Stealthy goblin murder sim Styx: Shards of Darkness is free on GOG

YouTube

The holidays aren't quite here yet, but that doesn't mean it's too soon to score some free stuff. Styx: Shards of Darkness, the game that "puts the 'gob' into goblin" (I have no idea what that means) is free to keep until November 24 as part of GOG's big Black Friday sale.

Styx: Shards of Darkness is a 2017 stealth-action game about a cynical goblin assassin murdering his way across a highly-vertical fantasy realm, the second in a series that began in 2014. It's quite good: We called it "a satisfying stealth experience" in our 79% review, which kicks off with this absolute banger of an opening:

"Apparently the jump button in Shards of Darkness isn’t located between my ass cheeks. I know this because its irascible and stunted protagonist—no, antagonist—Styx has just shouted this at me from a loading screen after I missed a ledge and killed him."

If that doesn't have you at least a little bit intrigued, I don't know what to say. Except that it's free, so even in the absence of curiosity you literally have nothing to lose. Just pop over to GOG's front page, scroll down until you see Styx's grinning mug, and click the button.

As mentioned, there's also a Black Friday sale cooking—GOG says more than 6,000 games are discounted. I'm not going through all that, so instead I've got a handful of games I dig from my favorite category: Under two bucks. Because seriously, how can you go wrong at that price?

There's a lot more than that to dig through, and you've got until November 28 to get it done.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.