From Cyanide and Nacon comes Styx: Blades of Greed. It’s all about a sneaky, stealthy goblin called Styx who creeps about a lot and kills tons of people. I do like a stealthy game, so I guess I had better play this one and review it.

“The master of stealth is back! Explore the dizzying heights of the Iserian Continent and cunningly eliminate your enemies. Thanks to your Quartz powers, you are freer than ever. Be creative: Never has it felt so good to be greedy.”

I’ve never played a Styx game before. I did a little research and this is the third game in the series… which are all prequels to another game called Of Orcs and Men, which I have also never played. I had heard of the Styx games before, I’d just never played one until now. As far as I can tell, you don’t really need to have any knowledge of the previous titles to follow this one. Something that I am proof of.

So then, you play as Styx the goblin and he really is quite the sneaky little fella. Nibble, agile and with a ton of tricks up his sleeve. The main aim of the game is to acquire Quartz, a rare and dangerous resource.  Of course, this Quartz is never just lying around out in the open, it is kept locked away and heavily guarded. This is where Styx’s impressive stealth and killing abilities come into play.

Styx has his main HQ, a zeppelin that he uses to travel between the three locations of Styx: Blades of Greed. The Wall is the biggest and main location, which serves as a barrier to the human world. Akenash is an elven city that has become a ruin. Finally, there’s Turquoise Dawn, an orc village. You are free to go to and explore any of these three locations at will, as each of them works as a semi-open-world environment with The Wall featuring quite a lot of dizzying verticality. You just have to access a map, found on your zeppelin and at various points in any of the three maps, choose your landing site (once you have found and unlocked them), and your zeppelin will drop you right where you need to be. Very handy.

Once you reach your chosen location, you’ll have to seek out some of that precious Quartz. Each of the three locations has its own smaller areas to explore, and access to them will not be open at first. Styx: Blades of Greed has a little Metroidvania angle to it, in that you’ll need to unlock certain equipment to gain entrance to previously inaccessible areas. Things like a grapple to reach vantage points, a glider/parachute to traverse large gaps using wind columns, or a set of claws that can be used to scale large walls. Soon, Styx will have an impressive arsenal of tools and weapons that can be used to meet all of his stealthy killing ways.

And about all of that stealth killing, Styx the goblin has a certain set of skills that would make Liam Neeson green with envy. All of the usual sneaky stuff is here. Blend into the shadows, some of which you can create by extinguishing light sources. Hide in cupboards, under tables, etc, or behind cover for an unexpected kill. Go from cover to cover. Climb through windows, shimmy across ledges, and more. Styx also has a nice collection of weapons and tools. Picklocks, throwable darts (some items Styx can craft on the fly), the ability to make a clone of himself, turn invisible, slow down time, mind control, to name just a few. Then there’s a pretty sizeable upgrade system where Styx can perfect those skills and even learn new ones.

Controlling Styx is pretty straightforward, especially given the number of variables at play. Running, sneaking, jumping, using cover, scaling walls, everything just flows, and with a bit of practice, you’ll be darting around, cover to cover, shadow to shadow, ready to stick your dagger in the neck of an enemy. You even get a choice of how to kill. A little tap of the button will unleash a frenzied attack that is quick, but makes a lot of noise, and noise attracts the attention of others. Or you can hold down the button for a slower (which can leave you exposed), but quieter attack.

Then there are the various enemies. You have basic grunts that are easy to pick off without too much trouble. But there are also heavily armoured or big, bulky guards that you are not going to take down with your trusty dagger. These bigger guys can either be avoided or, if that’s not an option, you’ll have to use your cunning to take them out… maybe there’s some food nearby that can be poisoned, maybe a chandelier can be dropped on them? Either way, surveying the area and paying attention to enemy patterns is key, you don’t want to go in with little thought and give yourself away. While Styx can take on the enemy face-to-face (he does have a simple melee attack and dodge system), being sneaky and stealthy is his forte.

Each area of the three maps has different access points and different ways to approach each situation. So if you have tried something and it has not quite worked out for you, just try something else. Perhaps there’s an unguarded door, an open window, a cheeky passageway that you can crawl under. There are always multiple different ways to reach your goal of obtaining that Quartz, and experimenting with different ideas is not only rewarding, but it’s great fun too. Dropping crates onto the heads of unsuspecting guards, jumping out from under a grate and thrusting your blade into an enemy’s throat, sneaking up behind and kicking a crossbowman off a high roof. I had so much fun playing that sometimes, after killing numerous guards, I would load a previous save point, just so I could replay the same area and try different things.

Out now (or tomorrow) for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox and priced around £40, Styx: Blades of Greed is a damn good fun and very versatile stealth title. That little goblin fella has a lot of personality as he wisecracks his way through the game. My first time playing a Styx game, and it has left me wanting to play the others. As mentioned, I never played the previous games, but I am willing to bet that if you did enjoy those, then Styx: Blades of Greed is a must-buy.