Styx: Blades of Greed paints a nice stealthy picture in its latest trailer, even if its titular goblin can't shut up

A nice, juicy nine-minute-long Styx: Blades of Greed gameplay trailer has been plucked from the tree of stealth games today. Juicy in the sense that nine minutes is plenty of time to help ascertain whether a game looks like it could be fun, yet if we’re sticking with this metaphor this is one of those apples that’s really good but has a nasty bruise on it you have to avoid.

First, the good part. This is a pretty neat looking stealth game! The trailer paints a much clearer picture of what you’ll be getting up to, showing off a mission in which you broach a very tall fortress you need to make your way up to get some quartz, a valuable resource that also helps the titular goblin Styx pull off some of his magical tricks.

He can turn himself invisible, sneak under bits of flooring, poison a drinks pot to take down an enemy that’s too big for him to outright kill, melting him afterwards to hide the evidence. Styx also has these sort of monkey-esque creatures that can kill enemies for or alongside him. Even stealth games can’t escape being Breath of the Wildified, as the green goblin also has a paraglider at his disposal which he can use to glide about the place, alongside a grappling hook that lets him zip about.

According to a press release, Blades of Greed follows a metroidvania style structure, allowing you to explore new areas in places you’ve previously visited when you unlock more abilities. A fun approach for a stealth game that sounds like it could keep things fresh!

And here’s where the bruise comes in. I get that Styx as a character is meant to have these zippy, quippy one liners, but yeesh are they laid on thick. Admittedly at points he’s vocally reactive in a way that feels surprisingly quick, to the point I can’t tell if it was added in the edit for the trailer. He also never shuts up, even outlining the different options you can take, so I do hope it is a trailer-only thing. I mean come on, he references Scarface at one point, who does that any more?

Anyway, it’s not all that long until Styx: Blades of Greed launches, as it’s currently slated for release next month on February 19th.