Styx: Shards of Darkness

In the game Styx this time will be in the ancient city of the dark elves Kangar, which is considered impregnable. But Styx was able to infiltrate the city when there was a commotion in the city due to a congress of diplomats. However, the negotiations themselves in the city are not so simple, as they are between the dark elves and the gnomes. Those who have one thing in common is hatred of goblins. Also, Styx will be able to visit different places except Corrangar: City of thieves, Underground mines, Village of hunters and not only.

The game begins in Toben. Styx, on his way to the shelter, steals the guards' salaries that Efron brought him to. At the same time, Styx talks about the detachment of the Mincer, which is engaged in the destruction of goblins. Having stolen his salary and meeting with Efron, Styx falls into the trap set up by the captain of the Meat Grinder Helledrin. But Helledrin does not want to kill Styx, but wants him to get on the ambassador’s ship and steal the staff, which is a pass to the meeting of diplomats with the high priestess of the elves. In return, she promises Amber to Styx, to which the goblin immediately agrees. An attempt to steal a staff turns into a failure - the werewolf elf manages to steal it first.

Styx manages to hide and tell Hallenrin about everything. She asks Styx to help her get into a meeting in Corrangar and the goblin, seduced by the opportunity to take revenge on the mysterious elf, agrees. To do this, Styx steals heavy elven armor and hands over to Helledrin, learning in passing that the elf's name is Jarak and he is a rebel who opposes the priestess. At the meeting, it turns out that the Priestess offers humans, gnomes and orcs special crystals that allow them to control goblins, which destroys the need for goblen hunters such as Helledrin. During the meeting, Styx and Helledrin decide to figure out the werewolf elf by examining the rooms of the other invited guests, which they succeed in - Jarak is injured and begins to pursue.

Styx manages to catch up with him, but Jarak still leaves. On the ship, Helledrin is trying to understand why the priestess needs all this, and Styx decides to go to the mines for a crystal. Having made his way through the underground passages inhabited by Tarabis, he encounters the Tarabis queen, kills her, kidnaps her crystal, but he is noticed by the elven guard. Due to Styx's incontinence, the elves learn that the queen of beetles was killed by a special speaking goblin, but the stix escapes. All exits from Corrangar are blocked - the elves are looking for a talking goblin who killed the queen. Hellerdrin proposes to give Styx as an ordinary goblin and escape through the gnomes.

She surrenders it to the elves as an ordinary goblin and he is thrown into the pit to ordinary goblins. After escaping from the pit, Styx gets to the barge and on it gets to the Hunters Village. Styx can get out of the hunters' village to Torben either by airship or by boat. Once in Torben, Styx and Helledrin learn that the power in the meat grinder was seized by her assistants along with all the amber supplies. While Helledrin drowns his bitterness of defeat at the bottom of the bottle, Styx goes to avenge. After killing Jack-Hwat and Arlock, the styx returns to its lair, finds there a bound Halledrin and a trap set up by the elves. Having come to his senses at the initiation ritual, Styx tries to get out of the bond, but someone helps him throwing a dagger into the rope from behind the bars. Having escaped the Styx must pass six trials in order to get six tablets and leave the temple. At the exit, Styx discovers Halledrin in the cage (you can save her or you can throw her at the player’s choice).

Leaving the Styx temple to get acquainted with Jarak, who tells Styx that crystals allow you to control all creatures in whose blood amber flows. That’s why the priestess makes the elves drink amber, that’s why Jarak resists her power, that’s why the goblins are subject to crystals and that’s why the priestess was able to find Styx's lair. Crystals supply the priestess with gnomes. Styx agrees to help Jarak upset the relationship between dwarves and elves. To do this, they decide to kill the gnome ambassador and toss evidence of elf involvement. To do this, you must enter the quarter of the nobility, but on the way there Styx meets Barimen and can kill him. Having penetrated the quarter, Styx can kill the ambassador or isolate him so that he does not get to meet with the elves.

Jarak suggests sabotaging and blowing up an amber machine, but you need to steal three bombs for this, which Styx does. In the process of mining the laboratory, Styx finds out why the elves bought goblins - they killed them, and amber was extracted from their blood. Having set off an explosion, Styx and Jarak plan to escape, but the exit from Corrangar is blocked by a dwarf golem that destroys everything. Jarak offers to kill him with shots of two ballistas, but when trying to get to one of them, he is bombarded with stones, while Styx succeeds and destroys the golem. After defeating the golem, Styx sees that someone is trying to leave the city on his ship, but he catches up with the ship and sees that Jarak is at the helm.

On October 14, 2015, news appeared on the network that Focus Home Interactive and developer Cyanide Studio announced the continuation of Styx: Master of Shadows . Initially, the release date of the game was planned for 2016, but later the release date of the game was postponed to the first quarter of 2017. The developers explained that the reason for this decision was to replace the outdated Unreal Engine 3 game engine with the more relevant Unreal Engine 4 . The official release of the game took place on March 14, 2017.

Styx: Shards of Darkness has received predominantly positive ratings from gaming resources. The PC version received a score of 75.38% on GameRankings and 74 points out of a possible 100 on Metacritic . ^{[1] [2]} The version for the PlayStation 4 received a score of 73.75% on GameRankings and 75 points out of 100 possible on Metacritic . ^{[3] [4]} . The Xbox One version was rated 73.33% on GameRankings and 74 points out of a possible 100 on Metacritic . ^{[5] [6]}

Zoe Hawkins from the editorial office of Critical Hit spoke positively about the game and noted that “although Styx: Shards of Darkness is not the best stealth game, it offers a lot of fun and unique gameplay . ” ^[7]

According to most critics, the weaknesses of the game include not the most exciting combat system and the undeveloped artificial intelligence of opponents, while reviewers emphasize the merits of the game by the presence of humor and a good level design.

In 2018, Styx: Shards of Darkness took second place in the Stealth of the Year 2017 nomination according to Igromania.ru ^[22]

• - Styx: Shards of Darkness official website