14 DAY TRIAL // At first sight, Styx: Master of Shadows seems like a weird video game because it aims to make a Goblin the main character, while casting traditional fantasy good guys like the Elves and the Humans in the roles of antagonists.
During the E3 2014 demo for the title, the game producer from Cyanide controlling the main character made almost no reference to its race and focused on the stealth elements that powered the game and on the various ways that a resource called Amber could be used to give the player additional options.
Styx: Master of Shadows is a very serious take on the infiltration genre, with ambitions to deliver an experience that it closer to that of the first Thief rather than its most modern representatives.
The goblin protagonist is very weak and can barely take one human enemy on face to face, but he is small of stature and agile, which means that he can hide in a variety of places to stay out of sight.
Players will have to carefully plot enemy movements, scout to see the full layout of the level and only then act in order to take out enemies or move around them in order to complete their mission.
Styx can use Amber, which is like a form of mana, to see through walls, become invisible for short periods and create clones of himself that can wreak havoc or misdirect enemies.
As the game progresses, he will gain access to more skills as he moves through the huge Tower of Akenash, trying to find out more about the tree that sits at its heart and discover more about how he was created.
Styx: Master of Shadows has some truly impressive levels, wide open but with plenty of areas where the player can hide and plan his assaults and with many occasions to set up environment-based kills.
The design of the enemy Humans and Elves is also very interesting and gamers will have to tweak their approach in order to acknowledge their own abilities and combat power.
The game looks very good already and it will be interesting to see whether stealth lovers will appreciate Cyanide's simple but deep core gameplay features and quirky storytelling.
Styx: Master of Shadows will be launched on the PC, the Xbox One from Microsoft and the PlayStation 4 from Sony during the final quarter of this year.