Where Shards of Darkness excels is when it gets you to think dynamically and to pare off all the extraneous technicalities, when hiding and slashing and scheming becomes second nature after you’re forced to hone your skills by being thrown for a loop once you think you know it all. This is a game that you need to sink more than just a handful of hours into in order to really appreciate but in my opinion, the reward is well worth it - the feeling of nailing a multi-target assassination with some high-octane traps before ziplining away and cackling was indescribable, and made much more meaningful by the fact that a few hours ago I was struggling to find my own ass in the dark.