The controls also need some tightening up when Styx is high up ledges or swinging on ropes, as they just feel gimmicky most of the time. Enemies would sometimes just walk in circles, and throwing breakable objects to distract them would have no effect.
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First, the game has some texture pop-in issues on the Xbox One, where entire segments of a building would sometimes just constantly warp into and out of existence. While the game does quite a few things right, there are some minor problems that need to be addressed. These items prove to be crucial during some of the later parts of the game, and item management becomes almost as important as Amber. These range from new upgrades for your clones, to the ability to craft advanced traps such as acid trip-mines that instantly dissolve the bodies of any enemy that walks over them. Amber is a highly precious resource, and even the materials required to craft it are hard to come by.Īs you eventually complete different missions and side objectives, you’re rewarded with points that you can invest in different skill trees to unlock new powers or different items or traps to craft. The game makes sure though that these abilities never seem too overpowered, and limits your usage of them with Amber, this universe’s equivalent of mana. You can also go invisible for a few brief moments, allowing you to sneak past guards undetected. Styx’s powers are a blast to use as well, allowing him to literally vomit out subservient clones of himself to perform tasks such as distraction and the like. Its honestly surprising how much choice the game gives you during exploration, with each location having so many entrances and exits, that you’re honestly spoiled with choice most times. Everything from small shanty towns, airships to Elven strongholds are present in the game, and Styx has no problem traversing every tiny inch of them. In fact, the world itself is one of the game’s key strengths, featuring some of the most diverse levels ever seen in the franchise. Developer Cyanide Studios has had two games to establish some of the deep lore of the Styx universe, and it is definitely reflected in everything from the writing, to each of the game’s levels. Although a basic understanding of the world and the races that inhabit it will certainly go a long way towards helping you better understand some of the in-game politics and the motivations of the characters, Styx: Shards Of Darkness is very much its own self contained story.
![shards of war gameplay shards of war gameplay](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Tg27DdEZ2AM/maxresdefault.jpg)
If you haven’t played any of the previous games in the series, fear not, because it doesn’t really matter all that much.
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The game does away with a lot of the wishy-washy filler content we have come to expect from the genre, and instead provides us with a more focused traditional hardcore stealth experience akin to what you might find in some of the older Splinter Cell games. A sequel to 2014’s Styx: Master of Shadows, and the third entry in the Of Orcs and Men series of games, Styx: Shards Of Darkness will not appeal to everyone.