Styx: Shards of Darkness’s – this is the case, when you reflect, and whether it was worth all the developers release a continuation? In the first part – Styx: to Master Master of Shadows – was too old-school gameplay allegedly stealth (actually just outdated), bad graphics and templates subtitle, because of which these two games is easy to confuse. But all she bathed at least cool story, though he was fed scraps every half hour. And that’s what the writers involved in the sequel I was not very clear.
Goblin Styx – a unique character, worthy of a series of novels and feature-length movies. Cunning, vindictive anti-hero with a black sense of humor. If I start to list the facts of his biography, then you will definitely want to learn more about him, and about the fantasy universe Izerian. How do you tie this story: Styx was born orc and remained so until the age of majority, has not changed under the influence of amber – a magical substance, the resin of the Tree of Life. Young Styx planned to study the local shrine to become orc shaman. Amber mutilated his body, turning it into the world’s first goblin, but has given the opportunity to read minds, become invisible and clone themselves by magic.
But this is not even Styx anti-hero, and the real villain – a cold-blooded and conceited. The main game character – one of his clones. Unlike the others, but he turned out to be a replica of a completely identical appearance and mental capabilities. History turned so that the clone went against its creator and killed him along the way of creating thousands of new copies, thus becoming the father of all the goblins, also known as a race rakash.
All of what I said above – these are the events of the first part, and you would not have learned an unusual story Styx, had begun to play immediately with Shards of Darkness.
No prologue or video to the background, not even the typical notes and audio diaries here is not to find. Moreover, the developers decided that the sequel is enough to save all the gameplay mechanics from the previous game, and the plot – so, an optional appendage, and there is no need to bother here.
This is well illustrated by the relationship between the characters, the development of which it is impossible to keep track of: a second ago were bitter enemies, and now best friends. Users set up a special squad “Carnage”, whose sole purpose was the destruction of the goblins. At one point in the Styx claimed a few of the big boys of this group, along with their captain, and offered him the job for: steal a ceremonial baton from one of the ships. After five minutes the Styx already leads friendship with the captain, together they go on a mission and safely turn to each other back. When did it happen?
This sudden surge of confidence catches robbers and, among other things, an insidious killer Styx couple of times. But laughter is that this is not the only thing that happens in a game twice. In the middle of the history we are forced to go for a second time the old location, offering them crawl backwards or side to side. In this case, most of the enemies on the level goes the same route! At the beginning of the game has an interesting job where you need to look at the map tables of stone to open the passage. This assignment is entirely repeated exactly in the middle of the game – about where the fight takes place with the first of the two bosses. Mechanics in the battles with the bosses, by the way, too, repeated, and they differ from one another only in appearance. And guess how many times in the game there are quests with elements of platforming?
Here you can come up with many excuses for developers, he says, and a small studio, and publisher of modest means – what do you want? Dishonored 2 ?
On the passage of Styx: Shards of Darkness took me 14 hours. The first half of the time I missed, and the second – resented the fact that I was forced to run back-to-back on the old locations. Budget game and the size of the development team did not have to do with it. It’s just trash.
It would not be so bad if in the Styx: Shards of Darkness was fun to play. The developers have pushed the game Sea different mechanic (although virtually all of them we have already seen in the previous game), but did not add situations where they might need. For example, in the training of a prologue shows how to create and use clones: they can be controlled directly get to kill somebody or explode, staging smokescreen. This is the first and last time you’ll need to use this trick – any task done faster and easier in other ways, without much fuss. But this is one of the main features of the game!
