Styx: Master of Shadows

I been always fond of stealth games such as Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell, Thief, Dishonored etc. even though i already knew about this game it never occurred to try this game out, maybe that's was my best decision after all because playing this game in 2025 was so nostalgic and refreshing at same time.

As many not so old and not so new games made in 2010's this game has it's own charm that some new games really doesn't have anymore. One of many charms that this game has is the fact that your character breaks 4th wall and sometime talks to you and on the other side you can have some weird bugs while playing; i know very nostalgic...


GAMEPLAY

As any Stealth games you have to plan your moves to archive your goal in game, so in order to reach your goal you need to observe and remember patterns of guards movements. Beside observing you need to explore same as in many stealth games you can choose different approaches will you sneak past guards, going on roof and having high ground or you will sneaking in some smelly tunnels it's all up to you.

From Equipments on your disposal you have Dagger, Throwing Knifes, Sand Balls and three types of elixir(Heal, Amber and Acid) which you can use, but that's not all because your are not human in this game you are Short smelly green creature aka Goblin and you have special abilities because of Amber that runs through your veins.

From Abilities that you have are making a Clone and being Invisible, with this two abilities you will get many different approaches. With Abilities there is a many skill that you can have and you unlocking them with points that you will get doing main and side missions inside of the level. Unlock skills that suit your style or unlock them all by replaying all missions.

In some games you get indicator as HUD element that shows you that you are hidden and that you are in shadow, not some many games have this feature, but i think it's very cool thing that they added indicator in form of Amber(Orange mass) on your arm that shines in darkness indicating that you are hidden.

It was not mentioned(at least i think) in tooltip, but you are actually able to whisle by holding "X" on PC and i found out at the end of game, so be aware of that!

Main element is of course a stealth and with that you need to be careful how you walk and where you step cuz everything makes a sound like if you want jump from high places and guard is close if you drop on wooden or stone floor they will hear you so in order to muffle a sound you need to jump on carpet.

Throughout of your playthrough you will encounter various types of enemies, monsters and anomalies. Each type of enemy has it's own power and weaknesses, some can be killed normal way and other must be killed other way which gives this game a good challange for people who hunts to get insignia.

As i mentioned you can get Insignia which is a spice up rule for people who like to challange themselves. beside insignia you will get to find and steal relics on levels which are not showed, but mentioned on "Mission Tab".

STORY

I'll be short here because i don't want to spoil much of game, but i might make you a bit curious to try this game for yourselves.

You are playing as Little Stinky Green Creature, an Orc with dwarfism or later known as Goblin. When you first start game you will get all confused because whole thing didn't make a sense; you will be captured and interrogated with little clue what is going on you will get yourself a mission to find one man that can help you. While you playing game story started to unravel and you get a task to find various people. Then on one mission you find a man who will unravel whole story with one big TWIST! I'll leave you to see what that twist is.

FINAL WORDS

Game has Pro's and Con's but if you are someone who crave that old stealth vibe this game is definitely for you. With some unique features that this game has it was definitely a nostalgic ride for me and can't wait to start playing second installment and give me review there as well.

Amazing stealth game, a "return to form" as some tend to say nowdays :)

If you liked the old Thief games, then you will like this one. Its simple and old but the gameplay.

yes, goblin

Feels like it combines some of the best aspects of Assassin's creed and Prince of Persia in a nice dark fantasy that feels more comedic than edgy. The Music is good and the animations for the takedowns are varied and great.

I played this game after the second and holy shit does this suck, everything about it is worse in every way and I honestly can't comprehend how some of these decisions were made, props to the devs for doing so much better in the second but this is legit unplayable even as someone with 50 hours of time in the second game, jesus

AAAAH H HHEHEHEH AHAHA HAH HAHEHE YES EEE EHEHEHHEEE EEEEH HEHEHEH YYYEYS BUY IT

funny murder goblin stealth game, recommend

A fun sneaking game with some challenging levels. Hooray, I'm one of only 11% who have reached the end of the game. Good story.

NO FREE REVIEWS...

This game helped me stop save scumming and enjoy failed ghost playthroughs of stealth games, and just embrace the absolute chaos of being found, often mid murder.

It is a very competent stealth game, albeit short, and with an absence of levels (3 total, which you replay on the back half of the game).

I enjoyed it.

This is one of the BEST GAMES i have EVER PLAYED...if you have not played it , you should....he is the best GOBLIN EVER!! love you STYX....can't wait for STYX III !!!!!

