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https://steamspy.com/app/355790
~100k owners VS 400k on Master of Shadows. Sequels are supposed to sell better, especially coop-oriented ones.
Having only beaten one level with a friend this weekend I'm having a hard time understanding why the sales are so low, the game is great. Not perfect, but the art style is drop dead gorgeous, the story is interesting from the get-go, the gameplay mechanics are fun and the freedom of approach is tangible both through the intricate level design and Styx' abilities.
... More Styx, please!
The graphics were kind of bad, it recycled most of its assets and levels for the game second half, and the AI for the enemies could be appaulingly bad/stupid at times. So that being said, it might have turned some people away from the game.
Shame too since this sequel is damn solid and to some extent it rectified alot of the issues above (though it still suffers from them to some extent) and it really enhanced what made the previous one so great. The abilities from this one have expanded exponentially, the graphics look beautiful, and the levels feel bigger and better than ever.
That, or maybe its like Duke said. Maybe this one just wasn't as marketed as heavily, causing alot of people to miss out and not hear about it. If that's the case, just a suggestion, but maybe the devs should see about gettng this game (or its sequel if we're lucky enouigh to get one. Please devs, make it happen) into the hands of a few prominent YouTubers and/or streamers. That'd be an easy way to market the game, and it probably wouldn't cost them much.
I actually haven't finished the first one despite having started it twice, but I was glad there was a sequel and coop does add to the flavor. It's a AA game after all
Youj know, to be honest, I reckon if the team were to up their AI skills (because, if we're all honest here, that's arguably where the games do the worst) and revisit the first game with those improved skills as well as the other skills they gathered and honed working on Shards of Darkness (the graphics for example really stepped up) I reckon just improving those two area's alone could make a significant difference for Master of Shadows.
Should definitely finish it man. It can be alot of fun when you finish the entire game and max all the powers and whatnot. Plus the ending is quite cool and dramatic.
Considering that, I disagree with the people saying the first game wasn´t mindblowing. It´s a pure stealth game, uncorrupted by the neccesities of Triple A games where they want every single player to be able to complete the story. Even after all these decades of gaming, Styx still finds a rare spot in the industry that is very deserving; not just for being a pure stealth game on a period in which "stealth" is generally just a useless feature in most games (even those that propose themselves to be about stealth the feature is just an option... Deus Ex, Dishonored, Elder Scrolls... all these games ALLOW stealth, but that´s very diferent than BEING about stealth) but also because of the main character, people are always complaining how main protagonists in gaming today are generally the same boring short hair white dude with a simple personality and very little to say on his own. Playing as a small Gobling who tends to not give a ♥♥♥♥ and fills the role of an anti-hero and sometimes a straight villain however is something everyone ignores when talking about diversity in gaming. And let´s not forget the story of the first game, the writing and plot twist of the first game are AMAZING, the story itself could sustain a movie or TV show plot despite being a pure game about gameplay, that´s not usual on games that are not design as narrative corridors (TellTale games, Uncharted, Click and Point adventures...).
As for this particular entry, I do agree with OP, this is 10 times better. Some of the newer features may not be as great as they could, but they have fix tons of problems of the first game, amp the desing of the leves to do something truly beutiful and there´s tons more of variety on how many ways there are to approach any situation in the game and more games, plus the lore of this universe has being expanded now that we get a better sense of the elves and the dwarf. The one thing I think this one is "worst" than the first is the story, while not bad this one seems more convoluted but not as clever, it feels like there are two games, one about styx fulfilling a heist job and then the Djarak stuff.
It´s really sad to hear it sold less than the first because it def deserves to sell more and I really want part 3. I think reviewers had something to do, while with the first one everyone was reviewing it and were being nice with the games (even those reviewers that didn´t play that well stealth and confirmed it was not their type or game and probably will not manage to finish it), the second one got very little attention, and reviewers were more harsh, before I bought the game I honestly though based on reviews that I was going to be dissapointed, some reviewers even went as far as to say "fans of the first may find this one to clunky and buggy", and I had only experience problems with one jump in the entire game and with a few bugged guards that would stay still instead of patrolling but I only notice those as bugs because I have replay all missions and I have seen them behave correctly, otherwise I don´t know if I would have notice.
