Styx is back, but is his return to be celebrated or should he have stayed lurking in the shadows? Check out our Styx: Blades of Greed Review

Enter room. Save. Hide under desk. Save. Wait for guard to move out of eyeline. Save. Emerge from desk. Save. Poison plate of food and return to desk. Save. Wait for guard to die. Save. Pick up body. Get caught by other guard. Die. Respawn.

Prepare to save, die, save and die plenty of times as Styx: Blades of Greed is here. Seeing the return of the titular smarmy goblin after eight year. Following on from the last title in the series, Shards of Darkness, Styx has got his eyes set on Quartz. A naturally occurring powerful element with links to the lifeforce of the planet, the Flux.

Initially lured in by the shiny shiny of Quartz, as well as the boost in power it affords him, of course. It’s not long until Styx is seeking out more Quartz across the game’s worlds. Stealing it and anything else not nailed down. As the story progresses, we encounter the Inquisition who are harnessing the Quartz for increasingly nefarious gains, as well as…other anatagonists.

It turns out that absorbing Quartz should end a normal mortal’s life, but as Styx is an ‘amber creature’ he is able to negate a lot of the negative effects, sort of a divining rod for Quartz, and literally take it away from others who have evil designs on it. The more Styx absorbs, the more connected he is to the Flux, who begins to whisper in his ears. Seems there are consequences for absorbing huge amounts of powerful elements (who knew?!).

Cracking Exposition, Gromit!

Styx: Blades of Greed, feels like a proper sequel to the other games, and despite the eight year gap between releases, there is not a great deal of filling in of the story to bring you up to speed. There are mentions of some of the plot points from other games, but these are more in passing, which feels more natural, but less detailed. There isn’t a discussion about what an amber creature is, what happened in Akenash, one of the game’s playable levels, or who a passing character is; despite the fact that Styx comments on them being there, and yet it’s never mentioned again.

Now, I’m not saying I want to visit Grand Exposition Station, but, as someone who hasn’t completed the former two titles, clue me in a little bit?! Hell, just give me a page to read in the menu so I’m up to speed.

Aside from that, the story as a whole is functional enough. I couldn’t help of thinking about Final Fantasy VII’s eco-focussed story, although Styx: Blades of Greed isn’t about pollution, it is about the impact of humans on natural resources that upset the balance of the world.

Character Witness

There was some lovely nuance to Styx’s character throughout Blades of Greed. He often comes across as the brash, aloof, assassin thief, but as the narrative progresses we get glimpses of some greater desires. A sense of belonging, a crew to team up with, and satisfaction from doing what he’s good at. And we get a little nod to that at the end, which was genuinely heartwarming. I did enjoy this exploration of Styx’s character. The other characters felt a little flat however, and again, I wasn’t clued in with some of their history. Some were new to this title, such as Wren, the Orc, who has a great knowledge about Quartz and its links to ‘Mother-Earth’.

We do get to see some glimpses of his past, and his path to becoming a Shaman, which he abandoned for science, though it did feel like that section came out of nowhere. A bit of a slow, interactive flashback that felt a little out of place. Good for character development, less so for the climax of Act 4.

Stealth Me Like One of Your French Girls

Of course, Styx as a series is well-known for its stealth gameplay. So how does Styx: Blades of Greed hold-up? Pretty well I’d say.

I love me some sneaky, sneaky, stealthy, stealthy. One of my fave games from last year was Sniper Elite: Resistance. Being dropped into an open world with a range of tools and a mandate for murdering all the enemies, however I want, is such an appealing concept. I can spend hours just skulking through a level, taking out those Nazi bastards.

Similarly, there’s a lot of fun to be had with Styx: Blades of Greed. The sneaking, assassination, thieving sandbox is largely alive and well. You don’t get a completely open level to explore, not from the off anyhow. You’ve got three worlds to play in, The Wall, Turquoise Dawn, and Akenash.

Each world has multiple areas to explore, connected by air balloons, you can use those to traverse to other discovered balloon stations. Of course, you can, in the main, make your own way across the maps too. Not all areas are opened to you from the off and are dependent on your progressing of the story to unlock some of the areas. Of course, not knowing that, I did spend longer than I should have trying to get into an area, or exploring an empty part of the map, because I shouldn’t have been there yet.

Know Your Enemy

The levels (the bits you’re meant to be in), are littered with a variety of enemies. The Inquisition occupied Wall has a variety of different troops to take on. Turquoise Dawn introduces you to Roaches and their many, annoying, variants, as well as the Orcs. Where as Akenash has Dark Elves, cursed goblins, and…some other things!

The enemy types are largely similar, regardless of race, there are soldiers, archers, heavy troops, heavily armoured soldiers, and heavily armoured troops. You can insta-kill a lot of enemies, but you need to get creative to one-shot the armoured troops. And you do have a lot of fun options at your disposal. Acid traps, pushing and pulling folk off of ledges, poisoning food or drinks (a personal favourite or using some of your Quartz or Amber powers!

Quartz the Matter You, hey, Why You Looking so Dead!

Your tools and powers can be unlocked by collecting blueprints and experience points throughout the levels. Blueprints grant you access to more gear to unlock. Experience, collected from bags of money, hidden emblems, or by completing side quests or main objectives, grants you talent points to unlock new skills. This is how you’ll upgrade your familiar abilities, such as creating a clone goblin, or going invisible.

