Styx: Shards of Darkness Reviews
Overwhelming in size and overflowing with freedom with which to tackle its sprawling campaign, Styx: Shards of Darkness is an unapologetically pure stealth title that might struggle to expand its hardcore appeal beyond the die-hard fans of the genre.
Styx: Shards of Darkness is an enormous improvement over its predecessor. The gameplay has seen a large amount of refinement to the point where it's actually a fun game to play, and Styx himself steals the show with his charismatic performance. It's not without its own set of returning and new defects, but Styx's second adventure is something we can confidently recommend. This is everything the first game should have been.
Styx Shards of Darkness is a good evolution of Styx's Universe, and it offers a lot of improvements. Better graphics, better gameplay mechanics... and always this sneaky and funny goblin! A good stealth experience, that still suffers some technical and AI issues.
Review in French | Read full review
Styx: Shards of Darkness improves the level design of its prequel, and gives the protagonist several ways to complete the missions.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Cyanide Studios returns after three years with Shards of Darkness to offer us a new adventure of Styx. A game with a weak plot and full of light and dark sides, where the absence of light will accompany us throughout the adventure along with fantastic game mechanics and a good cooperative mode although with some flaws.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Styx: Shards Of Darkness is a unique beast. In a time where every game seems to be committed to diversifying their gameplay as much as possible, and appealing to as wide an audience as possible, Styx: Shards Of Darkness is unconventionally pure in its approach.
A mechanically strong stealth title with some of the most eye-rollingly awful dialogue I have ever been subjected to. Styx as a character is obnoxious, unlikable, and immersion breaking, but he does wield some of the most impressive and well-designed infiltration abilities in the genre. I just wish he would shut the hell up.
Enormous adventure playground with small blemishes for adventurous Stealth-Fans.
Review in German | Read full review
While not the best stealth game, Styx: Shards of Darkness offers some fun, unique gameplay. It might be filled with mixed messages, but there's still a number of hours' worth of sneaky, fun, stabbing action.
Styx: Shards of Darkness improves on its predecessor significantly without having to steer away from its core attributes. Everything from its visuals and dialogue to its gameplay and story have been upgraded and polished to an impressive sheen. It’s still far from being perfect and its style of stealth and combat might not be for everyone, but it’s definitely a challenging and enjoyable experience that sometimes forces you to think hard first before acting. The foundation that Of Orcs and Men built set the perfect stage for both Master of Shadows and Shards of Darkness and it can only get better and more interesting from here.
Styx: Shards of Drakness is developing the predecessor's ideas, but there is no breakthrough here. We are returning at one's old place in a slightly better, nicer and more friendly way. The game perfectly implements characteristics of stealth games, but because of bugs it misses AAA games quality.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Depending on what you're looking for in your next third person stealth game, Styx may fit the bill. It gets a lot right and is a noticeable improvement from the first game, which itself was pretty good to begin with. It may not carry the history or prestige of some of stealth's bigger franchises, but if you like the genre at all, Cyanide Studios' latest effort deserves your attention.
If you want to play an “old school” stealth game, you have many options that aren’t the price of a new game. If you want crude humor, there are far better options in games and other media to enjoy. If you want to get berated by an ugly creature who thinks he’s better than you, well, Twitter is free.
Styx: Shards of Darkness is an evolution of the franchise, and an improvement over a game stealth enthusiasts will greatly enjoy.
Amid an overcrowded season full of newly launched triple-A titles, Shards of Darkness, at its very best, works as an inconsistent but serviceable stealth experience.
Styx: Shards of Darkness is a little big sequel of the first chapter, Master of Shadows. Gameplay, graphics, atmosphere: all is in the right place.
Review in Italian | Read full review
What's worse than dying in a game... dying and being heckled for doing so.
Styx: Shards of Darkness is a solid, enjoyable game, but a number of flaws hold it back from being anything more.
Styx: Shards of Darkness is an incredibly fun game - provided you are ok with slowing down the pace and willing to put up with uncompromising stealth. If you are looking for an action heavy stealth experience, this isn’t really your cup of tea. However, if you’re like me (though I’m terrible at stealth on the whole) and want a great, difficult challenge, Styx: Shards of Darkness might be right up your alley.