Styx: Shards of Darkness Delayed to 2017, Gameplay Footage

Bittersweet news for those of our readers who were looking forward to Styx: Shards of Darkness, the sequel to the stealth spin-off of Of Orcs and Men from developer Cyanide Studio. While on one hand we have finally the chance to see a nice slice of gameplay for ourselves, which does a good job at showcasing improved visuals and a large number of stealth options, the title has apparently been delayed from its late 2016 release window to early 2017. First, a look at the gameplay:

I’m also going to quote the explanation from Cyanide CEO Patrick Pligersdorffer, who notes the team needed more time because the switch to the Unreal Engine 4 (from the original game’s Unreal Engine 3) slowed down things and required some adjustments:

“With this new episode of Styx we updated our engine from Unreal 3 to Unreal 4. This update has brought so much to the Styx series, from graphical enhancements to new gameplay mechanics and features. The engine transition has required some time for our team to adapt to. We’re dedicated to providing the best stealth experience possible for players, so in agreement with our publisher Focus, we are delaying the game until the first quarter of 2017.”

How many titles slated for a late 2016 release are actually coming out during that release window? My non-scientific answer would be “not many.”