You need to absorb plenty of Quartz to unlock special powers, such as Mind Control, slow time or one of the most important, Goblin Reflex, protecting you from taking damage in fights. And you’re gonna need that because the fighting is terrible.

River Styx

Styx is squishy. He’s not meant to fight head on. But sometimes, he has to, such is the life of a goblin I guess. If you are spotted, you can flee and hide or take on the enemy in combat. You HAVE to lock onto the enemy with RT (Xbox controller) to be able to attack them. Styx won’t draw his blade unless you do. Frustratingly, the lock on isn’t as intuitive as almost any game, in that it doesn’t lock on, unless you’re looking directly at the enemy. Now I know you might think that this sounds reasonable, it can’t even fathom that an enemy is nearby, and you have to be bang-on looking at them. In the heat of combat, and the way the camera sometimes is all up in your business, this can be an issue.

And even then sometimes it didn’t work. Several encounters I faced I ended being pummelled because I was too busy trying to lock on to notice the hammer smashing into my face. In other encounters, the game didn’t register damage for the enemy, they just kept attacking me but I couldn’t do any damage to them. No real explanation, thankfully, I was able to do the perfect dodge move still which grants you a window to land a killing blow.

Acid Reflex

The active combat felt entirely finicky and annoying until I unlocked Goblin Reflex, then it became a case of managing your amber (your potion for your special abilities), and finicky and annoying. Of course, this meant scavenging as many crafting materials as I could to stay topped up. But I enjoyed this, as it meant I could properly explore and seek out all the hidden goodies that might give me the edge in battle, or as an assassin. Styx: Blades of Greed is a stealth game after all.

You should expect to be slowly creeping around the map, assassinating unsuspecting enemies and laying traps for others. You never feel overpowered throughout as you’re managing your resources and those fancy traps cost!

In fact, I would say it’s advisable to pick and choose who you take on. Can you sneak past that tough enemy and leave him be? Is there another way to take him out? There’s often a sack of grog to poison, or a chandelier to drop on someone. And, oh boy, is it satisfying systematically working through a level, taking out as many enemies as you can.

On the flip side, it is as equally satisfying, successfully sneaking through a heavily armoured area where you have no hope of taking out all the enemies.

Styx With It

Performance wise, the game handles itself ok. I encountered hard crashes, glitching enemies, unresponsive enemies and weird patrol issues. At one point, I had killed absolutely every guard in an area, who had spotted me previously, but I couldn’t save the game because there was still an alert on. I had to die and lose my progress before it sorted itself out.

The game is rough in places. Some quality assurance checks seem to have been missed. I spotted spelling mistakes in the map and subtitles. Some of the subtitles didn’t match what was being said (though largely similar) and at one point, a file name appeared instead of an objective.

Looking Good

The game’s three distinct areas are graphically very different. The Wall is industrious and a mix of wood in the slums and stone and grandeur in the Garrison area. The verticality of it is equally impressive, if a little disorientating at times when trying to navigate. Turquoise Dawn is green, vegetative and wet. It’s the complete opposite to The Wall, and scaling the interior of an excavated Sequoia is a feat in itself. Akenash is a crumbling wreck, floating in the sky, it’s the site of the World Tree, and I’m assuming a scene in a previous game (given the dialogue). Each of the areas feel distinct, even when the Inquisition’s Zeppelin’s make an appearance, making for some fun, between acts change of scenery.

Even on my ‘above minimum, below recommended spec’ potato, it looked good.

There’s no ‘navigation yellow paint’ here, and I’d have welcomed it at times to be honest. I did find myself a touch lost on occasion, but that’s part of the fun of exploring and getting into the various nooks and crannies.

Sonically, there’s a good variety of backgrounds noises, and the music is largely unintrusive until you get into combat. Styx’s regular commentary, and occasionally repetitive lines are largely welcome. He did make me laugh regularly, particularly when he was eavesdropping on a guard, for him to repeat what he had heard as though he had come to this conclusion himself. The rest of the supporting cast were a mixed bag vocally, some felt flat, but none so badly that they took you out of a cutscene.

I Feel Like I’ve Been Robbed

There seems to be plenty to sink your teeth in with Styx: Blades of Greed. Five chunky acts, side quests, collectibles and a whole load of exploring to do.

Over the course of my 40+ hours with Styx: Blades of Greed, I managed to unlock 86% (38 out of 44) of the Steam achievements, and that’s likely all I’ll get, because, in the year of our lord 2026, there is a point of no return. Meaning, however close you were to getting all the collectibles, or side quests completed, you’ve got to start all over again.

Now, the game does warn you that going to the last area will indeed enter the game into the final stages. But, why isn’t there a revert to that point save state? Why can’t I make a manual save to return there? I had to rush to the end for this review, but for completionists, or those who just want to enjoy the most out of the game (unless you want to start again), take heed!

(Keep an eye out for some incomplete guides coming soon!)

Conclusion

Styx: Blades of Greed is a genuinely enjoyable stealth-em-up with satisfying kills, traps, and sneaking. Built on a world and story that started 12 years ago, newcomers might be a little lore lost but that won’t get in the way of you slitting throats, melting corpses, or mind controlling a soldier to his doom.

That being said, some notable bugs, QA oversights, and frustrating traversal and combat may poison the ol’ fruit bowl.

Styx: Blades of Greed was reviewed on PC, via Steam. We would like to thank Nacon for the review code.

Styx: Blades of Greed releases on 19 February 2026 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series, with two-day early access for Quartz edition owners on 17 February.