Among a host of game and hardware previews at Gamescom 2025, I was quietly keen to see Styx: Blades of Greed. The first two games in the stealth action series passed me by at a distance, but now, with the franchise set to grace the current generation of consoles, I was eager to see what the series is going to serve up next.
In short, it’s something stealthily delicious and seems very much in-keeping with the core of the series – but also has some fresh new ingredients sprinkled in for good measure.
From the game’s setting to Styx’s abilities, and from his expansive set of tools to the ways you can utilize light and shadow, there’s some real fun to be had here, and it’s well and truly piqued my curiosity ahead of its release later this year.
Stealthy does it
It’s no secret that stealth, sneaking, and distraction are at the core of the Styx series, and that’s no different in Blades of Greed. I enjoyed trying outa range of stealthy moves, as well as engaging with some fun tools in my journey up a vertical city, on a mission to pilfer some shiny quartz stone – for reasons.
Generally, Styx’s sneaky movement feels pretty fluid, and sneaking by a squadron of patrolling goons is great every time. Equally though, investigating each nook and cranny for items is rewarding, and picking off guards one by one – as is my preferred approach – is still incredibly satisfying.
Stringing together moves through doorways, over balconies, or out of windows, all while avoiding the sight of your enemies, didn’t get old at all in my time with the game.
And when you do get spotted or run into trouble, there are loads of abilities to choose from. You always have a variety of sneaky tools at your disposal, such as clones, darts, Styx’s invisibility mode, and a good old-fashioned throw of sand to the face. A particular favorite of mine was using environmental traps – like sabotaging cranes or chandeliers and causing them to fall onto unwitting guards.
However, when things really go wrong and you have to face off with guards, you do get a stark reminder that Styx really is a sneaker, not a fighter – he’s rather vulnerable, and you can quickly find yourself on the end of something pointy, to your demise.
The only way is up
Putting all that into practice in Blades of Greed’s world is a blast. The game offers a veritable playground for sneaking, climbing, murdering, and bamboozling enemies to get to locations.
One of the key reasons for this is that there is excellent verticality to the city. It was particularly excellent to explore and use all the spaces it had to offer to get the jump on foes or speed through locations unscathed. Plus, it makes for some excellent opportunities to accidentally-on-purpose push guards off ledges at great heights.
Even if you don’t rely on the verticality, there are always multiple routes around locations to each objective – every time I thought I had no options, I looked a little closer and there was a hatch to open here or a bottle to throw there. The glider that Styx has opens up some more traversal options, too, and feels pretty good to use.
Throw in some solid (though not spectacular) voice work and plenty of Styx’s plain talking humor, along with an intriguing but simple plot, and the wheels are greased from a narrative perspective, too.
While not a blockbuster, it looks like a welcome return to the fore for Styx and his sneaky, murderous adventures, and I’m eager to see more when the game releases later this year on PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.
You might also like…
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Mt5b3ANmaMwLef4S2YLT6a.jpg
Source link
rob.dwiar@futurenet.com (Rob Dwiar)