I'm glad I circled back around to this one, I have been a fan of stealth games since Prince of Persia and the original Splinter Cell game, this felt like a breath of fresh air. Often newer stealth games don't have a lot of mechanical depth, or rely on a very limited number of options through a level, styx feels like every single one of the 8 levels in the game is a sandbox for you to learn and experiment with. The reuse of older levels allows you to take knowledge from previous missions forward and reuse discoveries you made previously to alleviate the ramping difficulty. The story is also very entertaining with a fun philosophical bent to it that kept engaged - the ending was good as well.

Classic in the genre of stealth games. There are level repeats and the dialogue may seem a bit cringe at times, but the game is still a solid 7.5/10

I just finished the game and I can’t believe its a 2014 game the gameplay is very good and the story is even better i will start playing the next game bf the 3 game drops and I hope it’s good as this one.

A REAL GOBLIN would smell like POOPIES and BOOGIES. This is a FAKE GOBLIN

A must-play franchise for all stealth fans! The sequel has more refined gameplay and level design, while this one has better art direction and story, but they're all good across both; this also being the community's shared opinion.

I played this game and its sequel for hundreds of hours each already off of Steam, and I keep replaying them every year, though mainly gravitating towards the latter for the bulk experience. Can't wait for the final entry in this trilogy: Styx: Blades of Greed!

Atmosphere is so strong, missed a huge potential.

I won't bother trying to finish this. I'm roughly 60% of the way through it but the controls are so bad it just isn't worth persevering with. I have one path to follow, the hand holds are clearly marked for me to jump onto but instead of jumping in the direction I am holding, my character leaps away in the opposite direction. This is roughly the 30th time this has happened. It's like there is some kind of unseen gravitational force pulling you away from the direction you want to go in. This kind of stealth game works only if the controls are perfect and this game is far from that. It really lets the game down because the story was good - as was the voice acting. The environments are bleak though - don't expect to see much variation from zone to zone. Even if this game is on sale, I'd give it a hard pass - you will end up breaking your controller trying to perform very basic jumps.

jew simulator

Fun!

before I say anything about my review I want to say something THIS IS A STEALTH GAME NOT AN ACTION OR HOWEVER YOU LIKE IT TO BE so now back to the review.
Without joking I seriously think this game deserves a critical scoring of 9.5/10 with the only problem being the black screen that you have to apply safe startup from the game files to solve it and that's the only problem I have, and about the good things there's a lot with both of the game play and story but to make it short I'm just gonna say one from each one firstly about the game play this game understands the field of vision is a cone not a triangle as in if you are in front above of an enemy and move away they will see you. and in term of the story it has a good message I'm not going to say what it is because I want you to try it.

TL;DR:good story and gameplay with funny selfish protagonist

Enjoyable until the elves section, combine with the stupid AI you pretty much rely fully on luck or cheats to finish each zones

This game is highly not recomended. Story is very good, but I cannot force myself to finish it even on easy. Game feels untested. Here is the most annoying thing in the game:
Cannot ledge grab from ledge.
You HAVE TO push enemies standing at the edge of platfroms.
Bug enemies are blind, but would see you if you are standing still or moving very slow at the sound source.
Bugs do not attack human enemies.
Bugs ignore human enemies sounds.
MC most of the times wont grab ledges and jump unpredictable when hanging from "things"

Good solid 7/10 stealth game. Drags a little towards the end as you essentially just retread the same levels in reverse, but they throw in new enemies to make things interesting enough. There isn’t much else like this anymore, so if you enjoy stealth challenges this’ll give you your fix

Styx and stones may break my bones, but the comedy is what ultimately killed me.

Good stealth game with a nice story.

One of my favourite stealth games, I love being a lil gremlin >:D Can't wait for the new game!!

Nice stealth game, although a bit repetitive at times; and the controls are a bit clunky

I stabbed a guard in front of his friend, and his friend only noticed after when I hit a bucket. 10/10

Fun stealth game.
The movement mechanics with grabbing ledges is a little wonky.
The areas with Robies are tedious as hell.
But it's still fun!

Lovely stealth game with a weirdo as the main guy! Not enough of those!

Styx Master of Shadows is a true hidden gem. It may be old and the npcs are a bit stupid. The stealth is amazing. This is one of the few games where you cant hide in plain sight and that makes it a lot more difficult.. The combat is the only thing I just dont like. Its clunky and annoying, but since the games focus isnt on combat thats okay.
9/10
Full recommend

What's not there to love about this game? Extremely dynamic animations, lots of story, character, art, attachments. It's a game that truly sticks to the art of stealth with a story rich adventure and lots of people to spy on an listen in on conversations within, you can enjoy a game of plenty and pain, a difficult stealth that will truly challenge you in the art of patience, stealth and finding the right moment to strike and get through a tough spot, there's various ways and routes of completing this game.

