Styx: Master of Shadows

 Xbox One
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 39 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 39
  3. Negative: 5 out of 39

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  1. RectifyGaming
    Nov 4, 2014
    8
    A surprisingly interesting game with fluid stealth mechanics to support it, with a lengthy campaign and good storyline. Overall, a good game for it's price tag.
  2. kenmil
    Mar 14, 2016
    5
    Monotonous, with terrible combat controls and a ridiculous shortage of supplies. On the plus side, the campaign is longer than I expected from a budget game, but due to the repetition, I became bored with it by mission 5.
  3. Jako6992
    Feb 24, 2015
    8
    I came in to this game with no expectations at all and i was surprised. i picked the game up for under 10 pounds in the Ultimate Xbox sale. The game is a fantasy game with elves, goblins and all that. you are Styx a goblin that is a stealth master. the game is focused on stelath and is for the very skilled stelath player. I have played alot of stealth games in my time so i took theI came in to this game with no expectations at all and i was surprised. i picked the game up for under 10 pounds in the Ultimate Xbox sale. The game is a fantasy game with elves, goblins and all that. you are Styx a goblin that is a stealth master. the game is focused on stelath and is for the very skilled stelath player. I have played alot of stealth games in my time so i took the difficulty to hard but i was surprised that i could not stay stealth so i took it on normal and i is even a challenge there for me atleast.The story is good. not amazing but good. The graphics are okay. not the best but not extremely bad either. One of the only problems i have with the game is that the AI is sometimes very stupid even on the Harder difficultys. but overall it´s a great game and a amazing stelath game for every stealth game lover. the controls are very smooth and the parkour system is very smooth to. i read in some other reviews at launch that the parkour system was clunky and Styx did not grab on to what he was supposed to do. It have been fixed now in a update. I give it a 8/10 score because of the fantastic stealth and good story. it loses points on the AI that sometimes is stupid but not gamebreaking.… Expand
  4. TheBidding
    Mar 15, 2017
    10
    Firsty, Co op mode utterly broken. Gameplay poor. Storyline awful. The first game was a load of fun but this just lives off the nostalgia, terrible game.
  5. youlouz
    Feb 27, 2016
    6
    PROS
    -Stealth gameplay

