- Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
- Release Date: Mar 14, 2017
- Also On: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Mar 14, 2017Within the first few hours of the game I was pretty sold on this more classical attempt on a stealth-game with a good jolt of dark humor. But after a while you start to realize that most of the stealth-mechanics aren’t even needed. The enemy AI is far too stupid to ever really force you into playing smartly and with a certain tactic in mind. Nor will you ever make much use of the crafting-system. On top of that, the dialogue often feels forcefully edgy and references pop-culture just for the sake of it. All whilst the overarching plot – if you can even call it that – remains plain and uninteresting. That being said, you definitely can have fun with Styx: Shards of Darkness. But given the fact, the developers had a chance to improve on their predecessor and didn’t utilize it, the mistakes of this game become hard to forgive.
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May 8, 2017Styx: Shards of Darkness' single-minded dedication to being a stealth game is both admirable and potentially a turnoff to players who expect more flexibility in their approach to completing missions. The flexibility is there, though it's entirely represented by the myriad ways the title character moves through the shadows and confounds his enemies. It's refreshing to play a despicable, amoral antihero; but the game's puerile, scattershot humor will not appeal to everyone. Although its mission objectives are a bit repetitive, the balletic act of moving through the world makes Styx: Shards of Darkness overall entertaining.
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Apr 26, 2017Full freedom and innovative level design, but sloppy controls and sometimes stupid enemy AI will ruin your experience from time to time.
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Apr 5, 2017Styx: Shards of Darkness could have been a big hit in the stealth genre if not for its few AI, control and level-design flaws. Still, the whole package is so fun, unique and charming that stealth fans will definitely enjoy it.
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Apr 3, 2017It’s not going to win any hearts and minds any time soon, but as an open-ended stealth experience, Styx: Shards of Darkness more or less does its job without major stumbles. Less of the lip, though, please.
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Apr 3, 2017Styx: Shards of Darkness is a classic stealth game with a stunning graphical style, but the key character is dreadful and the story is very disappointing.
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Mar 21, 2017Shards of Darkness is an improvement over its predecessor in visuals and gameplay, but still need better AI and other improvements.
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Mar 16, 2017Styx 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.
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Mar 14, 2017Once you get past the slightly budget look of the UI and occasional control jank, there is a solid core of a pretty damn good stealth game here. Give him a chance, and Styx might just steal your heart (only to pawn it at a fraction of its value, the little bastard).
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Mar 14, 2017This second helping of Styx won’t set any benchmarks or redefine the genre, but it’s a good, solid stealth game played with humour and a smidgeon of style. It feels a bit old-school and slightly hardcore in the age of MGS5: The Phantom Pain, but there’s something enjoyably tight and focused about its gameplay and a real sense of fun in Styx’s sneaking, sabotage and slaughter. It won’t kick Styx into the big leagues, but Shards of Darkness makes you glad to see him back.
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CD-ActionApr 26, 2017Over a dozen hours of spatial environmental puzzles consisting of avoiding patrols and finding paths to objectives. Cyanide failed to push the series forward in any aspect but still managed to deliver a solid stealth game. [05/2017, p.68]
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LEVEL (Czech Republic)Apr 18, 2017Styx is trying to cope with AAA games, yet it fails in almost all respects. With the modest cost, the game was much more interesting. [Issue#273]
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Mar 16, 2017A 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.
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Mar 14, 2017The thrill of pulling off a flawless assassination as you smoothly sneak off with valuable artifacts is what makes these types of games worth playing. But its detractors--cliche writing, unsophisticated AI, and arbitrary quests--culminate to an experience that feels like it's stuck in the past.
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Mar 14, 2017Adding not much to its predecessor, Styx: Shards of Darkness forces the player to use the stealth elements. Once you get out of these stealthy bounds, the experience becomes overwhelming. If you like stealth elements and you have enjoyed the first game, you may like Shards of Darkness as well.
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Mar 14, 2017It’s a shame the writing is unmitigated garbage, because the game it’s been dribbled onto is fantastic. The level design is an improvement over the already sublime Master of Shadows, and there are some genuinely memorable missions that make great use of the world Cyanide has built...But that writing. The intelligence of its predecessors, which explored everything from racism and activism to free will and existentialism has been replaced by Family Guy-level cultural references and fourth wall-breaking guff that swings from insulting the player’s intelligence to downright offensive. Shards of Darkness could have easily been Cyanide’s best game ever if the writer was locked in a cupboard.
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Apr 10, 2017A drab, low-budget, clumsy product which we have come to expect from Cyanide.
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Apr 5, 2017Dull and uninteresting game without ideas and tension and with a lot of unfinished work. Lenient, undemanding fans of stealth games may be satisfied for a while, but even they should wait for a sale. Everyone else should rather return to Dishonored or Hitman.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Mar 14, 2017Too often, I plunged to my death purely because Styx did not leap to the handhold he either either appeared to be reaching for or was the only logical place to go. It’s not quite so unreliable as to make the game consistently frustrating, but something there is seriously in need of a fix. I learned to speculatively quicksave my way around it, which isn’t ideal but was enough to let me keep thinking that this is a solid pure-breed stealth game.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 83 out of 127
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Mixed: 30 out of 127
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Negative: 14 out of 127
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Mar 14, 2017
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Mar 17, 2017
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Dec 10, 2017