Styx: Master of Shadows

First off, it's a great game, though maybe a bit repetitious, especially with certain levels being like the OG Halo: backtracking galore; highly recommend it if you are into stealth games with a dash (across your head) of violence, and a touch (of cold steel of a dagger across your throat) of cynicism in the form of a foul-mouthed Goblin named "Styx". Achievement Hunters: game takes about 23hrs to beat - at least for me - and around 36hrs to 100% with three runs if you do it the way I did; if you listen to some things I have to say, you may beat it faster as you won't spend time doing things you shouldn't. Insignias: Shadow, Mercy, Swiftness, Tokens; don't worry about these until you beat the game, as you will get a stat screen showing you on the pause screen, and you have to obtain all these for each mission and zone for the 'Unlock All Skills' achievement. [u]Shadow:[/u] beat all zones on each mission without alerting anyone; don't get seen and hide all bodies: seen is when the human/elf turns red (alerted) on noticing you, but creatures don't count. Use your clone if you are nervous, as his detection doesn't count as an alert; while he cannot pick up things, he can interact with the environment. [u]Tokens:[/u] are ten tokens you find in each zone that are sometimes hidden well; don't worry about grabbing them on your first run, as it isn't retroactive: you'll have to pick them all up again on a zone-by-zone basis, e.g. Mission 1: Zone 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and they will reset unless you pick all 10 up during each zone. These two Insignias can be done simultaneously, so beat each mission without being seen and grab all tokens along the way (make sure you have the token perk before chasing these Insignias). [u]Mercy:[/u] do not kill anyone throughout entire run (objectives don't count); self-explanatory, but make sure to keep an eye on stat screen, as you may kill and not be aware of it, as I've done it on a whim to get through the mission, which led to me reloading back some saves. [u]Swiftness:[/u] speed-running; you have a time limit to beat, and before you start sweating, it's actually pretty lenient, as most missions tend to have ten or more minutes to spare if you learn the routes after all the replays. These two Insignias can be done simultaneously: pretty much just run through it without killing anyone and you'll claim these two. I recommend those pair-ups since you are doing three runs regardless (Beat Game + Shadow/Token + Mercy/Swiftness) or (Beat Game + Shadow/Token/Mercy + Swiftness), unless you try for two playthroughs only with (Beat Game/Swiftness/Mercy + Shadow/Token). I don't recommend the two-run strategy as you will be missing the story/dialogue/exploration, and you will not like doing Mercy along with Shadow/Token, as you will be exploring and hiding most of the time, and waiting for guards to move since you can't kill them. Again, my recommendation: Beat Game + Shadow/Token + Mercy/Swiftness. Tip: you can whistle: hold down on DPAD if on controller. [hr][/hr] [h3]For devs and gamers - even though game is over a decade old - these are the problems I faced:[/h3] Maps are a bit hard to follow, and open world with elevation doesn't help since maps are static to a single elevation; a compass would have been great to understand map, and the drawn landmarks is a neat idea - until loss of orientation. Tutorial hints popping up along with dialogue / subtitle makes it hard to read and listen simultaneously when it's on a timer: tutorial should be removed with a button press, not on a timer, though I did notice some tutorials seem connected to an area, and pop on and off when you walk through, which is great. Stat screen: only available after beating the game is kind of goofy (after playing a bit of Styx: Shards of Darkness, that has been remedied, which is awesome) Bodies getting seen through walls somehow: its rare but it happens - same with exstinguished torches somehow being detected on other side of wall; the light disappearing makes sense to startle, but they literally can't see it sometimes. Ai continually being surprised after an accident: chandelier kill constantly pops them off when they see it again, as if they have short-term memory loss. When hanging, pressing A should go up, instead of auto-clambering; same for dropping down to hang - it shouldn't be a slow walk to engage it (again, Styx: SoD remedied these, which - again - is awesome) Roabies' detection is too sensitive: as in killing someone without muffling, upsets them a mile away, but maybe that isn't a bug (heh). Vials need to be different color in amber vision, as it is hard to tell if a guard is carrying one or not. [spoiler] 2nd time getting dagger: why does it look the same? I guess it was a lazy choice or maybe it was a time-sensitive decision, but it doesn't make sense unless proto-Styx decided to leave it for him. [/spoiler]