have left. Will you find the incredibly creative scenarios of Hitman or the insane level of polish and replayability of Dishonored? Nope. Instead Styx contents itself with simply being a reliable way for stealth fans to get their fix, and Styx: Blades of Greed is no exception. More often than not, the usual playbook of sneaking around, stealing and assassinating everything in sight, is as fun as it\u2019s ever been, and this sequel makes some important tweaks, like removing weak multiplayer mechanics to refocus on a solo stealth experience and swapping smaller, mission-based maps for absolutely massive regions. But it\u2019s also saddled with quite a few of the same issues it\u2019s always had, finicky movement, performance issues, and an unremarkable story, which are as disappointing as they are completely expected.<\/p>\n
Like its predecessor from 2017, Blades of Greed puts you in the leather boots of an elderly, grumpy goblin as you sneak into small spaces, stab humans, elves, and monsters in their soft places, and use an arsenal of gadgets and special abilities to overcome the fact that getting spotted will get you killed in two seconds flat. There are some modest additions, like a couple of new gadgets and abilities that let you do things like mind control NPCs from afar or use a grappling hook to close large gaps in a short period of time, but for the most part there\u2019s very little that\u2019s changed about the moment-to-moment gameplay. You\u2019ll still find, for example, the ol\u2019 reliable ability to turn yourself invisible for a short period of time, and will still find yourself hiding inside closets and barrels before popping out to slit the throat of some idiot guard. Good times. As ever, stealth is absolutely the star of the show, and Blades of Greed has the same high quality sneaking around that you\u2019d hope it would.<\/p>\n
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Styx: Blades of Greed Screenshots<\/h3>\n<\/span><\/output><\/p>\n
The story in Styx has never been very good, and Blades of Greed lives up to those low expectations by having a completely forgettable story in spite of the fact that its protagonist is inherently interesting and unique. After developing a craving for magical abilities granted to you by quartz crystals found throughout the world, you begin a repetitive journey to, well, find more of it, and 90% of the campaign is just going from place-to-place stealing these glowing rocks to power yourself up with little in the way of plot in between those scavenger hunts. You meet some characters along the way, like a gadget-obsessed dwarf and an orc who becomes your spiritual guide, but they don\u2019t get enough screen time to leave much of an impression and what they do get isn\u2019t used effectively, with everyone spouting off explanations of telling you what you need to do next and little else. You\u2019re unlikely to have come to the Styx series looking for an engaging story, but just in case you were hoping to be pleasantly surprised: I wouldn\u2019t count on that.<\/p>\n
Though the vast majority of Styx\u2019s bones remain the same, one major change is that instead of treading (and sometimes retreading) through mission-specific levels, Blades of Greed lets you loose in three extremely large maps filled with both mandatory and optional areas to explore, pilfer, and fall to your death within. It\u2019s a neat idea that allows for significantly more freedom over prior adventures, and it\u2019s quite easy to become distracted and assassinate your way through an entire region before realizing you didn\u2019t even really have any objective behind any of it, except that it\u2019s just hard to see a guard walking by unaware and not take him down. These huge levels also allow you to express creativity in how you navigate the area and solve the problem of getting around when every 10 feet there\u2019s someone who could kill you by breathing on you. When you\u2019re staring at an objective that\u2019s a mountain\u2019s distance above you, you\u2019ll need to just creep around and try things to figure out how to get there \u2013 maybe you\u2019ll find a nice spot on the side of a tower to make daring leaps while avoiding the notice of guards along the way, or maybe you\u2019ll find a quieter path via a sewer system that leads you to the same spot, but is infested with giant bugs that will swarm you if you get too close.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\nThat can be a really interesting stealth challenge to figure out, but comes with some unique drawbacks as well. For one, it can be exhausting to have to cross such a massive area slowly sneaking along all the while, and if you try to just sprint past everything to get to the objective, you should be prepared to reload a whole bunch as you work through the trial and error process of doing so. That travel time feels significantly less focused and curated than the more linear model for level design as well, and oftentimes you\u2019re kinda just half-assedly sneaking through ruins and across rooftops with no real obstacles along the way until you get to the place that the objective marker wants you to be, at which point things start to feel much more focused. In other words, it\u2019s a whole lot of fat before you get to the meat of the main objectives. I actually spent the vast majority of the more than 20 hours it took me to beat Blades of Greed trying to figure out where exactly my next objective was and how to get there, rather than actually pulling off the heist in question.<\/p>\n
The good news is that each of these maps is pretty awesome across the board. The Wall is an absurdly cool vertical labyrinth of concrete castles and rickety slums, Turquoise Dawn is a jungle of trees, swamps, and massive, deadly roaches swarming in dark areas, and the Akenash Ruins are a ruined, kingdom where everything floats in the air unnaturally and enemies are extremely weird monsters, like something out of Elden Ring. Each visit to these places throughout the story unlocks new areas to explore, though you\u2019ll also do quite a bit of backtracking through areas you\u2019ve already been, which is a bit of a drag. Still, these are some of the more interesting areas I\u2019ve stalked the halls of in a stealth game and highlights the unique, strange, and magically-infused world that this curmudgeonly goblin calls home.<\/p>\n
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TieGuyTravis’ Favorite Stealth Games<\/h3>\n If you like to remain unseen, here are the best games for you to see.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
See All<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/span><\/p>\n
Though the huge amount of space these maps have can be pretty great to explore, they sometimes feel a bit too big for the much smaller objectives within them. The story\u2019s main objectives are much smaller than a typical stealth mission, usually just requiring you to steal a key and open a locked door, or shut down a machine so you can reach your objective \u2013 miniature quests that usually only take a couple minutes to complete, if that. Once you\u2019ve checked it off your list, you\u2019re back to the mostly uneventful traveling stealth as you find a way to the next objective, often requiring you to backtrack through some of the same spots in the process, which is how I have spent the bulk of the adventure so far. On the bright side, this format means you\u2019re basically just locked into a constant stream of pure, unadulterated stealth scenarios for hours on end as you work your way through each set of missions, and since that\u2019s Blades of Greed\u2019s strong suit, you\u2019re getting exactly what the doctor ordered.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re familiar with the shortcomings of the previous Styx games, then you\u2019ll probably be less-than-stoked to hear that Blades of Greed doesn\u2019t address most of these. Combat, which is a last resort, but sometimes required, is quite sloppy and overly simplistic, and moving around, especially jumping onto ledges and the like can be finicky at times and caused me to fall to my death or get caught out in the open dozens of times by this point. Worse than those though, are the usual performance issues and technical challenges, like NPCs becoming invisible while talking to them and frames dropping to horrifyingly low levels after extended play sessions. Framerate issues are actually a fair bit worse than I remember them being in previous games, presumably due to the significantly larger maps, and it can get pretty bad for long stretches when there\u2019s a lot happening on screen. Most of these issues are sort of baked into Styx by this point, but it\u2019s still worth shouting out that the bulk of this stuff has mostly gone unaddressed, seemingly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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