Styx: Shards of Darkness Reviews
Shards of Darkness could have been an amazing stealth game, thanks to a witty and cynical main character, a wonderful level design and a lot of skills and perks. Unfortunately, the experience is partially ruined by a sub-par AI and some flaws in the control system.
Review in Italian | Read full review
All in all, Styx: Shards of Darkness is a game you won't want to miss.
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.
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.
Enormous adventure playground with small blemishes for adventurous Stealth-Fans.
Review in German | Read full review
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.
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.
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 improves the level design of its prequel, and gives the protagonist several ways to complete the missions.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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 is an evolution of the franchise, and an improvement over a game stealth enthusiasts will greatly enjoy.
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.
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.
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
A dark, challenging stealth game undermined by an unimaginative and rambling story littered with crude gags and lazy pop culture references.
A wisecracking goblin assassin may seem like an odd choice for a protagonist, but the titular character of Styx: Shards of Darkness is enjoyable to control.
Styx: Shards of Darkness will provide stealth fans with a brief thrill, but wading through levels multiple times and dealing with poor attempts at variety will grate at even the most jaded of players by the time the campaign is through.
Despite its frustrations, Styx’s stealth mechanics and Deus Ex-ian level design will continue to drive you forward in a game that is longer than you’d think.
Styx: Shards of Darkness is everything you could expect this game to be and more. It offers hardcore stealth gameplay for those who are interested in it while simultaneously lowering the skill cap for those who just want to finish the game and do not shy away from a messy slaughter or alarm or two. It is hard to resist Styx’s wits and cockiness even in the middle of situation he gets into. If you were waiting for a sign that Styx: Shards of Darkness is an amazing game worthy of your time, consider this to be just it.