Styx: Master of Shadows –Issues of Stealth and Environment.

Styx: Master of Shadows was a game I was interested in for years. The trailer’s music was catchy, the high, dark fantasy feeling of the setting piqued my interest, and I have a soft spot in my heart for non-idiotic goblins. However, it wasn’t until I delved into the connections the game had with the Of Orcs and Man video game series that I finally decided I want to play it. Goblins and Orcs being notoriously bland in most fantasy, outside of select few franchises, I was fascinated when I heard the character of Styx was the only intelligent goblin in the series and that Master of Shadows was an origin story for the character.

So, when I came upon a deal where both the original game and its sequel, Styx: Shards of Darkness, were for bundled together I snatched them up. However, almost immediately, I found issues with the game. The Metacritic score of Styx sits about a 70. It’s fitting. One of the things I remember hearing about the game was it was a “hardcore” stealth game which was very punishing and stuck closer to the core of the “old-school” stealth games. After playing the game, I realize this isn’t true. The game is a stealth game, but a mediocre stealth game. And while it does have interesting aspects to it — the creating minions being key part of game play, the plot, and the world are all very interesting — the actual core of the game is frustrating. But what does that mean? Well there are three aspects that stood out to me: Combat, Movement, and Level Design. I’ll touch each in order of damage they do to experience.

First combat. Combat in Styx is jarring. When you initiate combat, something that is bound to happen when stealth fails, the camera dramatically shifts. Much of the game has the camera in third person perspective slightly angled so the player can have the spacial understanding of where Styx is in relation to his environment. During combat though, the camera lowers and re-centers on Styx’s back with a bit of zoom. You have control over the camera during the sections but rotates with Styx’s back as a focal point, so players can attempt to parry enemy’s attacking you. While you can dodge roll in combat, the dramatic shift in camera movement and controls throws off a player’s senses of balance. Instead of a knowing where to roll they player must almost intuit where to roll to get out of combat. At which point the camera violently shifts back to the original drawn back third-person perspective. One way to address this issue would be to keep the camera manipulation and angle the same as other points in the game so you can look for places to run-to and hide / escape combat. As it stands once you in combat, you’re in combat, and it drags the game down. There are little to no ways of breaking out, the rhythm style gameplay of parry of die isn’t fun, and, if you do succeed, heightens security to the point the level is twice as difficult as it was before combat. The entire experience drags down the game. I’m going to need to revisit it, but the free demo that came with Shards of Darkness contained a bit of combat. From what i can recollect it significantly upgraded features included a few of the above suggestions. But I’m more sure as I spent most of my time in the demo being sneaky and avoiding anything that resembled a weapon because I was so revolted by combat in the original game.

The next biggest problem is Styx’s movement, specifically his ability to jump and grab onto ledges. The game is dark, and certain aspects of it are all but invisible to the naked eye. To assist player’s, Styx can utilize a vision filter like the ones used in the Batman Arkham series. Amber Vision, as it is called in game, adds a orange-yellow filter to the screen that highlights grab-able ledges, hidden icons, and, with enough upgrades, the vision cones of the enemies Styx sees. As with most Vision system in stealth games, the information provided ends up being so vital that it becomes near mandatory to completion of the game. In this case mandatory not only for the information it provides but also due to the actual mechanics of the game being loose. The simple way to explain this concept is to look to Assassin’s Creed series — and while that series isn’t a stealth game, it does provide a great example of movement mechanics necessary for good stealth platforming. In the Assassin’s Creed franchise when you character jumps off a ledge or falls from a surface, they will reach out and nine times out of ten will grab on a climbable surface if it is in range during the fall. In Styx that success rate is closer to sub-40%. In addition, the fall distance to die in the game is inconsistent; 10 feet short in certain parts of the game and 100 feet long in other parts. A key success of stealth game is being able to traverse the freely, being able comfortable in taking risks to find a hidden path. Styx does not allow for freedom of exploration with it spotty ledge detection nor with its lack of effective level design. It is a stealth game that punishes you for exploration. A punishment necessary as Styx’s level design are too simple to hold complex solutions.

Yes, the biggest issue with Styx is just how simple, but closed level designs are. There are a few exceptions, but most levels have a single path way into and out of the various sections of the map. A good visual for this would be if you built series of rooms versus a house. Styx is made of well-designed rooms containing patrol guards, hidden routes, doors, and items, but with one entrance and exit. There is one way into and out of these room but paths to these paths two point. A counter example of this would be the Dishonored franchise. Again, Dishonored is a bit more action orientated depending on your playstyle, however Dishonored is still a stealth based game that has more open and organic does level designs. To those not aware the setting is a sort of Diesel-punk Victorian Era, which includes the usual off-beat design elements one finds in a -punk setting in that time-period. I adopted a no to low killing approach to the game focusing on using only abilities that granted mobility and “get out of jail free” powers to be as stealthy as possible. This is possibly because in Dishonored there are several different ways to approach a situation and move about the level. Its entire levels are designed to capable of supporting a stealth-based playstyle and a DOOM action playstyle. Typically, the only one-way transition areas existed at the entrance or exit to the level. Almost none of the level feels like a series of discrete rooms separately then put together to make a level. Everything feels purposefully built flowing into each other with interconnections one would only make if they knew what was going on in the entire level. Styx has none of these. The rooms are akin to a series of LEGO sets. Each one was carefully crafted from the same LEGO line, but instead of integrating the designs together, the builder placed they on top or next to each other and called it a completed level.

