Styx: Blades of Greed review: "What if Metal Gear Solid 5 went goblin mode? This dark fantasy open-world stealth 'em up is devilishly creative"

Crouching like the little goblin thief I am in the rafters in Styx: Blades of Greed, I'm watching a group of guards circle below me, lit by a crackling fire. Too many to take out all at once and there's one beefy chappy in armor, but some tantalizing loot nearby – trinkets I'm keen to pour into my pockets – means I can't resist not bypassing this room entirely. I'm not stumped by how to maneuver Styx, the self-titled master of shadows – I simply have so many options. This stealth series, now a semi open-world, encompasses three maps of interlocking and expansive structures, teeming with open-ended main objectives and a bevy of booty to get my green mitts on.

A plate of food nearby that the bulky armored chap can't help but snack on is one option, but even then I could choose to either crawl along below the table, unnoticed, timing just when I pop out from the shadows to vomit my lethal poison bile across his munchies, or I could pop some of my limited amber magic to become temporarily invisible, more directly plonking across the surface with silenced footsteps. Instead, I go low-magic, classic, choosing to palm an empty bottle nearby, chuck it into the corner of the room to grab their attention, jump onto some carpet to keep my landing quiet, collect my goodies, and desperately vomit up bile so I can douse the fireplace, literally scuttling inside to clamber out the chimney, working my way up one of the massive fortresses that make up The Wall – one of the huge dense and dingy maps Styx intends to rob blind.

Quartz-a horizon

For once, though Styx is – sort of – on a selfless quest. Finding it hard to kick his amber habit, he's gotten wind of a new magical juice, Quartz, the power of which is increasing at such a dangerous rate the harsh world he inhabits could be destroyed. Now, with two games beneath his cloak, that unfortunately includes at least a couple of people this grumpy, gruff goblin cares about in addition to his own gnarly skin. Plus, thanks to his uniquely amber-soaked body, he's one of the few creatures who can absorb and neutralize that Quartz energy and use it as power up. Waste not, want not.

Styx: Blades of Greed's foundations will be familiar to series fans, but a lot has changed in the nine years since the second game. Many of Styx's usual thief tricks are present and accounted for, such as the ability to clamber up to a lit torch to turn it off, or mix spit and sand for a glob projectile that does much the same. He can still hide in this world's many empty trunks and closets to pull a guard inside to meet a swift death. Or silently skitter below small tables. I love how much Styx being a goblin factors into the play and sense of space.

Yet, Styx can now do so much more – which is quite funny considering the plot kicks off mere seconds after the second game's cliffhanger ending. Within moments our goblin antihero is double jumping across a huge rock giant in a God of War 3 flavored opening, speed-sidling across large gaps, and wall running – all new moves. It can make the opening hours of Styx: Blades of Greed a bit disorienting, Styx working his way through small tutorial areas with his suite of abilities clearly suited to mastering much bigger spaces. There's the fear that it's all become a bit too easy. Even being able to move with a grabbed guard to silently slit their throat rather than being locked in place completely changes the pace of play compared to the older Styx games.

But then, you're unleashed upon the open world, each 'act' of the game giving you a new range of Quartz to find and collect, and the slicker movement makes a lot more sense. Many little buildings are simply stop-offs across one of many possible routes through each dense environment, and each Quartz is usually housed in huge sprawling structures you can see far off in the distance. Styx's new mobility options allow you to worm your way to and through them effortlessly, instead shifting the focus on how you tackle situations, or even how you approach and enter an area. Do I shift and shimmy around to look for an open window? Or, run full pelt down the steps, past the guards, but then use a clone decoy ability to make them think they've slain the threat while I've slipped into the shadows?

Styx: Blades of Greed has a well-tuned difficulty curve that dials up the challenge just enough as you grow your powers and get familiar with their situational uses. Major story beats that dish out vital, additional traversal options, such as the grapple hook and paraglider (I won't spoil the others), don't just expand each open world, allowing Styx to push into further areas, but recontextualize older spaces, many of which hide goodies for a hefty number of sidequests. That massive garrison built into the cliff-side might have been tough to sneak up the first time, but return later and Styx's new powers make breaking and entering into a joke – though new, stronger guards and placement will still make you scratch your goblin noggin if you want to nab that relic you've been tipped off about.