And yeah the AI is one of the weaker links, but it's quite ruthless to compensate for that.
I probably will sometime, but even if I don't, I really appreciate the love, talent and effort put into the game, it's really palpable.
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory remains on the top of my list of stealth games, both for campaign and coop.
But the reality of the game is still that was made with less funds and people that other "big stealth games of the year", which again aren´t all that great at simulating stealth. And despite those shortcomings I still feels the unique features of the game should be praised more. You talk about Splinter Cell but honestly what does that game has that makes it unique? American military dude kills dudes for freedom or something like that, I know there´s more to it than that but still as good as a game is, it doesn´t have a personality, it´s a product, a product made with tons of money more than Styx, a game that does have a personality and is unique.
Not trying to discredit Splinter Cell or any game that fits into a genre or a franchise rather than creating something new or unique, I´m just trying to put into perspective that the accomplisment of Styx are there, even if the game didn´t got enough buzz for people to see them.
Indeed this is a much truer stealth game than what is considered stealth today.
But that fact alone doesn't change its shortcomings. A diamond in the rough is indeed a diamond, but still in the rough.
And some of this roughness does take away from the experience being perfect.
Maybe you're not trying to discredit SC, but that's exactly what you're doing)
If you're being turned off simply by the fact that it's made by a huge company, you're doing yourself a disservice. Try playing it today, see what I mean.
You say it's generic because of plot, but I'm not finding the plot of Styx too engaging either. Solid fantasy politics, but nothing out of the ordinary. I don't care why I'm doing what I'm doing in Styx, I care about how I'm doing it. Exact same thing in Chaos Theory.
And gameplay-wise SC was VERY unique when the original got released. The subsequent 2 games were just improvements, with Chaos Theory reaching the pinnacle. Coop there is insanely good, one of the best coop interactions I've ever seen. Shame on Ubi for shutting the servers down.
Oh and it was true stealth down to the bone. Not the newer Bourne-esque ones.
Remember it was released in 2005, back when Ubisoft was making amazing creative innovative games, not open world busywork simulators with different franchise names.
The reason I brought up SC is because I often see people treat Styx as the second coming in proper stealth games. It definitely is unique in the modern market, it definitely is a love letter to hardcore stealth players, it definitely is an artistic and design achievement in terms of locations. But it's not QUITE there yet.
I´m sorry, I don´t want to be insisting all the time, but we are talking about a dead genre. I don´t care how many times we see the tag "stealth" on games this days, it´s like RPG, as long as you level up is enough for press and players to consider it an RPG... except they are not. And the same could be said about 99% of the games that have the stealth tag, either given by developers, players or reviewers, a game that allows you to duck so enemies don´t see you instantly or where all it achieves is giving you a stadistic on how quick do they see you or how much damage you make when hiting them is NOT a stealth game.
Splinter Cell already exists, the newer one could be the best one, but is still a franchise that was created more than 10 years ago, in fact is more close to be a 20 years franchise than a 10 years franchise since we are at the 16 annyversary of it´s creation. Sorry, but for me whatever merit this franchise deserves is done, I´m not gonna praise number 24 of a franchise, because it´s success is a guarantee, the risk taken by the developer are minimal and when a franchise raise to more than 5 games then most of the "new features" are generally features that were abandon and then re-incorpored into the gameplay or simple tweeks to existing ones.
Maybe the problem here is that we simply see stealth games diferently, but Styx is one of the few REAL stealth games of 2017 in my oppinion, and it IS the second coming in proper stealth games because simply there are no more proper stealth games and the very few that are are only dead corpses like Splinter Cell or Thief, franchises that already did say everything they had to say and they can paint with newer colors on the old canvas, but is still the same old canvas that was decades ago.