Quick Look: Styx: Shards of Darkness

Oof. That was bad. Not that I had high expectations. Thanks to the GB crew for saving me money on a Steam sale.

I had a lot of fun with the first Styx and this looks like more of the same. You HAVE to stealth in these games tho. Just bolting after not looking around and getting caught will not get you anywhere.

Clearly this is not a Brad game.

It's hard to understand what the plan even is most of the time. Running in circles around the map, running back from the objective while saying he want to get to the objective, killing guards in plain sight, not paying attention to guard routes, not using available powers, etc.

38:20, don't even know what to say. "I've died up on these stairs three times, let's go up them instead of though the hole toward the objective"

I never did get the first one, if there's a good discount bundle of the two I'll pick them up.

Ah the classic Brad+Stealth game+Quicklook equation.

Other than the bad on death dialogue scenes this looks fun for people who like actual stealth games and not action games that let you hide.

Extremely short time to brad on this bad boy

I feel like I should watch the QL for the first game to see if Brad's having a hard time in that as well. Guess Jason's holding the reins in that.

Sadly I didn't pick Master of Shadows when it was as Plus game together with Rocket League. I'd like to play that first before picking up the sequel.

Also a reminder that these two are prequels for Of Orcs and Men.

Bradley " 'Uunghhh' *Sucks in Breath" Shoemaker.

Styx 1 was a pleasant surprise, but very much a classic stealther in design. A linear progression of relatively broad stealth corridors. This seems to be more of the same, and not much different to praise or damn it for.

I don't know why I thought the Styx games were part of the Warhammer franchise/universe, but I've always made that assumption.
I like the look of this game, but I'm no stealth guy. Even the new Hitman couldn't hold my attention for long..

Ahh another Giant Bomb Seal of Quality Quick Look!

i think the death messages are kinda lame and i hope you can turn them off, but the game seems alright, a really focused stealth game.

demonstration here notwithstanding.

Have anyone seen Elle, the Paul Verhoeven film? That movie circles around a video game development executive. The game they are developing in that film, is... well, this one!? As a developer myself, I would want to know the story around that deal and how that impacted the devs.

I saw the movie Elle and ugh it's terrible

This is kinda the third Styx game, right?

Enjoyed the first game a surprising amount when I picked it up free from ps+. Was thinking about picking up this one on sale. Unfortunately I learned.....literally nothing from this quick look. I just don't understand the point of having 2 people that hate stealth games quick look a very unforgiving stealth game.

I want this series to be better than it actually is.

Am I the only one that finds the death animations cool and hilarious? I mean in a game where you are going to die as much as this you need something. Wish I had time for games like this but no. They do look like fun though.

BRAD! I'm Taking the side of the goblin.

I have no taste for stealth of this sort, but it looks alright. Thought the soundtrack played well in the background.

I remember the first Styx QL, probably wrong but I don't remember Jason doing it.

The death dialogue reminds me of Drawn to Death, which is probably the worst thing anyone could say about a videogame.

Much of the plot around Elle (2016) involves the studio of the game developers making this game which is stuffed into the movie showing cutscenes and gameplay even the level Brad is playing. It is a french movie from last year that won a bunch of awards. The movie is really bad but it makes the game look even worse because there are old 1990s CGI cutscenes of demons raping a woman and they call it an amazing piece of art and yes it is this game Styx.

@vacancy: I don't think they actually mention the name of the game though, I could be wrong. But I doubt it had any impact, considering they were focusing more on this weird revenge porn part of the "game". Man, that movie was awful..especially the way it portrayed games and the gaming industry.

For some reason, whenever i see Styx, i think of Garshasp. I think i watched the Best of Giant Bomb too much and its just ingrained on my mind all the time.

@axisandallies: its not the games fault for being displayed poorly

Well, it looks like more Styx which is definitely up my alley.

Bummed to hear them ragging on this style w/o getting why it is appealing but eeh, it's also not a good type of game for the quicklook format.

Edit: do you think at some point they pay attention to the feedback or do they continue to try and crank out sub par content like this? GBEast has been mostly on fire, and at least there's Vinny over there to steer them some when they go offtrack (like with the Y-L QL). Jeff is supposed to be that sorta thing here, but he was too busy shitting on the genre and people who like it to even realize that devs keep making games like this because there is a damn audience. Action games with stealth aren't an improvement to pure stealth fans, it's a cop out. It's fun in its own way sure, but not the same at all. The same type of satisfaction is simply not had.