Main quests can hold your hand a bit more, especially early on – but the deeper you get the vaguer objectives become, often just giving you a location and leaving you to follow the very obvious signs of Quartz use (huge, glowing blue energy chains for the most part), and how to deactivate security. Often, Styx can eavesdrop or find spying locations to learn more (which is never, I think, mandatory – I skipped more than a few thanks to my goblin wits), though sidequests rarely give you more than basic information. I never really cared about rewards from these bonus activities, but the sheer joy of the crime is all the satisfaction I need.

Not dissimilar to Metal Gear Solid 5, each mission has Styx deploy at unlockable balloon-travel points across each map. The Wall is a dense urban sprawl of fantasy shacks and huge stone zeppelin docks where you sneak through alleys, along rooftops, and hide under market stalls. The Akenash Ruins, meanwhile, recontextualize a number of spaces from the very first game – which is neat to see – and often revolve around more linear evasion challenges as you explore deeper within them for forgotten treasure. Turquoise Dawn meanwhile is another dense sprawl, though a mix of swamp and jungle, with hastily constructed wooden forts and halls built into huge trees, where human forces and the dreaded Inquisition are warring with the peaceful orcs, here dense brush providing just as much cover as shadow.

Metal gear goblin

These open worlds in Styx: Blades of Greed feel like they take the ambition of Styx: Master of Shadows' large maps, and combine it with the increased density of Styx: Shards of Darkness' smaller zones to create a culmination of the dark fantasy stealth the games have been aiming for across many years. At times, taking stock of enemy patrols and unravelling the inner workings of large buildings reminds me of playing some of Hitman's best levels, while the subterfuge and the way each location is connected together in one big map nods to Metal Gear Solid 5. Except, here in Styx: Blades of Greed, the density means there's not much dead space at all. I was hugely sceptical about Styx going open world, but I'm massively impressed by how well it's pulled off – not that there's much competition in the pure open world stealth game space.

It's not perfect, though. Even as the complexity increases as the game goes on, you do reach a point where guard reactions can be a bit predictable and you know a bit too well what to expect when they become suspicious and start poking into cupboards or looking under tables. A bit more reactivity from enemies would be nice – though the unpredictability offered by a handful of areas in which sound-based and even smell-based hunters live do keep this from becoming too much of a problem. I also have to say that enemy AI is a big step up compared to the previous Styx games, though those are almost a decade old so I would expect so. Technically, too, Styx: Blades of Greed can be rough on PC – I experienced multiple crashes (though you can save so frequently it wasn't a big set back), and while the visual design is great there was a constant fuzziness to the image in some locations that I struggled to diminish no matter the settings I changed or tweaked.

All of the spaces here are as intriguing to sneak around for their narrative as much as they are their construction. It's been a while since the last Styx game, but Styx: Blades of Greed neatly builds on what came before (even tying into the Of Orcs and Men RPG from which Styx is a spin-off). There are dark fantasy tropes aplenty, but Styx has its own flavor and twists that remain intriguing. Humanity and its fantasy religion are pretty nefarious, the elves are mostly effed up, and then there's Styx himself.

At first a goblin in a world where they don't exist, he's now the only goblin who can speak in a world infested by a plague of them, considered non-sentient by everyone else – he's utterly alone even among his own. Styx: Blades of Greed's story is light touch, but slowly building a band of outcasts, from the delightfully devilish elf Djarak to dwarven, human, and orc companions makes for a nice vibe that reminds me of Dragon Age: The Veilguard's tone.

Sometimes, I felt like I could use Styx's powers to break progression a bit – sneak too hard, too fast, too deviously. But I could never be sure. Styx: Blades of Greed is filled with so many ways to sneak through areas (or fight in a pinch, but thankfully the goblin is so bad in combat it's never a good idea) that you really do feel like you're crafting your approach to each thieving challenge, and that the game allows or even expects you to push at its edges. You can even jump off the real-time fast-travel balloons partway through flight to leap at areas from fresh angles.

Styx: Blades of Greed is a huge adventure full of opportunities to sneak through a dense and dark fantasy open world and I'll give this goblin one thing – I certainly didn't see him coming.

Want to stay goblin mode? Check out the best stealth games for more!