10 Promising Video Games You Didn't Know Were Coming In 2016

2. Styx: Shards Of Darkness (PC, PS4, XBO)

Styx: Master of Shadows was a promising stealth-em-up that never quite made the most of its potential. The fantasy world was original, the goblin protagonist intriguing, and the stealth mechanics at their finest offered the kind of gameplay that we haven't seen since Splinter Cell and the Thief games of old. The game was undone by mechanical clunkiness, but there was enough promise in the original that it's great to see Cyanide Studios returning to make a 2016 sequel. At a time when when new IPs die a quick and painful death if the first game isn't a blockbuster, Styx is among those that really deserves a second chance. Details are fairly thin on the ground, though we do know that it will entail a "fully realised world" and a "nimble, more refined Styx". Among the characteristic goblin's new abilities will be ropes, zip-wires integrated into Styx's knife, and new assassination mechanics. The gaming scene is lacking in pure stealth games at the moment, with the disappointing latest entry in the Thief series showing a fear to be a pure stealth game in a meek attempt to 'appease everyone'. Watch this space, because Shards of Darkness could be one of the sleeper hits of 2016.