Surprised to see this here now. I figured they were just going to skip it. I enjoyed this game enough to finish it and went back to attempt to 100% it. It's very much a traditional stealth game, which means you need patience and planning.

For anyone who played the first game but not the second yet, the level repetition is greatly reduced over the first game. Several areas are used twice, but none are used 3+ times like before. It's also easier to drop down into a ledge grab than it was in MoS. Plus Amber Vision has no cost now, and can stay on indefinitely while you're still, only deactivating after you take a few steps. They also kept the verticality of the first game, and most places you need to go have at least two possible routes in.

On the downside, you can't see enemies through walls with Amber Vision. You can see footsteps with an upgrade, but it's not the same. And they removed the clone move where it grabs an enemy from a hiding spot to kill and hide the body at the same time. Styx can upgrade to a similar move himself, but he can't grab heavy armor enemies the way clones could in the first game.

And then there's the fourth-wall breaking. All the self-aware jokes and references feel like they're reaching for a campy fun feeling, and it just seems sad, like they took the easy way out instead of putting more effort into it. This series could be great, but this game was a only a tiny step forward when I was hoping for a much bigger leap.

@tearofthesun: I can understand the frustration but it's important to note that Quick Looks are not reviews. Sometimes they go in completely blind when looking at certain games.

I'm actually sad to say this but I can't watch Brad on quick looks anymore, it feels like he doesn't care about what he's showing, doesn't come prepared anymore with any relevant info. Same with the Mass Effect video. Obviously the crew will read this and not give a damn, but hey, that's my opinion to make something better for the site. I really love the content and want to support it, but these are getting a little out of hand now.

Let's

For a person that harps so much about Thief, Brad is surprisingly bad at ("old style", as per Jeff's invalid opinion) stealth games

Boy, they don't make them like this anymore.

Ok, that was worse than expected. The game looks better than i thought, would be have been great to see a second location or anything else in the QL though. It's kinda hard to differentiate between if the game is not particularly well playing or Brad's just no good at it.

As soon as I saw the streamer joke I was like "oh ok so video games are dead"

This game got braded.

This game seems alright (death wisecracks aside)! Not enough stealth games being made these days, so I may have to pick this up.

I honestly root for Cyanide (along with pseudo-sister studio Spiders) because they aim for the fences with their games and put out some valiant efforts.

It's unfortunate about the tone some of the writing is taking, but I'm not against some dumb fourth-wall breaking after a death since it's the game chastising you for messing up. I thought the Assassin's Creed reference was pretty harmless.

the quick looks this week have been sorta bad.

yooka laylee with that first 25 minute part of not knowing controls, drawn to death where he was running around getting shot, not looking at the map or screen, and this... I remember jason showing off the first game pretty well.

better luck next week.

You don't have to be good at the type of games you like playing.

Brad didn't even turn invisible in a stealth game until 30 minutes into this.

Time to death: 1:37

Never change, Brad

@snowypliskin: I got my comment removed and was ridiculed when I made this exact comment a few years ago on a video. Neat.

I played a fair bunch of this game shortly after its release. Just like the first one, it sadly overstays its welcome. My initial excitement about the ballsy humor and the amazing map design slowly fizzled away until I eventually bounced off the game completely.

I believe Cyanide has a general pacing problem. They could not keep me invested for more than a bunch of missions in two games now. They really need to tighten up the experience and reduce the amount of padding and map recycling.

Despite the guys being so down on this game, I still kinda want to play it. I liked the first game but got sidetracked and never finished it. Then I kinda forgot about it until now. I kinda wish they had someone playing who was a little more on board with this type of game. Maybe Jason since he QL'ed the first one. I may go back and play Master of Shadows again and see if Shards of Darkness goes on sale later in the year (spoilers: it will.)

That said, I'm pretty down on the post-death cutscenes. I hate that kind of stuff. Not just the humor, but the concept in general. Don't berate me when I die, especially in a game where I'll be doing that a lot. It just pisses me off. It was my biggest turn off in the Batman games, too.

I've finally learned my lesson, to not buy any stealth games even if they look great. Just not for me, either.

Brad: Maybe I should turn invisible

Jeff: You can turn invisible? Fuck man.

LMAO this is one of the funniest quick looks

This is a good game, just has some horrible wisecracks.

It's a decent game for people who love stealth, with some reeeeeaalllll bad writing, and an ending so abrupt it gives Rage a run for its money.

I will say the part they choose for this quicklook is one of the worst in the game if you happen to be bad at stealth.