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0 Styx: Blades of Greed is a third-person stealth-action RPG adventure developed by Cyanide Studio and published by Nacon. The game is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, starting February 19th.
Weaponized Goblin Mode
In this third entry of the franchise, players return as Styx, a cunning goblin thief with a particular set of skills, including silently infiltrating castles, eluding enemies’ sight, and executing hushed assassinations in a smart mix of stealth and strategy. Styx first appeared as the smaller half of a smash-and-stealth duo in Of Orcs and Men (2012). He was obviously the stealth portion of that tag team. Since then, the little green gobbo has continued his mischievous adventures by himself in Styx: Master of Shadows (2014) and Styx: Shards of Darkness (2017).
Now, nine years after his last appearance, Styx is back to his old sneaky, thieving, snarky, murderous, selfish, trickster ways.
Small Goblin, Big Trouble
The game throws players headfirst into the action without much of an introduction or explanation. The game’s prologue chapter includes fighting a gigantic golem, running away from the Inquisition, and assembling a team of misfits. Which is all fun and entertaining, but it hardly feels like a proper opening to a story. It feels more like loosely glued-together missions to get players acquainted with Styx’s abilities and skills.
I highly recommend that players just coming into the franchise watch a video or two on Styx’s origin story, such as this official story recap on the IGN YouTube channel. Or, for example, this other YouTuber does a great job in the first four minutes of his video recapping Styx’s story to get players all caught up.
After the prologue chapter, the game gives players the freedom to pick their next destination with their newly acquired flying pirate ship. In his selfish pursuit of power, Styx searches for more Quartz gems all over the Iserian continent to level up his magical capabilities. This puts him on a straight collision course with the Inquisition.
Gameplay
Cyanide has consistently developed the Styx games with an emphasis on evasion, verticality, and tactical creativity. Styx: Blades of Greed continues that tradition with larger, more open spaces and a wide range of creative stealth tactics that strike a balance between old-school infiltration missions and modern freedom of exploration.
The game is genuinely gorgeous with a richly detailed and highly interactive environment. Almost every ledge, sewer hole, rooftop, wall, rope, and window is climbable, offering players access to numerous routes of infiltration or escape in case things go wrong. Each new set-piece discovered is thought out to the most minuscule detail, opening up nearly countless creative ways for players to get the job done. Playing Styx: Blades of Greed often feels like solving a 3D puzzle, with a knife and crystal magic, all wielded by a crazy master-thief goblin.
The game allows for a tremendous amount of creativity thanks to Styx’s magical capabilities, like turning himself invisible, creating clones of himself, mind-manipulation, or even just old-school distractions like blowing a whistle or throwing an empty glass bottle to distract guards. The new additions of a hook and a parachute let players reach heights that may seem unreachable at first.
Enemy variety, though, feels rather limited, with encounters and designs becoming increasingly predictable over time. Despite the aforementioned freedom to carve out your own routes to infiltrate places, enemy patterns start to become a bit too predictable.
Graphics & Audio
Styx: Blades of Greed delivers top-tier graphic visuals. I was in awe of how they could make a small, grumpy, fantasy, green creature so life-like. Each level, or location visited, has its own unique, colorful, visual identity. The orc village of Turquoise Dawn looks drastically different from the human-built The Wall, for example.
Visually, Styx: Blades of Greed defies the limits of most PC’s and consoles’ graphic capabilities. Even on the PlayStation 5, the game can’t run smoothly 100% of the time, as it surprisingly often runs into small glitches and minor bugs. Mind you, none of what I encountered during my game time had an overly negative effect on the game. The game never crashed, and the glitches, although pesky, did not hinder me from completing missions. But it did surprise me to encounter them as frequently as I did.
The audio is generally solid throughout the game. Sound effects, especially during combat and magic sequences, feel impactful and help sell the action. Environmental sounds also add to the overall atmosphere.
The voice actors, unfortunately, did not understand the assignment. If I closed my eyes during the cutscenes, I wouldn’t be able to tell you if we’re running for our lives from a monstrous golem or if we’re standing in line at Aldi. While the voice acting is unlikely to win anything at The Game Awards, the return of the original voice actor for Styx, Saul Jephcott, is a clear highlight. His performance stands out by adding a thin but noticeable layer of humaneness to the character that was previously missing. Styx doesn’t lose any of his cynicism or thirst for power, but the voice actor makes the character just a tad more approachable.
Longevity
I estimate Styx: Blades of Greed‘s full story can be accomplished somewhere between thirteen and twenty hours, depending on how well-versed you are in this sort of game. To unlock all abilities, Quartz gems, and side-quests, you’re probably going to need more than twenty hours, since there are plenty of things to snatch and upgrade.
Final Thoughts
Styx: Blades of Greed is simply put, a highly enjoyable game. The visuals are genuinely impressive, and despite a few graphical glitches here and there, the experience remains engaging and fun throughout. For players who have previously enjoyed games like Aragami 2, the Batman Arkham trilogy, Thief, or Assassin’s Creed, this game was made for you!
I hereby give Styx: Blades of Greed the Thumb Culture Gold Award!
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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