A LOVE LETTER TO EARLY SPLINTER CELL GAMES
You just entered the warehouse through the vent shaft as you hear voices from outside. They know you’re here. Someone must have tipped them off.
You continue to stay in the shadows. You shoot out lights, flip off circuit breakers and lockpick doors. Y...
You just entered the warehouse through the vent shaft as you hear voices from outside. They know you’re here. Someone must have tipped them off.
You continue to stay in the shadows. You shoot out lights, flip off circuit breakers and lockpick doors. You are a silent assassin.
You distract the guards by throwing bottles or imitating their wives voices. One by one you pick their lights out.
Fuck. You’ve been compromised. You shoot out the next door lock and go in guns-blazing. In an adrenaline filled shootout you eliminate your target and barely manage to escape. Well done!
Enter the world of Intravenous as Steve Robbins - a man set out for revenge after losing his brother to low-life junkies. Delve deep into the criminal world under the guise of darkness or go armed to the teeth, guns-blazing, and padded with armor.
Old-school stealth. Your visibility depends on how well-lit the environment is, and every step you take makes noise.
Teeth-grinding action. Fun stealth gameplay does not exclude fun gunplay. Intravenous is meticulously designed to offer stealth for those looking for it, as well as no-brakes gunplay to those itching for a gunfight.
Reactive AI. Your enemies will do more than just rush straight at you. If they've found a dead body they will alert their friends in hopes of finding you. If they hear you sneaking about, they will investigate. If they see you, they will open fire. If they're unarmed, they will try to find their friends and warn them of you.
Capable enemies. Enemies take cover during gunfights, use flashlights in darkness, and radio in suspicious activity. Any misstep you make will result in your opponents responding appropriately.
Lots of weapons. Multiple weapons, each with their unique handling. Each works best in a specific situation. You're sure to find your personal favorite here.
Choose your loadout. Pick a rifle, a pistol, and a bulletproof vest to be ready for combat, or just a pistol and naught else, to be quick, agile, and silent- ready for improvisation.
Adapt to your surroundings. Shoot lights out, crawl through vent shafts, flip circuit breakers off, throw bottles to distract your foes, lockpick doors to find alternative ways in - or simply shoot the door lock out, and go in guns-blazing.
A gritty story. Steve Robbins lost the single most important person in his life - his brother. With aid from a mysterious person claiming to have suffered a similar fate, he decides it's time to take matters into his own hands after the police turns up empty-handed. Nothing is as clear cut as it seems to be.
Uncapped frames per second. 60hz display? Yep. 144hz? No problem. Enjoy the swift action or edge-of-the-seat stealth on your preferred monitor refresh rate.
I absolutely loved my first (but definitely not last!) playthrough! I love stealth and this game gives you opportunity to really go crazy when it comes to stealth. But dont worry - if you prefer to just blast everybody with a gun you can do that too. You can kill almost nobody or you can massacre every single soul on the level. You do you. Absolutely fantastic game! Crazy low price. You HAVE TO PLAY IT!
Overall a good game. The story is somewhat predictable, the AI could use some help, but the mechanics and freedom of it all make up for it in spades.
Deaths come easy (particularly on a kill-everything run), and I played through most of the game before realising I could save during levels, but since re-loading is so quick, I never much minded the deaths as the action could pretty much continue immediately.
The game tends to give you the means to get to your goal, and lets you loose from there, there is little hand-holding or guiding in terms of how you wish to make your way through a level and there are usually several options. A few levels felt too long, but part of that was likely my lack of awareness of the ability to save throughout a level.
The AI could be improved upon, but on average it's not bad. There are cases where they don't switch on lights after I turned them off, or where groups all run towards your kill-box, despite a dozen corpses nearby. But, this never felt unfair given that you can only take a few shots yourself (there were a good number of insta-deaths even when wearing kevlar and plate).
Didn't experience many bugs, the only one that comes to mind is the enemies occasionally edging themselves through the wrong side of the door them just opened. In rare cases was I shot from outside of the screen.
Either way, it has good replay-value, the story is not as interesting but at least they wrap it up to a satisfying conclusion and there is apparently also a level editor and modding ability.
Recommended.
What an incredibly well-made game. Bought this because it reminded me of the first Metal Gear Solid and was pleasantly surprised just how well it fits the genre. While reminiscent of MGS, it is it's own game and shouldn't be treated as simply another clone.
I normally don't like DLCs but I definitely think this is the type of game that would benefit from them, if not a full sequel to it. Highly recommended
