The opening area of the campaign for Styx: Blades of Greed shows promise and the potential for creative stealth gameplay as a tiny but mighty creature in spaces designed for much larger beings. Extinguishing torches to create safe passages, cutting chandelier chains to crush groups of guards, and popping out of goblin-sized tunnels to assassinate enemies from behind is just kind of Styx’s thing. And now, the third entry in the series has sharpened its blades considerably. If you already liked Styx: Master of Shadows, Styx: Shards of Darkness, or any of the series’ obvious inspirations – such as Thief, Dishonored, Assassin’s Creed, et cetera – you’re in for a treat when Styx: Blades of Greed launches on February 19 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of goblin life, it’s worth noting that the preview session ran through a cloud streaming service, which, unfortunately, experienced considerable latency issues that made the caliber of precision platforming necessary to progress through Styx: Blades of Greed feel more like piloting a drone on another continent than stepping into the boots of a little green fellow. Split-second timing defines Styx’s gameplay loop, making input delay a serious obstacle when it appears. Fortunately, after massively downgrading bitrate settings to get this zeppelin flying, the early areas uncovered a beautiful and compelling high-fantasy world with plenty of nooks and crannies to explore.
n first boot, there’s an initial accessibility menu with thoughtful implementation, which is always nice to see. Options for deuteranopia, protanopia, and tritanopia colorblindness modes appear alongside adjustable color vision deficiency severity, color spectrum shifting, and controller vibration settings. It takes less than a second to skip through, but matters enormously to players who need it.
You’ll travel between even larger locations on a sweet zeppelin in classic Warhammer or World of Warcraft fashion.
After a decently paced and informative opening cutscene, a subsequent tutorial layers in movement mechanics gradually. Running, jumping, double-jumping, and power sliding are all properly introduced and explained as the playable zone starts opening up, which is great because the tutorial itself doesn’t overstay its welcome. The B button executes a slide that allows players to slip under obstacles or cover ground quickly, while pressing RB after a jump triggers a cool little dash that propels Styx upward along walls. The preview build also included advanced saves that showcased grappling hook and glider mechanics in the Turquoise Dawn environment, which are available later on in the campaign. That said, our session focused primarily on the opening hours centered around The Wall, a sprawling human settlement built on the side of a mountain.
Styx: Blades of Greed Screenshots
Styx: Blades of Greed commits earnestly to its high-fantasy roots, and its environments carry substantial detail to help players establish a sense of place in its immersive world. For instance, its opening zone features ornate dwarven architecture covered in ramshackle human structures and detritus, illuminated by atmospheric lighting that casts long shadows across vast industrial spaces. You’ll also travel between even larger locations on a sweet zeppelin in classic Warhammer or World of Warcraft fashion. A deep level of consideration went into the way this world functions, and playing as a goblin within it provides a distinct perspective that makes Styx both unique and interesting.
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