Did you know that the game has an easter egg that gives you the level desinger’s address? Or that using the controller with your feet won’t give you an achievement? Or, that the jump button is not located between your ass cheeks? No? Then welcome to Styx: Shards of Darkness, where the little foul-mouthed green goblin you play as will drop these nuggets of wisdom on you every time you get him killed.
Shards of Darkness is a third-person (I mean goblin) stealth game following 2014’s Styx: Master of Shadows. In world where goblins are treated like crap, you make your way through the dark elven city of Korrangar, where the High Priestess Lyssril is plotting her way to invincibility using a new material known as Quartz. Shadows are you true ally, and deception, distraction and sneaking upon the unsuspecting foes to take them down help in your survival. Like its predecessor, the game encourages you to take a path other than combat, as the only fighting mechanic present is a parry, which you need to time correctly in order to get a second chance at finishing off your enemy. Miss it, and you’re as good as dead. However, Shards of Darkness handles it a lot better. The camera doesn’t lock if you engage with the enemies and you can still run away and look for a hiding spot.
Styx is quite interesting as a character, and players can have mixed reactions to him. While some way find his condescendingly vulgar and fourth-wall shattering demeanor off-putting, some may find it humorous. To me it came across as funny in a silly way at first, but more often than not, the attempts at being funny fall flat and it feels like he’s trying too hard.
While the premise and the setting of the game are fascinating, the overall story isn’t very promising. A major part of the main quests involves getting to a certain point and acquiring a certain object. You come across side quests as well, but mostly they just lead you to a room where you wouldn’t go otherwise, or lead you to an NPC you need to kill. There’s not much to create a sense of urgency that would force you to think on your feet, though there are some puzzles scattered around the levels that add a nice change to the pace.
In spite of the story issues, Shards of Darkness is still incredibly fun and challenging. And for that, the credit goes to the gameplay mechanics and the snappy controls. Sneaking around feels very natural and is complimented by the environment that allows you take multiple ways to approach your target. Styx has various tools and abilities at his disposal to get the job done. You can go invisible for a short period of time, or literally puke out a clone and take control of him to create a distraction. Using these powers requires Amber, which you can either find lying around or pickpocket from guards. You can also activate Amber vision (something similar to the Witcher senses) which highlights interact-able objects in the vicinity.
You can also use the environment to your advantage when sneaking around or trying to escape your enemies. You can climb up and extinguish torches, or chuck some sand at them from a distance to do it. There also destructible objects that you can use to distract the guards. All these elements become more essential as you progress through the game, as the difficulty seems to increase. While the initial part of the game has rather easy-to-deal-with enemies who can either see you in light or hear when you run or make a loud noise around them, as the game progresses, armoured guards become more common. The game also introduces more enemies who can hear and smell you, making it all the more important to figure out different and creative ways to get around. The game provides you with the tools you need to get it done too. There are acid traps you can set to deal with the armoured guards, and vials to mask your goblin odour from the nosy dwarves. It’s impressive how the game combines all these elements with its incredible environment.
As much as Shards of Darkness needs to be praised for the gameplay, it is utterly undermined by the seemingly ancient enemy AI. The enemies have a simple and predictable patrol pattern, and even when they spot you, it’s quite easy to avoid them. Sometimes they will go back to doing their business even after noticing a dead body, like nothing happened. Once they’re alerted and start chasing you, they will open up chests and search in some hiding spots, but it doesn’t take them long to go back to their normal pattern. This makes it easy to try a reckless approach, taking away some of the challenge from the players. You can try a higher difficulty level, where enemies can be alerted in a shorter span of time, and you can die in a single hit.
For a game with such a dark setting, the world in Shards of Darkness is quite amazing. There is a strong sense of verticality (which in a weird way feels similar to Assassin’s Creed). It also has platforming elements that make impressive use of the environment, providing a nice breeze of change from the sneaking and killing. You can jump atop houses, climb ledges at great heights and crawl through deep dungeons, all with a sense of awe, thanks to the grand scale of the locations. Sometimes, traversing and getting around the enemies can take a bit or trial and error, as it is not very difficult to be killed if you don’t take care of your chasers.
Styx: Shards of Darkness is a wonderfully grim adventure that leads you on a remarkable stealth-driven journey. You will not be praising it for its story anytime soon, but you will fall in love with its fluid and well animated movements, complemented by the game’s equally fluid and snappy controls. The goblin might be annoying every time you see him on the death screen, but that won’t prevent you from getting him to sneak in the shadows and disintegrate his enemies with acid traps, and that’s something that the game does very well.
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