It can be very easy for someone to draw parallels between this Styx: Master of Shadows and Assassin’s Creed, it certainly doesn’t help that they called their trailer Assassin’s Green (because you know, a green goblin assassinating people). However, there is absolutely another Ubisoft game that is more apt for comparison: Splinter Cell.
Styx: Master of Shadows isn’t a game where, when you’ve made a mistake with the stealthy business, you can then fight your way out, like in Assassin’s Creed as has been made extremely clear by previous trailers. Stealthing around, using the element of surprise and taking advantage of distractions that your magic powers can create will be imperative if you want to stay alive and do well in Styx: Master of Shadows.
There also appear to be a lot of different ways you can dispatch your targets. There is always, of course, the choice of creeping up behind a guy and slitting their throat as they shut “no, please no!” There is always the good ol’ fashioned throwing knives. There’s also an interesting addition of a potentially useful, but more time-consuming “muffled-kill” where you will kill your target without them making a sound.
It seems that you will also be able to kill your targets with the environment as the use of a falling chandelier and poisoned food (poisoned by Styx of course) made the assassinating so much easier. It isn’t entirely clear how contrived the footage is, however. The food poisoning could completely be a one time thing, or a common occurrence, but it’s good to know that you have the option.
And just like any other stealth game, hiding bodies is extremely important (unless you are of the stealth school of kill everyone so that no one is alive to detect dead bodies) and there is always the good old, time-tested methods of throwing bodies out of windows or into chests. However, there also appear to be some sort of invisibility potion that you can pour over corpses, but you only have a limited number of these potions.
Movement also looks a lot more fluid in Styx: Master of Shadows than most other stealth games. You get quite a cartoon-y, physics defying jump (which doesn’t usually occur in stealth games) whilst still possessing the ability to climb walls, parkour and slowly, but silently, creep around. You will be able to get into chests and under desks and tables. It seems being a small goblin does make a big difference in the way you will be playing the game.
Styx: Master of Shadows is set to be released on October 7th for PCs, Xbox One and PS4s at the price of $29.99/€29.99/£24.99.
Will you be trying out Styx: Master of Shadows when it comes out? Let us know in the comments below!
Published: Oct 4, 2014 11:03 am