Styx: Blades of Greed

Styx: Blades of Greed successfully brings the goblin anti-hero back into the spotlight with refined mechanics, strong vertical level design, and flexible stealth gameplay. The addition of Quartz abilities adds fresh tactical options, and the semi-open environments encourage exploration more than ever before. However, while the game plays smoothly and offers a consistently enjoyable stealth experience, it rarely dares to surprise. The core loop begins to feel repetitive, and the innovation expected after such a long hiatus simply isn’t fully realised. For fans of the series, this is a worthy continuation. For the genre at large, it’s a solid entry rather than a defining one.

The newly vertiginous sandbox levels prove an excellent canvas for sneaking and stealing, in a welcome new entry in what feels increasingly like the spiritual successor to Thief: The Dark Project.

An ambitious episode which, despite its imperfections, proves that the legendary goblin has lost none of its splendour. Not everything is perfect, but the goblin knows how to use its charms and assets to achieve its ends.

Styx: Blades of Greed is a game recommended for fans of the stealth genre, despite several rough edges. The story is not particularly engaging, the control system is far from flawless, and frame-rate drops are frequent. And yet, Styx proves to be a sufficiently charismatic protagonist, and the level design is genuinely compelling.

Styx returns in his biggest adventure yet. At its core, it remains the same game, but it is more enjoyable thanks to three large, brilliantly designed maps that encourage exploration and reward revisits with metroidvania-inspired elements. The series’ trademark B-movie charm is still present, but should not deter stealth fans from what works well.