Styx always has the tools for victory, and they’re delightfully unhygienic. They're often lifesavers, as Shards of Darkness presents Styx with new dangers at almost every corner. But it's the secondary abilities where the true fun comes in, and they're unlocked by accumulating points by completing multiple objectives or, say, finishing a level without killing anyone or raising an alarm. The Gollum-like sneaking is the best thing about Shards of Darkness, as it allows our green friend to dart under tables and jump into crannies where his adversaries cannot follow. The vertical levels and multiple approaches to assassination suggest a marriage of Assassin's Creed and Hitman, although Styx's tiny, slimy frame allows Shards to craft an identity of its own. “I usually enjoyed revisiting those locations, though, in part because I find Shards of Darkness' stealth gameplay so appealing. Puzzles requiring memories of earlier cutscenes sometimes deliver awesome new daggers, and trials test Styx's reflexes. These are lovingly designed levels that take hours to explore fully, and they're stuffed with chests, wardrobes, and baskets for Styx to hide in and alarms to boobytrap.
It's a shame the fumbly act of jumping from ledge to ledge in midair comes off as one of Shards of Darkness' weak points, to say nothing of the awfulness of swinging from a rope, but it’s doable.
The opening hours present exploratory wonders of vertical design, complete with Styx shimmying and grappling his away over the rooftops and under the boardwalks of majestic steampunk airships, shabby fishing villages, and gloomy dark elven cities burrowed into peaks. Cyanide, unfortunately, doesn't use this rich setting to its full potential.
Sometimes Shards of Darkness introduces a humorous mission, such as when Styx needs to haul a drunken captain to his ship, but most of the time the tale itself is full of weighty themes that might not be apparent from all the snark rampant in the trailers. A fairly decent story follows Styx through nine missions over roughly 15 hours as he buddies up with a group that's nominally committed to the eradication of his race and quickly leads down deeper rabbit holes. None of the characters are particularly awful, but Styx himself is so wonderfully far ahead of them in terms of characterization, voice acting, animation, and humor that just listening to the audio feels a bit like listening to a Mystery Science Theater 3000 viewing of a straight-faced film. He's a weirdly appealing foil to all the dour folks around him, all of whom are trying to swindle each other for control of the precious amber so much of this world – including stealth abilities – runs on. In cutscenes and in fourth-wall breaking remarks he comes off as the only person who's really getting the joke, kind of like a small green Deadpool. “Some folks will hate him and his foul-mouthed Family Guy-caliber quips, but I love him.
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