The worst offender of this design failure is the Furnace level. Midway through the game, Styx, to get back to his safehouse, enter the level and immediately sees a large chimney-like tower containing the furnace. To the left is a gathering of workmen, to the right is ledge that leads behind the tower, and just behind the tower a little lower is the rest of the level. I died multiple ties at this point in my first attempt of the level. The visible ledge along the wall is not walkable, and if you attempt to touch it you clip through it and fall to your death. Along the tower are visual grapple points on the chimney, which were available in previous levels, were not interactable so jumping them results in you falling to your death. The final attempt used Amber Vision to see if there was a grabbable edge, the area was well lit enough I didn’t use it for the previous attempts. There was a grapple point a bit below my position, so I jumped for it and died a few inches from the grip as I had apparently fallen too far (about 5–10 feet). So, frustrated, I moved to the left to overhear the gathering of workmen. The human foreman pitched some low-fantasy racism to his crew about being nice to the Elves of the location. Here, I assumed was where the game wanted me to go. However, while there were several paths down into the congregation, every route would invoke a guard or result in a worker seeing me approach. So, I went back to the chimney. Below the starting point was a worker repairing the machinery, and just behind him you can see a lower ledge where other workers and guards were milling about. Obviously, a place you had to go eventually. So, this time I snuck down, kill the worker — more on that later — and jumped to the lower ledge. About a millisecond before I hit the platform Styx died. Apparently, the jump was too long, and I triggered the fall death animation with about 2 inches from landing.

It took about a dozen tries at stealth before I finally decided it was easier to just kill everyone with throwing daggers, poisoning food, and stealth-killing. Trying to be not be a homicidal murder-machine was the only option. I don’t like killing in stealth games, however sometimes you have to do it. Sometime a plan falls through, sometimes you don’t want to save-scum a level, sometimes you want to try and do a no-scum game and let the chips fall where they may. Or, in the case of Styx, it is because that is the only option available to succeed. Another styx-ing point with the game is its reward system. You are rewarded for completing the quest, side quests, and for accomplishments achieved within the level. Accomplishments such as “no killing,” “never being spotted,” “collection all the coins” in the level (average 35 per level) and being the level under a certain time (usually 15 minutes or less). These incentives ask the player for diametrically opposed things: Find all the shinnies hidden in complex levels AND Complete said levels in sub 15-minute time spans; Kill no one in the level AND never be seen. However, killing no one and not being seen is almost impossible in a game where the levels funnel your character dozens of times into tight corridors that are flanked by character who can either kill you with one attack or force you into very bad combat.

So, is Styx a bad game? No. It is a learning game. It’s a game I highly suggest people who are designing stealth-based games play. Its flaws are noticeable and make for a good learning experience for designers. It also does have some good elements to it. And where its good, it passable. I’m glad the designers of Styx made a sequel. I tested the demo of Shards of Darkness when it was free on PSN. The sequel seems to have addressed some of the issues with the original game. The incentive systems aren’t so binary; you get different grades depending on your approach through levels. The combat feels better from my hazy recollection of the demo. And the levels appear more open if still a bit staged to be a series of unique encounters within a singular map. Even more the upgrade system from the original game seems to have been given as a baseline in the sequel with detective vision showing sight cones, lasting a much longer time, and range of Amber Vision being greatly expanded compared to the previous game. All good, but there is one issue though, Styx.

In a stealth game you fail, a lot. You save often, die often, and even save scum if it gets too hard enough. What you don’t want in these situation is a wise-cracking 4th-wall leaning character chastising you every mistake. As of playing the demo, this is Styx. I understand the intent, Styx is supposed to break the tension and be charming, but in the demo, he becomes obnoxious after a few deaths. Upon dying, Styx appears and taunts the player for their mistakes, usually with some context tied to his means of death (falling, combat, explosion, etc.). It is really, REALLY, annoying. Stealth is about trying to figure out a complex, rapidly changing puzzle. Your failures are learning experiences you use to solve this puzzle. What isn’t helpful in learning something is a wise-ass yelling at me, especially when said wise-ass only died because I turned a corner and got shish kabobbed by two previously unknown guards who instant-killed me. I’m already frustrated, don’t taunt me or I’m going to stop playing.

All this to say. If you have the opportunity play the Styx games. Especially play them if you are a game designer and want to see what not to do in a stealth game. This even applies to those of you who want to design for Tabletop RPGs. The level design of Styx is like some bad dungeon crawl maps I’ve seen. Everything is designed in a vacuum and placed together to be hard, not organic. Finding a way to make a game or location feel organic, in both action and ambiance, goes a long way to immersing the player into the gameplay. Until next time, stick to the shadows and make a few multi-path tunnels in your dungeon for the players to crawl through.