    CONS
    -Mediocre story
    -Long loading times .
  6. SuperkenGaming
    Feb 13, 2017
    7
    Styx Master of Shadows
    Hardcore Stealth
    In Master of Shadows you’re on your own, no more giant orc by your side... You’re Styx after the heart of the world tree If this is your introduction to Styx He’s a stealthy goblin and easily the best part of Of Orcs and Men Despite your initial thoughts that this game is just assassins creed with a goblin… it’s much more on the hitman meets    Styx Master of Shadows
    Hardcore Stealth
    In Master of Shadows you’re on your own, no more giant orc by your side...
    You’re Styx after the heart of the world tree
    If this is your introduction to Styx He’s a stealthy goblin and easily the best part of Of Orcs and Men
    Despite your initial thoughts that this game is just assassins creed with a goblin… it’s much more on the hitman meets dishonored side with the verticality of assassins creed and is easily the hardest stealth game I’ve ever played…
    |As the name suggests you have to master the shadows…
    Enemies can still see and detect you as you move through the shadows and they’ll even check hiding spots…
    it’s your job to find the best route through the 8 missions of this game..
    Each mission lasting easily 2-3 hours each because of how difficulty the stealth gameplay is…
    You have at your disposal, 2 throwing knifes, throwable sand to put out torches and the ability to create a clone of yourself... getting to your objective is reliant on your ability to sneak past guards and distract them
    You can get into hand to hand combat, but it’s hardly ever worth it as areas are crawling with enemies that will surround you and kill you while you’re locked into a garbage combat system parrying 1-5 times to be able to kill your enemy…
    The being locked in part is the worst…
    you’re able to roll away if you try hard enough.. But the camera stays locked on your alerted enemy trying to kill you... making it almost impossible to run most of the time…
    Unfortunately the game also spoon feeds you abilities…
    As you complete missions and side objectives within mission you’re awarded skill points to buff your agility, stealth, and combat to name a few to be able to hold more items and do new assassinations…
    You have to earn your way up to an air assassination which is annoying… but it’s the games way of teaching you the shadows... so slightly forgivable...
    The game also constantly introduces new enemies with new rules...
    some of them feel cheap though, to prevent spoilers ill just say by the end you’ll be using your clone more than the shadows to distract and lure instead of just as a switch thrower like you’ve been doing…
    I wasn’t a fan of the exploding skills or annoying beetles… but I did appreciate the fact that they were always changing the gameplay making the game just as hard throughout your journey as it is from the start… it never gets easy.. You never feel like you’re a master assassin...
    constant vulnerability... which makes for very tense moments…
    Completing these mission are genuinely satisfying because of this…
    But sadly the 2nd half of the game is really just doing the first half of the game backwards this time with harder enemies which is a bit of a disappointment… it felt like the game was dragging itself out just for the sake of it.. there’s no shame in a game being 10 hours long…
    Doubling your length be reusing levels just feels lazy
    And the game drags on for so long that your start to see massive flaws in the ai..
    They don’t act natural... they seemingly always know where you are, just waiting for you to get into their line of sight to make you restart from a checkpoint…
    you can’t confuse them which breaks immersion and kind of makes you feel like you’re getting lucky at times instead of outsmarting them…
    Which brings me to the biggest issue this game has…
    Its checkpoints and load times..
    You can save this game at any time... do it... don’t rely on the games auto save because it’s horrible and even corrupted on me in the final boss fight…
    When you feel you’ve made progress, save the game…
    But since this game is so difficulty and since stealth games are so much about trial and error.. it’s inexcusable to have load times as long as these are…
    I’m convinced half of my time was spent waiting for the game to load after messing up and dying…
    Master of Shadows
    Is a really good and a really challenging stealth game…
    But its clock in combat systems, magnet headed ai, repeat levels, and painfully long load times stop it from reaching the status of greatness…
    But if you’re a stealth fan definitely still play it.
    I give Styx:    … Expand
  7. Pee
    Jun 11, 2016
    8
    Styx Master of Shadows, where to begin? Here are some pros and cons.
    PROS
    -Campaign: Styx Master of Shadows has a very difficult and lengthy campaign with an okay story that has a few plot twists. It I about a goblin named Styx who goes on a journey to a tree on the top of the huge tower of Akenash. Styx believes he will recover his memory as to who he is by drinking the magical    Styx Master of Shadows, where to begin? Here are some pros and cons.
    PROS
    -Campaign:
    Styx Master of Shadows has a very difficult and lengthy campaign with an okay story that has a few plot twists. It I about a goblin named Styx who goes on a journey to a tree on the top of the huge tower of Akenash. Styx believes he will recover his memory as to who he is by drinking the magical amber from the tree. The campaign consists of 8 "episodes" each consisting of around 3 "zones". It'll take you around an hour or more to beat every two zones so around an hour 1/2 to beat one episode.
    -Difficulty
    This game was surprisingly difficult, even on easy. Plus, there are secondary objectives that are optional and give you a whole other set of difficult things. You also have insignias, little goals like: kill no one or steal all items, pretty much things like that.
    -Stealth
    The game has very fluid stealth mechanics that are more complicated than games like Assassins Creed. It is like a mixture between the old Thief games and Shadow of Mordor. You have to walk by enemies slowly and make sure they don't hear you, you also have to stay in the shadows in order to prevent enemies from seeing you. When it comes to takedowns, Styx has two ways to takedown enemies: Silently, which will take longer, and Quick, which is more noisy.
    -Range of enemies
    Styx has a wide range of enemies for you to overcome, from simple servants to vicious orcs. My least favorite enemies are the accursed roabies, mutated cockroaches that are blind, but have an incredible hearing. These bugs cannot be fought in combat but can still attack you. WHENEVER I ENCOUNTER A ROABIE MY ONLY EXCITMENT IS THE POSSIBLE KNOWLEDGE THAT I CAN WIPE ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE THINGS OF THE PLANET!!!! Other than that, I can handle anything.
    CONS
    -Language
    Styx swears an overwhelmingly large amount (I know in some games language can improve the emotions), it sounds less like an adult and more like a 10 year old trying to sound edgy.
    -Combat system
    Styx has a flat out terrible combat system but that is partially a good thing. It stops the player from AC-styled running into a room full of enemies and wiping them out, and keeps the focus on the wonderful stealth mechanics.

