Styx: the age of Asylum style video games?

[twmac]

Twig if you need anymore justification for your thoughts. video gamer just put a very solid review of this game.

 

http://www.video gamer.com/reviews/styx_master_of_shadows_review.html

 

I cannot wait to play this game.

[Twig]

I did play it some more! (I even streamed again, and BigJKO watched me die a lot before leaving without saying a word. Appreciated.)

 

Yo I am really bad at this game, though?? Stealth is required, unless you're super excellent at rhythm/timing, because those guards will rip you apart. I have never played a game where stealth is this mandatory. No, not even Thief! I've always meant to... But yeah it's hard. Also I turned off mission markers early on but quickly realized WOW I need those. I am not a true gamer.

 

In the end, I never actually beat the second level. 

 

I do like the game, though. I can feel myself getting better at stealthing, even if I sometimes take stupid risks or get careless. The biggest problem I have, thoguh, is trying to fall off an edge to hang on it. I don't know if there's a trick to it, but if there is, I haven't found it.

 

EDIT: I basically completely agree with that review with the caveat that I still haven't beaten level two so I'm garbage.

 

Also... "you’ll be abusing the quick-save key"

 

THERE'S A QUICK-SAVE KEY??

 

It's so much like an old console game I just assumed there would only be saves at checkpoints and treated the game as such. I am dumb! Also quick saves will make the game too easy right??

[Architecture]

As someone who rides hard for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, I must say that the Video(space)gamer review gives me pause. I don't know why I'm a glutton for such punishment, but failing and just knowing I can do better keeps me going for hours.

[twmac]

RE: Glutton for punishment - Same here, so I think that this will be my Christmas game.

[Justin Leego]

It's 33% off on Steam...

[twmac]

So Xbox Live just gave me 30 quid in rewards because I spent a ton of money on digital releases last month (Shadow of Mordor, Sunset Overdrive and Lords of the Fallen - not to mention renting a bunch of films) and decided to spend it on Styx.

 

I am loving the game so far (only on Mission 1 but the tutorial mission was huge) - the setting is really strong as I feel like I moving through distinct but cohesive areas of a lived in fortress. I wish I hadn't set it on normal but instead put it on Goblin difficulty(melee attacks kill you in one hit) because I don't really want to get into fights and I don't think that it is the best way to play this game anyway.

 

The platforming is a little clumsy and there is a lack of optimisation (turning the camera too quickly means that you will occasionally see white where the game failed to load textures for a few seconds) but I am really excited to get deeper into the game.

 

At 20 pounds (well, free in my case) it was a steal and I cannot recommend it enough to people who like stealth games. I am utterly surprised as I thought it was going to be a bad game but that I might be able to laugh at it. 

[twmac]

So I just got into mission 4, which is about 2 thirds of the way into the game, and the plot took a turn that I wasn't expecting.

 

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There are these clones you can spawn to use for any manner of tasks, they are generally fodder for the enemies so that you can run past while they kill the creature.

 

I hadn't given it any thought whatsoever - even though I had noted some weirdness in the plot with the cut-scenes didn't really make sense and sometimes the way the character talks to himself seems odd.

 

Then you hit your objective at the end of mission 3 and it turns out that you yourself are a clone and the real Styx has been manipulating you the whole way in. It then brings up some questions about the clones you spawn and their sentience as well as if you are playing as the clone Styx or as the real Styx controlling the clone Styx

 

Anyway, not a big deal but to tie narrative and mechanics together like that is more than most games bother to do.

[Bjorn]

That spoiler makes me so much more interested in it.  Fascinating idea.

[twmac]

Yeah - it is also just weird that a game like Styx: Master of Shadows would attempt to do that.

 

Will see if it pays off.

[Tanukitsune]

I've only played a while but I'm loving it, it did annoy me that you had to collect EVERY coin to get credit, even worse I found out too late that you get credit for "ghosting it" and not killing anybody. I think I'll just try to ghost it from now on. I think I killed everybody in the first level... 

 

I realized I've called Styx a goblin, but I still don't know if goblins exists in this world and on if he's with the elves or not.

 

I discovered by accident that you can throw sand at guards if they are in the path of a torch and it alerts them to your presence. Does the game eventually get a rock or something to make the guards look the other way?

[twmac]

Styx is definitely a Goblin. There is a tie in with the game 'Of Orcs and Men' and Styx is of the same race as the Goblins in that.

 

You don't get a Rock, but there are things you can wake up with Sand. Also, if you hit a light while a soldier is near enough then he is alerted to the noise of that instead of looking at you, which means you can use that to your advantage.

[twmac]

So, I finished Styx over last weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

It gets very cheeky at about the halfway point by making you retrace your steps through the same levels. It gets away with it due to the enemy types and routes you are forced to take will normally have you looking at the enormous levels in a very different way. The story line ended up being the surprise of the whole thing (go read my spoiler earlier on if you want to know) and it pays out in a way that is satisfying (hint: no one is happy by the end).

 

I am actually really keen to dig up my copy of 'Of Orcs and Men' as this game is a prequel to it and see what is going on there.

 

I know I started off very down on this game but I stand wholly corrected - this game is perfect at the 20-30 pound mark and gave me a great deal more enjoyment than some of the bigger titles out there (Shadow of Mordor).

[Tanukitsune]

Frankly, I thought the reusing of levels just make the game feel like it overstay it's welcome, even though the enemies are different. Speaking of which, I HATE that enemies don't attack each other.

 

The blind bug attack me if the hear a pin drop, but a knight in armor klanking about and they don't do anything to them? And that's not the only enemy that should attack others, but doesn't.

 

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The elves force you to take a completely different approach, and I don't know if I hated it or not... You can't smell something behind you, dammit! Stop being so cheap!

 

The worst part if the finale, where you're FORCED to battle in a game that discourages battle. In the end I had to use invisibility to make it through.

 

While I did enjoy the game and the story despite this... Why did "Styx-2" have to ruin everything just to be free? It's seems silly and forced, he just wanted to do something out of his own free will and stop following orders, but the moment he was reborn he was free from the Amber, so he had already gotten what he wanted. He was truly free!

 

He said he wanted to kill Styx, but ended up killing himself, just to prove he had free will. Has he not heard of reverse psychology?

 

Let me get this straight, Styx is what happens when an ogre has too much Amber? And Styx isn't just a goblin, he CREATED all the goblins by jumping in the Amber?

 

One final thing, did anybody else spare the blind guy who was working for the real Styx the whole time? I was disappointed the game didn't acknowledge it.

 

The game does have annoying bugs and glitches, like how reloading sometimes messes with some guards routes and how it's really hard to simply jump and hang from an edge.