Old school stealth 'em up Styx: Shards Of Darkness is currently free to keep on GOG
Hit me
As Alec wrote in his Styx: Shards of Darkness review, what the goblin stealth 'em up has going for it is purity. It's a third-person adventure where stealth is the only option and being spotted is swiftly punished.
It's currently free from GOG.com.
In Styx, you sneak about a trad-fantasy world - a bit grim, a bit medieval - by hugging walls, staying in the shadows, beaning enemies unawares, and vomiting up magic clones of yourself. You won't live long if you're spotted. In that way, it's somewhat reminiscent of Looking Glass classic Thief. As Alec wrote:
While Dishonored, Deus Ex, MGSV and even Hitman to a very slight extent offer the option to be a mass murderer in broad daylight, in Styx you might survive one or two fights against a lone opponent, but generally speaking getting seen means becoming a greenskin rug. Which is to say, if you object to the presence of open combat options in your stealth games, you'll probably get a lot out of Styx. This is a game about the art of not being seen, and not really one of madcap improv if you are.
Alas, Styx is also a bit of a fourth wall-breaking, wisecracking jerk to be around. If you don't gel with either its sense of humour or its punishing stealth systems, then Styx can be a rough time. If you do gel with those things, then it's probably still not better than decent.
But hey, it's free, and I 've got a soft spot for the series after I reviewed Shards Of Darkness' predecessor, Styx: Master Of Shadows. "Sometime five or ten years from now you'll be talking about stealth games with a friend and you'll go, 'Oh, hey, remember Styx? That was pretty good.'", I wrote in 2014. There's one more year to go, but I reckon I'll be proven wrong on that one. Still, Styx is... not awful? That's almost the same thing. And right now it's free.