Styx: Master of Shadows E3 Previews
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We have rounded up a few previews for Cyanide's stealth/RPG Styx: Master of Shadows, a game that follows the adventures of one of the protagonists of another Cyanide game, Of Orcs and Men.
GameSpot has a write-up and some footage:
Much like in Dishonored, a skill tree allows you to unlock new magical abilities that layer even more opportunities upon those already offered by the level design. You can choose the ability to hear your heart beating when you're about to get spotted, allowing you a small window of advance warning that you should find some shadow. Amber vision allows you to see enemies through walls--but, unlike in Dishonored, this is a high-level ability that is very difficult to unlock. With what Cyanide estimates to be a 15-hour single-player story, and the ability to replay levels to ghost through them or attempt speedruns, Styx could be one of the most competent stealth games since Dishonored itself. Did I mention you can vomit up goblin clones?
[Styx] can create clones of himself, sending them to do small tasks like take damage for him or distract enemies. Desourteaux switches back and forth between the clone and Styx rather easily to accomplish tasks, though I always wonder what characters like Styx are doing alone when the player takes control of a clone or other NPCs. Do they stand alone, bored? Tap their toes? Whistle? Run and hide? Are the vulnerable to attacks? Master of Shadows doesn't answer this long-standing gaming query as Styx just kind of stands around, but that doesn't hinder the game; it just keeps me wondering foreverrrrrrr.
Another big difference that the game has from its genre counterparts, albeit less mechanical than character height, is the inclusion of what the developers are calling (Life Actions). These actions are meant to bring a level of realism to the NPCs and enemies. Characters don't just walk back and forth on predefined paths, they also stop for bio breaks, to drink water, stretch, or eat. Styx can use this to his advantage as yet another way to make his way around the sprawling city. Using his ability to manufacture poison, for example, Desourteaux walks Styx over to a water trough, has him throw up into it, and then run and hide. As a pair of guards walk over to drink water, they're soon poisoned by the brew and Styx is able to avoid drawing attention to himself.
I was able to see a gameplay demonstration taken and it is clear that Styx: Master of Shadows takes many of its cues from Thief: The Dark Project and Thief 2: The Metal Age. The demo I was shown saw Styx sneaking through a town to try and free an ally from prison. There are many features that you would expect in a modern stealth game, such as hiding spots and kills that come in the silent or loud variety. However, there are plenty of interesting additions that set Master of Shadows apart. Styx has a diverse array of powers that derive from amber that flows through his veins. The amber in Styx's blood serves as the players HUD to indicate whether he is concealed or hidden. Using his amber powers, he can see through walls, turn invisible, create smoke screens, and create a clone of himself. The clone was the most interesting ability shown during the demo; it can be used to scout the level, set off environmental traps, or distract guards by hilariously leaping onto their face and causing them to freak out. Each of these powers can be upgraded to be even more effective and powerful.
In the demo, Styx is in a huge, sprawling human city, with towers stretching into the sky. Styx sticks out like a sore (and ugly) thumb, so staying out of sight means staying off the business end of a longsword. But Julien didn't reveal much of the story for fear of spoiling it, so why Styx's motivations are a bit of a mystery at this point.
(Verticality is extremely important,) Julien explains. Styx douses a couple torches with sandbags, ascends a wall, and then drops from above onto hapless patrolling guards, swiftly executing both of them. Then he sneaks up behind a guard admiring a view and unceremoniously boots him off the ledge in an efficient, quiet elimination.
I couldn't help but chuckle at such a casual assassination. I suppose technically there should have been an (aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!) in there, but perhaps in such a tall city that's commonplace enough to be ignored.
Although not an '˜open world' game, Styx consists of 4 huge, sprawling '˜levels', each of them a sort of open world microcosm and big enough to comprise multiple '˜levels', all with countless places to hide, climb, sneak, murder, and explore.
As players progress in Master of Shadows and enter new areas, Styx can scout out the lay of the land. By moving slowly and patiently, players will be able to score numerous stealth kills, rendering the area safer to traverse and hunt for treasure. Those who rush in will be destined to meet an unfortunate fate.
The aforementioned stealth kills can be pulled off in a wide variety of ways. Thanks to the game's vertical nature, Styx can throw enemies from ledges, drop from roofs and use height to his advantage in numerous ways.
Those who wish to shy away from going fully stealth in Master of Shadows can in fact do so, as some of Styx's melee abilities were shown. The goblin fights with his daggers and slashes quickly and efficiently, proving that while stealth might often be the best strategy, it is not the only one.
The other character in the game which is not mentioned is the environment. Styx gives the player tons of options to jump and climb. Walls, rafters, rooftops, all of them are child's play to the spider-like goblin. You can jump from on high to kill opponents. Or wait them out in one of the many hiding places in the game. If you dispatch a knight or even just a worker, you can quickly hide the body or disintegrate it with acid. Just as in other stealth games the key is to stay hidden. There are a lot of alerts for the NPCs in the game. Even the sound you make can give you away. Foes are linked to each other as well, so if one gets alerted to you others will soon follow if they are in the area. Environments can also be used to set traps. There are plenty of ways to drop some heavy things on guards heads or use smoke to scatter them from a target.
Honestly, there's very little I could fault Styx for at least in what I saw played life in front of me, though not personally experienced. No, Styx's biggest sticking point is just how game-y it is. This might come off as a slight about videogames embracing what they are, but there's a fine line between something that puts (gameplay) first and something for which gameplay mechanics were created for the sake of having gameplay mechanics. One of Styx's tricks is the ability to create clones of himself. These biological drones can be used as scouts or sacrificed to create traps and distractions. But I cannot, for the life of me, understand the genetic imperative for such an ability. And let's not even get into the ethical implications of learning how to magically reproduce in such a way. Plus, these copies have but a finite life, so they aren't exactly something that can be explained away as a form of propagation. Goblinkind wouldn't make much progress as a species bound to such severe limitations.
