I was delighted that both Styx games were given away by Epic recently because I had missed them when they were released. Turns out I didn’t miss a thing. Shards of Darkness is just a poorly made as Master of Shadows.

GAMEPLAY: 1/10
Cyanide Studio managed to clean up most of the game mechanics in this sequel. In the early part of the game Styx plays fluidly. Unfortunately as the game progresses level design falls off and I ended up in the same situation as the first game, having to reload over and over again because Styx can’t grab on to the environment anymore. The final straw for me was a broken quest that refused to update resulting in a broken game that couldn’t be finished.

NARRATIVE: 5/10
Since I was unable to complete the game I don’t know if the story wrapped up well or not. I can say that the characters were a lot better than the first game.

GRAPHICS: 6/10
Like the first game, Shards of Darkness holds up well graphically for a game that’s approaching 10 years of age. The one complaint I had was that Amber Vision doesn’t light up dark crawlspaces like it did in the first game, that means sometimes I was wandering through the pitch dark not knowing if I was missing secret side passages.

SOUND: 8/10
Sound effects and music were both improved which is saying a lot since the first game was nearly flawless.

VALUE: 1/10
If you’re the type of gamer who only plays the first couple of hours of games you’ll enjoy Styx: Shards of Darkness. I’m the type of gamer who likes to see games all the way through to the end so when a game can’t be completed due to bugs that’s an automatic fail from me.

OVERALL: 4.2