Mar 09, 2026
3 min read
Analysis and comments in Spanish of Styx: Blades of Greed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X. Is it worth buying?Find out everything about its graphics, gameplay, sound and gameplay thanks to our review.
Styx: Blades of Greed review: Clean, satisfying stealth powered by Unreal Engine 5 that stumbles through rough-and-tumble combat (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X)
It's been 8 years since we last saw Charismatic Sticks in Shards of Darkness.After a long wait, Cyanide Studio and NACON bring us Styx: Level Blades, increasing the size of the maps, adding new abilities, combining fashion Metroidvania mechanics, and the Unreal Engine.A new episode that attempts to innovate the stealth genre using the power of 5.
A prequel that preserves the essence of Styx
Styx has always been portrayed as a special character with dark humor and sarcasm that remains intact in this new episode, in which, fortunately, the studio continues to bet on a politically incorrect character.
Narratively, the story is a prequel, telling us part of the Goblins' past when they were persecuted by the Inquisition during their search for quartz, which unifies the universe of the entire saga.
Vertical freedom: Between the ground and the sky
Level design in Styx: Blades of Greed takes it a step further.Thanks to the application of new accessories such as a glider, hooks or hooks for climbing, the game has become more vertical than ever, engaging in the mystery of increasing height in pure Assassin's Creed style.
When exploring a large areaIt's probably inevitable that many players will abandon traditional street-level stealth to break into the high ground.It is a logical and logical decision: if the air environment allows you to escape from patrols and enemies.Professional assassins will take advantage of this tactical advantage.Instead of taking unnecessary risks on the ground
This might bring some packing for the more purist players, but nonetheless, from time to time we'll need to infiltrate certain buildings or areas where we'll have to take advantage of all of Styx's abilities.
On the other hand, we believe that maybe the controls are a bit more intuitive, there are some mechanics that use some buttons in a way that we feel is unnecessary and can make things a bit artificially complicated.
Undoubtedly, however, the stealth, when it all works, is very strange and moving in the mode and speed of the Styx is a very satisfying stealth experience.
Styx joins the metrodvania vertigin ... and its fight is not measurable.
Styx: Blades of Greed adopts a metroidvania-style structure, an interconnected world where there will be previously inaccessible areas that we can unlock while gaining new abilities, and many players will love it very much.On a personal level, everything has to touch Metroidvania now, which is something we're starting to tire of, but it's well integrated into the game and it's something many players will love.
The plan of the mission, for its part, also gives us different options and different routes to overcome the missions that we had to face, while on the other hand, the enemy AI does not convince in some cases when he became too stupid or paralyzed, when he suddenly saw a partner falling in the distance, sometimes remaining frozen.This contrasts with a good eye to see us in relatively poorly lit areas or remote areas of attack.
Now we are talking about attacks.Not trusting us is a battle.When you fail at stealth (or can't avoid it), head-to-head performance can seem a bit clunky, and Styx's attacks don't seem to have the necessary impact even when they do damage, which I think is a point the game needs to improve on.Yes, it's best not to hit the head, but if this happens, your mechanic needs to do a better job.
On the other hand, if we talk about Styx's abilities, the troll now has access to a new repertoire of powers and the discovery of Quartz adds tactical layers to the game. For example, we can use an energy wave to knock down objects and certain enemies, distort time to move at high speed, automatically avoid attacks thanks to a passive ability or summon doubles.
Attractive technical part... but problems
Visually, the game is amazing thanks to the Unreal Engine 5, offering detailed and beautiful settings, as well as the most attractive effects, although we have found obvious bugs in loading textures that destroy the experience.
PC performance is pretty stable on the computers we tested the game on.For example, we were able to play it at maximum graphics quality in 4K on our high-end desktop with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 and Ryzen 5900X CPU and about 150 FPS in DLSS quality mode and using 3x frame generation.On the other hand, on a laptop with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 and i9-14900HX processor, we managed to easily achieve around 120 FPS with 1080 resolution, high graphics, DLSS quality mode and frame generation.
Finally, we tested it on the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X and here the optimization suffers the most.To get a more or less stable 60 FPS we had to keep the graphics to a minimum, play at 900p and include FSR with frame generation in performance mode, and the "blurred image" costs hamper the experience a bit.
The episode "Styx: Greed" shows that Blade still has a place in video games, and it's truly a genre that some of us miss.While Cyanide Studio's classic style is still present in the form of minor visual glitches and sometimes erratic AI, the movement mechanics and free jumping make up for these shortcomings.
The implementation of Unreal Engine 5 gives us moments of high audiovisual quality and vertical scale never seen in the saga, although the price we have to pay is these texture loading errors, which we hope will be resolved in the coming weeks.
In short, it's a proposal that, despite the inconsistent melee combat and a metroidvania structure that some players may not like, keeps intact the charisma of the hero and the elements that made us enjoy Styx in the past.This is undoubtedly the goblin's most ambitious adventure to date;a "signature" game in the genre that knows how to innovate without losing its acidic identity.
We made this analysis thanks to the PC key provided by Nacon.
