Styx - !$%&* Creepy Little Goblin Bastard

MightyUnclean

Has anyone been following the development of Styx:  Shards of Darkness?  It looks to be a follow-up to Styx:  Master of Shadows.  You apparently play a 200-year-old Goblin that stealths around and assassinates people.  Idunno, the cinematic trailer looks pretty well made, for what that's worth!


http://store.steampowered.com/app/355790/

Volgore

Yes, that little guy made it into the news some days ago http://www.mmorpg.com/videos/styx-shards-of-darkness-gameplay-trailer-2-1000005150

I liked the overall vibe and setting of the first part and the clip for this one looks even better. They really nailed this anti-hero goblin character.

To me it will come down to what they did to the combat system -if they did anything at all. I'm not going to endure the same level of frustration for another time.

Or maybe i just have to get better at sneaking this time.

MightyUnclean

Volgore said:

Yes, that little guy made it into the news some days ago http://www.mmorpg.com/videos/styx-shards-of-darkness-gameplay-trailer-2-1000005150

I liked the overall vibe and setting of the first part and the clip for this one looks even better. They really nailed this anti-hero goblin character.

To me it will come down to what they did to the combat system -if they did anything at all. I'm not going to endure the same level of frustration for another time.

Or maybe i just have to get better at sneaking this time.

Combat was iffy in the first one?

MightyUnclean

Is it mostly combat or is it parkour/sneaking?

Volgore

MightyUnclean said:

Is it mostly combat or is it parkour/sneaking?

I'd go as far as to say that combat in the first part was a borderline rudimentary system.
It frustrated me to a point at which i started to read other people's opinions about it to see if i was perhaps doing it totally wrong.
I wasn't by far the only one who hated it, while others got alog with it somehow.
It's basicly a single-click system in which you have to time your parry and counter and it just didn't suit me. Maybe i was just being bad at it.

Styx is a sneaker at heart and at that it is very good. It has a sense of freedom of choice and often times various ways to get from A to B. Climbing, parkouring over wodden beams while the guards patrol underneath was fun -that is, until you get spotted and involved into combat.
The abilities like using a clone or throwing sand at torches and such give interesting options.
 
And i say it again, the setting and atmosphere is just awesome and everything has a very immersive style to it.

mystik13

To clarify combat as in stealth attacks and using distraction and escaping is very solid.  Combat as in standing toe to toe with enemies was largely futile in my experience.  There was quite a wide range of spells and abilities that could be upgraded and very non linear maps.

I enjoyed it but expect to use strategy and stealth to kill, incapacitate and bypass enemies.  The story was not great btw.

Grunty

MightyUnclean said:

Is it mostly combat or is it parkour/sneaking?

The game strongly discourages any fighting other than stealth kills.  Harder mobs can kill you in one hit. Heavily armored mobs can't be killed by fighting them.

You're intended to stealth through it all except for specific assassination targets.  You're supposed to rely on stealth, distraction, poison, and clones that are able to get some places Styx can't go. 

There are experience rewards for not killing, not being seen or alerting anyone, finding a certain kind of loot, etc.