Combat isn't going to be your friend in this, being a goblin is. Think like goblin, be like a goblin and you will get through this game to the end, I don't want to spoil much for story in this game but I can guarantee to you that you will love the story if you enjoy some twists and more. The music, the artstyle and the characters is something to love. Enjoy the game and enjoy being a goblin.

What a mess of bad controls, repetative maps and a more pointless story than using a sock as a milk carton. This game was so bad in so many ways, finishing it felt like a nut kicking contest, no winners. I whole heartedly regret my hardcore need to finish it, I should have just looked up the story on youtube. This was game of thrones level craptastic endings.

Even if its on sale, not worth the time sink even for $5.

This game is truly underrated, yes it has its quircks (climbing mechanic can be tedious, AI sometimes active weird)

The story is not amazing, but contains a great twist. Its something I wanted to def finish though.

You can tell this is the studios first real big game, They really did great with the map designs, making it so there are multiple ways to get around to the objective, you can easily do a super passive role. I genuinely surprised that there are not that many speed runs in this game. This would be amazing to see speed runs, especially when it comes to exploiting the AI and other mechanics of the game.

The stealth mechanics are pretty enjoybale, the climibing can be an issue at times just because the way the camera is set Styx can block the view of reaching a platform, that might look close but is a bit farther away, also getting down platforms can be hard, but once you know how to deal with them it can be enjoyable to navigate through all the various paths this game offers.

This game is also great for achievement hunters and people who want to get all the points per level.

The game at this price is a steal, and should provide 8-10 entertaining hours.

Amazing game, great character to the story, 10 outta 10, better stealth game then modern day AC

if u like pure stealth games, you'll like this one, combat is super basic, you're a goblin (I think) so you can't really fight which makes sense, not really an action stealth game if that's wad u wan where u can man fight ur way out of things

Si, si, SI.
Level design INCREDIBILE, ambientazione fantasy ma originale. Trama che parte lenta ma riesce veramente a sorprendere, gameplay stealth soddisfacentissimo, divertente, leggermente clunky ma assuefacente. Migliore scoperta so far, non vedo l'ora di giocarmi il 2! (Hanno appena annunciato il 3)

One of the most entertaining stealth games I've ever played. I got a random YouTube video that popped up on my homepage that was talking about this game and within the first couple of minutes of watching that video I was interested in what i saw, so i stopped watching for spoiler reasons and wishlisted the game asap. Not long after the game actually went on sale for 90% off and i got it and played it to 100% completion. It has one of the most interesting narratives of any stealth game I've played and it has a twist roughly halfway through the game that really caught me off guard. I won't spoil it but while I did enjoy the twist, I didn't really enjoy who you end up being yourself. I wish it was reversed, if you know, you know. Gameplay wise it really emphasizes stealth in a way that the more popular stealth games like dishonored don't do well, in a game like dishonored, you have so many powers and weapons and abilities at your disposal that unless you play on ball busting difficulty, the enemies don't really pose a threat to you, and there almost isn't a reason to stealth unless you just enjoy doing it. It's alot faster and easier to just go guns blazing in that game (and it's sequel) but in Styx, you really do feel like a piece of shit goblin. You excel at being in the shadows and being a sneaky little fuck. If you DO get caught with your pants down, you're gonna have a bad time. There is a dueling mechanic so that if you're in a one on one fight with somebody, it's not that hard to parry their attacks and kill them but you can't always rely on that. More often then not, enemies will be grouped up, or they'll hear what's going on nearby and come help out whoever is getting attacked. Once you get outnumbered, you can forget about finishing the duel. Enemies also have a infinite amount of throwing knifes themselves so if you try running away, or climbing up something, chances are you'll get staggered a million times possibly dying in the process. Again, really emphasizes being stealthy comparitively. Also while you're in the "dueling" stage, you're kind of locked into the fight, and unless you try dodge rolling out of the enemies attack, you CAN'T run away from fights once you're locked in. I really don't like this aspect at all but again, just be stealthy and it won't be an issue. The powers and abilities you get are fun to use and the skills you can unlock make the game more enjoyable. Having the different insignias for beating the levels in a certain way and rewarding you for doing so honestly isn't bad at all. It incentivises replayability in a good way. The achievements are also easy to get making this a good game for completionists or bragging rights. The personality of Styx himself is also really enjoyable and fun to listen to.

the most underrated stealth game ever, the visuals are amazing and dark i love this game so much

Styx: Master of Shadows is a stealth game that dares to deviate from traditional action-heavy game play, creating a unique experience for players who cherish strategy and cunning over brute strength. Cyanide Studios crafted a masterpiece that places stealth at the forefront, emphasizing careful planning, exploration, and environmental awareness.