    All in all 8/10    … Expand
  8. VETRA
    Jun 15, 2018
    7
    Un juego de SIGILO bastante bueno, incluso frustrante aveces. Recomendable si te gusta el estilo, si buscas batallas o combates impresionantes este no es tu juego,
    En lo que se enfoca lo hace bastante bien. 9/10 como juego de sigilo.
    Buena trama y personaje principal carismatico, personalmente me encanta un juego de sigilo con un goblin/trasgo. Ambientacion magnifica, incluso recomiendo    Un juego de SIGILO bastante bueno, incluso frustrante aveces. Recomendable si te gusta el estilo, si buscas batallas o combates impresionantes este no es tu juego,
    En lo que se enfoca lo hace bastante bien. 9/10 como juego de sigilo.
    Buena trama y personaje principal carismatico, personalmente me encanta un juego de sigilo con un goblin/trasgo.
    Ambientacion magnifica, incluso recomiendo subirle la oscuridad un poco mas para disfrutar la experiencia.
    Muy entretenido, tienes que pensar bien tus movimientos y controlar a los guardias (rutas y pautas) antes de moverte. Muchas maneras de matar (envenenando comida, cuchillos arrojadizos, aereo, sigiloso, etc.)
    Tienes clones que puedes hacer muchisimas cosas con ellos como agarrar a un enemigo para asestarle el golpe mortal con el personaje, pasar por sitios complicados, etc.
    Una jugabilidad muy buena buena.
    Mapas bien hechos y grandes, sientes en todo momento lo que te quieren transmitir. Tienes muchos caminos para ir a tu objetivo, siempre tienes que estudiar bien el ambiente.
    Bien de duracion, de entre 14-16h (la primera vez que lo pasas) depende cuanto mueras. Rejugable. Una vez te pasas una misión puedes repetirla para hacer desafios, recolectar todos los coleccionables y hacer objetivos secundarios para mejorar a tu personaje.
    Siendo del 2014 el juego se ve bastante bien.

    Como puntos negativos diria que tiene que pulir algunas cosas encuanto a unos pequeños bugs o pequeños fallos en la jugabilidad, quizá no es todo lo suave que pudiera ser, y si cambiaria la animacion del personaje al saltar de cornisa en cornisa pues se ve un poco rara. Pero es un juego que si te gusta el sigilo lo disfrutaras.    … Expand
  9. DoctorMojica
    Oct 16, 2021
    9
    Styx: Master of Shadows is a wonderful surprise. An amazing game with great stealth qualities, great music and soundtrack, creative story with great twists and a character that you will remember. The lack of general polish and some bugs along the story take away the opportunity of being an epic game, but it is definitely a great game and a MUST play for players who enjoy stealth gaming.Styx: Master of Shadows is a wonderful surprise. An amazing game with great stealth qualities, great music and soundtrack, creative story with great twists and a character that you will remember. The lack of general polish and some bugs along the story take away the opportunity of being an epic game, but it is definitely a great game and a MUST play for players who enjoy stealth gaming. For the price, it's a bargain.… Expand
  10. Pokshyvka
    Oct 24, 2021
    7
    Mediocre. And believe me, its challenging. But repetitive game. Its even hard on normal. But got boring after 3-4 missions, finished game, bud decided never replay any mission for badges.

Awards & Rankings

58
#58 Best Xbox One Game of 2014
62
#62 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2014
40
#40 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. games(TM)
    Nov 17, 2014
    50
    This sounds like Batman, but it's more like a knock-off of Punch Out. Competent middle-tier filler, and little more. [Issue#154, p.128]
  2. MondoXbox
    Nov 16, 2014
    75
    Styx: Master of Shadows nails the stealth mechanics immersing us in a charming story and universe; too bad for its low budget production, resulting in disappointing graphics, A.I. and combat system.
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  3. Official Xbox Magazine UK
    Oct 20, 2014
    70
    A surprisingly playable stealth endeavour from Cyanide, with a startlingly repulsive lead.
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