2.3 hours played
Written 2 days ago
4/10
It's a very mediocre stealth game, but it tried its best and it deserves some recognition for that.
I feel like this one had alot of potential, but it became apparent very quickly after picking it up that it missed several crucial marks when it comes to designing good stealth gameplay:
The first and most consistently annoying one is how the lighting system works, and especially with how poorly it is communicated to the player. The key to good stealth games is consistent detection mechanics that are clearly communicated to the player, such as knowing when an area is bright enough to be spotted in, or dark enough to hide in. The oldest stealth game, the Thief series, first implemented this mechanic with the light gem, a single jewel always visible at the bottom of the screen that got progressively brighter and darker as you moved from lighter to more shadowy areas. Styx tries to do this as well by re-flavoring it as a tattoo on his arm, which is only visible while looking at the character from ONE angle of his body. Meaning that you have to constantly keep repositioning the camera just so you can see if the tattoo is glowing to know if you're visible. They could have easily fixed this by painting his entire character model all over with tattoos that glow, but no. It's such a simple fix that would mend such a careless mistake. Light detection systems are THE MOST IMPORTANT mechanic in ANY stealth game; one that the player utilizes literally every five seconds while playing, and here it's been reduced to a "bells-and-whistles" type thing. This is the biggest flaw with the tattoo, but it's not the only one.
The second problem with the tattoo is more of an issue with general level design: every map has areas of inconsistent lighting that make it impossible to tell whether or not you will be hidden. Sometimes I will step into a bright area right under a lamp and I'll be totally invisible, other times I'll be in an area that appears to be pitch darkness and enemies can see me plain as day. It's not a bug in a handful of areas either, its common enough that I can literally never tell whether or not a shadow will hide me... in a stealth game. Did I mention that there is no sliding-scale between being completely invisible and being a Christmas-tree? When it comes to enemy sight and lighting, there is no "corner-of-your-eye" brief momentary sightings; there is just "I can't see anything" and "ha! There you are!" This inherent lack of subtly is bad in any stealth game, but it's just ANNOYING in one where you literally cannot tell which shadows will and won't actually hide you.
A more minor but still annoying issue is that sometimes while descending from a parkour jump or jumping onto a ledge the game fails to auto-lock you onto the target like it's supposed to, so you'd better hope you aim it just right or else you're gonna fall and take alot of damage. Styx is small, so even relatively short heights hurt him alot, which I could find more immersive if it weren't for the fact that the majority of fall damage you take is just a gamble on whether or not the climbing mechanic will work properly. For a game about feeling like a nimble infiltrator, it makes you feel... limited.
Still, the game had alot of effort put into it, and it shows. You can tell the devs were really passionate about making it good, just a little inexperienced. The sound design in particular is very good and they implemented the mechanics of your footstep sounds across different surfaces (like carpet, stone, wood, and metal) very well. The climbing and infiltration mechanics are fun (barring the terrible lighting system) and you really do feel like a sneaky little goblin by crawling along ledges, parkour up walls, and ducking into little holes and crawlspaces that bigger creatures couldn't normally fit in. The combat system is simple and its easy to get overpowered, but I feel like that's better in a stealth game. You're not meant to be a warrior, you're not supposed to rush into combat and kill 20 guys. You're an infiltrator, a thief, a ninja, an assassin. You're meant to be a sneaky and nimble little trickster, not a mighty Dragonborn; this game nails that feeling really well.
The characters and world are also interesting. Styx is rude, crude, and scrappy, which normally I'm not a fan of but his character makes sense for the world and fits well into it. This is one of those settings where EVERYONE is a jerk, but still has to get along and form mutual alliances (which they frequently betray each other in, Styx for example pickpockets one of his own friends shortly after he helps him) it really makes you feel immersed in a world of "no one's a good guy, and you're no exception; keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." and the writers are very good in making you feel the suspense of this reality. Styx feels like the kind of person who's constantly worried that everyone is gonna betray him, probably because they will, and so he feels compelled to betray them first. It's interesting and makes the crudeness of his character feel earned.
Overall I'm extremely disappointed to see how this game turned out. It pains me to give it such a low rating. It really feels like it had a lot of potential. I've heard the second game is a lot better and fixes a lot of these problems I've mentioned, and I might decide to give it a try one day but for now I've been unimpressed with this series so I'll give it a pass but if you wanna try any game I'd say start with the second.
4/10