A Protagonist Unlike Any Other
The game’s protagonist, Styx, is an unconventional hero. Unlike the all-powerful characters often found in similar titles, Styx is small, physically weak, and entirely reliant on his stealth abilities. This intentional design choice not only sets Styx apart but also forces players to fully embrace the stealth mechanics. Combat isn’t glorified—in fact, it’s intentionally grueling and almost futile. Engaging in direct confrontations is a surefire path to failure, a design feature that reinforces the game's core philosophy: think, sneak, and outsmart.

Styx’s character is further enriched by his wit and personality. His sharp tongue and dark humor add charm to the narrative, making him a memorable anti-hero. This character-driven approach pairs perfectly with the gameplay, where players feel truly immersed in the role of a cunning goblin.

Immersive Level Design and Replayability
One of the standout features of Styx: Master of Shadows is its immaculate level design. Each level is a sprawling, multi-layered puzzle with countless paths to accomplish objectives. Whether you prefer to stick to the shadows, scale vertical structures, or create distractions, the game offers unparalleled freedom in how you approach each mission. The abundance of hiding spots, secret passages, and interactive elements ensures that no two playthroughs feel the same. This level of detail enhances the game’s replayability, inviting players to experiment with different strategies and routes.

The environments themselves are richly detailed, blending gothic and medieval aesthetics with intricate architecture. From towering castles to dimly lit dungeons, the atmospheric settings draw players into the world of Akenash and make exploration a rewarding experience.

Stealth Mechanics and Player Agency
The game’s stealth mechanics are among its greatest strengths. The reliance on shadows, sound, and timing creates a thrilling tension that keeps players on edge. Styx’s abilities—such as cloning himself, turning invisible, or extinguishing torches—add depth and variety to the gameplay. These powers aren’t overpowered but instead feel like tools that enhance the player's creativity. Mastering Styx’s abilities is immensely satisfying, as each success feels earned through skill and strategy.

Adding to the challenge is the diverse array of enemies. From elves with heightened senses to heavily armored guards, every encounter requires a different approach. This variety keeps the gameplay dynamic and ensures that players remain engaged throughout the campaign.

A Testament to Design Philosophy
What truly sets Styx: Master of Shadows apart is its commitment to its design philosophy. By focusing on stealth and limiting the protagonist’s combat effectiveness, the game encourages players to step out of their comfort zones. It’s a refreshing departure from modern titles that often blur the lines between action and stealth. Instead, Styx doubles down on its identity, delivering an experience that feels both unique and rewarding.

Looking Ahead
With its brilliant mechanics, creative level design, and charming protagonist, Styx: Master of Shadows is a must-play for stealth enthusiasts. The game’s emphasis on strategy and player choice makes it a standout title that continues to hold up even years after its release. Fans of the series have much to look forward to with its sequels, including the third installment set to release this year.

In summary, Styx: Master of Shadows is more than just a game; it’s a masterclass in stealth-focused design. For those who crave intelligent gameplay and immersive worlds, this title is an absolute gem.

Let's get the bad out of the way:
-Styx is a bit unwieldy, especially where it concerns grabbing ledges, which will lead to unintentional deaths.
-The second half of the game is mostly composed of previously used levels.
-Even though you can disable objective markers, the game was thought out with them in mind, with no other alternative to figure out where to go and what to do.

It's a fun stealth game otherwise. The gameplay is well-rounded enough, the levels have some nice verticality to them, and the art direction is solid.

Absolutely fantastic game. Some of the controls are a bit fiddly and a few sections can be a real pain but its all made up for by the amazing stealth sandbox and story.

Dope game in general. Everything in this game is alright, but the only thing that frustrated me was that sometimes the platforming felt a bit clumsy. However, I still enjoyed it. Moreover, the game is short, so it’s perfect for playing during breaks, weekends.... .

Great stealth game.

**Styx: Master of Shadows** is a hidden gem for stealth fans. The game offers satisfying sneaky gameplay, clever level design, and a unique goblin protagonist with a dark sense of humor. While the combat is clunky, the stealth mechanics shine, rewarding patience and strategy. If you love classic stealth games like *Thief*, this is worth checking out. **8/10**

Great story and characters but the gameplay gets really boring quick and the difficulty is ass.

Amazing game!

Great Game. Fun and adventure. And now is the time, to play these two games in preparation for the third game anounced today for this franchise. Very exciting.

it si good