Stygian: Outer Gods - PC Preview

The overall hues of the image are soft, dusty shades of green. The image depicts a small snowy village on an island. There are snowy, misty mountains behind the village. Smokey looking tentacle like shadows reach towards the village from the sky. At the forefront-middle of the image is a white star-like symbol with swirled points, as if they were tentacles. The symbol has an eye in the middle. The text in the middle of the symbol reads Stygian Outer Gods.

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Stygian: Outer Gods is the prequel to the old game Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones. But this new survival horror is being made Misterial Games. In this early preview, I’ll be looking around the small village of Kingsport. And uncovering clues and events leading up to the Black Day. The game will be releasing on April 14th on Steam. So click here if you think it’s up your alley.

Warning! This article contains GIFS with flashing images.

The whispers, they talk to me.

The character looks up from his hands which are covered in blood. He then looks up at his reflection, this is quickly disturbed by the mirror cracking. Our character looks further up to see a dark cut or gash go across the wall with blood oozing out. — And you thought cutting yourself, shaving was bad.

Gameplay

The devs aimed for Stygian: Outer Gods focus to be exploration. This is to allow the player to get fully immersed in the story and its characters. We will get to make choices that will create events leading up to the Black Day. Whatever that is. This will come into play when interacting with NPC and how you act with them. There were only a couple of NPCs I could talk to in the preview. But none that I felt would really make an impact. Most of the time, I spoke to the dead. And that was thanks to a skill I selected.

The player is interacting with a totem made of bones. His arms lift up and wave in small motions to show to this. The totem has a skill check that the player needs to beat. Once it is beaten a message appears providing information. — Tell me your secrets, oh mighty totem.

This leads me to the next two things Stygian: Outer Gods have to offer. And that would be Tarot cards and Scrying. The Tarot cards will offer different bonuses or buffs to help you with your preferred play style. I’m usually more about being a fighter, but thought I’d try a different approach. So I decided to focus on mental fortitude. This is where some Tarot cards helped. Some can increase your proficiency with dealing with occult items or allow you to talk to the dead, like I said above. Scrying is an interesting mechanic that aids Jack in finding his way to specific items. Such as showing footprints on the floor or opening alternative paths. Specifically, the ones that look like they’re covered in seaweed.

A man holding a sledgehammer swaps to a hand appearing. His hand moves as if to creepily grabs something and is glowing. The environment turns green and black as if a dull night-vision goggle effect. Jack then walks up to a gate covered in what I assume is seaweed and begins charging up psionic energy. This finally ends with a pulse of energy releasing from the hand and the seaweed disappearing. — Warning, it does drain your sanity meter.

Healing & Combat

Now, the combat in Stygian: Outer Gods is through melee weapons. I was told in the full release, there will also be ranged ones too. The first thing you get is a small kitchen knife, but you’re able to find others. Like an axe or sickle. Attacking will drain stamina, but so will blocking. But personally, I’d suggest against fighting as the enemies are quite tough. And I mean tough. When needing to patch yourself up, however, there are a couple of ways. You can find glowing yellow plants, or you can craft some bandages/splints.

Looking at an old woman wearing a red ragged hood. Her eyes are glowing a bright red. The character strikes her with the axe in his right hand. Which in retaliation attacks back. We then raise our hand in a block to try and stop it. — Imagine seeing those eyes in the dead of night.

Like most Lovecraftian games, insanity also plays a part in the gameplay. When an enemy notices you, particularly the witches. They will scream, which then drains your sanity. It does slowly replenish over time, but to recover it quicker, you can eat some consumables. While playing, I didn’t have any terrible effects when my sanity bar reached zero. So this might be implemented as the story continues.

Graphics & Audio

Stygian: Outer Gods makes a good first impression visually in the first two beginning parts, particularly the very first area you start the game in. It was excellent at putting across the creepy, surreal, and eerie vibe. However, there is very little else of note after the initial scenes following choosing your character’s stats, besides the cool designs of the Talent cards. The village area reminded me heavily of Resident Evil 8’s one.

eight tarot cards all with various designed in a occultist-style. One is highlighted and thus is shown brighter. Below is the name of the card in a darker shade of yellow and below that the effect of the card. At the top are four tabs listed. Inventory, Talents, Map, and journal. — If you could change your fate, would ya?

Longevity

Most of my time was exploring Kingsport as much as possible, trying to collect details. To help me better understand the game’s current events. I was told, however, that the full game is aiming to be roughly around eight to ten hours.

Final Thoughts

Stygian: Outer Gods’ leaves me with a mixed bag of feelings. On one hand, the gameplay is good and works fine with minor issues. Maybe a miss from an enemy attack now and then, but nothing terrible. However, the story, I wasn’t feeling it with the notes and dialogue I had. But maybe on the release, I’ll change my mind. One glaring issue while using my old save was that my stats had been set to 1. Specifically, my Occultism skill. How do I know this, well I have a seers card that increases its level by two.

Besides some of the more mystical parts, I kinda felt like I was playing Resident Evil 8. Just need some Werewolf-like men to attack me. I was also expecting to speak to a lot more denizens of the area to better set up the story. As the devs said, how you talk/act with them will help better shape the story and world. I think the gameplay was a little bugged, because when doing the mirror and selecting your stats. After I had chosen studying the occult as my interest, my skills didn’t increase. This also happened when picking any of the options.

I’m gonna keep my eye on Stygian: Outer Gods, and see how it turns out. Then I can pick up the sequel and see the full story unfold.

Looking for more Lovecraftian-inspired games, why not check out my Worshippers of Cthulhu preview here!

Disclaimer: A code was received to write this preview.

About Author

Kyle McGrath

I’ve enjoyed video games for as long as I remember and I don’t think there isn’t a game I wouldn’t play. For reviews, I try my best to make them simple and easy to understand. With so many games released daily, I attempt to play them all.

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Stygian: Outer Gods – PC Preview