Remember Styx? Cyanide Studios' horrible goblin was the hottest stealth game protagonist of the early 2010s. By this I mean he was the only stealth game protagonist of the early 2010s, as bona-fide sneaking games were vanishingly rare.
Then Hitman returned from the dead, and everybody forgot about Styx for a while. But the fast-talking, backstabbing gobbo is returning in a new game in February. To celebrate his reappearance, Epic is giving away the first two Styx games on Steam.
From now until January 22, both Styx: Master of Shadows and Styx: Shards of Darkness are free to keep on Epic. Both games are pretty good sneak-a-thons, worthy of respect simply for how seriously they take stealth. While Styx can technically fight enemies face to face, he is utterly terrible at it and will almost certainly get killed. Hence, evasion, trickery, and shanking guards in the back are the best ways to progress.
Master of Shadows set the template for Cyanide, in which Styx embarks on a series of infiltration and assassination missions across extravagant fantasy locations. Indeed, Cynanide deliver some impressively grand environments that let you take advantage of verticality in fun ways. The sequel, Shards of Darkness, opened up those environments for better nonlinear exploration, while generally juicing up everything else about the original and letting you play through the whole experience in coop.
To be clear, neither game is a masterpiece. Styx himself is a tough hang, putting the "gob" in goblin due to the fact he never shuts up. But they are fundamentally decent stealth games, and for the price of nothing are well worth picking up.
The new game, Blades of Greed, promises to open things up even further, swapping out separate levels for three massive fantasy environments that you can explore at your own pace, using new tools like a Breath of the Wild-style glider. Styx is also master of his own fate in Blades of Greed, assembling a ragtag crew of ne'er do wells to execute fantasy heists from the safety of his own personal airship.
Blades of Greed releases on February 19, which gives you just enough time to finish the first two games if you're up for that. There's also a demo for Blades of Greed available on Steam, so you can check out how the third game compares to the previous two before handing over your cash.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
2026 games: All the upcoming games
Best PC games: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together
Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.


