Bought this with the DLC remake of the first game. Easily one of the best, if not the best indie games I've played through.
As someone who's emjoyed games like Splinter Cell, MGS, Hotline Miami and a fair bit of tactical shooters, this was far up my alley.

10/10. Buy it.

Back when I played the original Intravenous last year, it felt like a breath of fresh air - a retro-inspired stealth game with an immersive and atmospheric presentation and well-thought-out mechanics. Intravenous 2 is essentially the same game, and the second time around, all these things seem a lot less impressive.

By the way, that's not a joke. The two games are so similar, we get another awkward disclaimer. This time around, though, it's about how Intravenous 2 is a difficult stealth game™, and if you find yourself in a difficult spot while playing, it's probably your fault and you should git gud.

The story follows Sean, a young man who, desperate to get the money needed to pay for his ailing father's surgery, starts working as an assassin for hire. His strict moral code and refusal to kill innocents land him in hot water when he bails on a contract to kill a local politician. The people who hired him are none too pleased about this, and they kidnap Sean's father, keeping him as collateral so they can blackmail Sean into taking on more contracts.

In a bid to save his father and find out who's pulling the strings, Sean teams up with Steve, the protagonist of the first game. Having failed to re-integrate into society after the events of the original Intravenous, Steve decides to help Sean by doing what he does best - taking out criminal scum.

When viewed from a big-picture perspective, the premise of Intravenous 2 is actually pretty solid. It takes inspiration from the same type of schlocky action movies like the original, but instead of being a revenge story, there's a much higher stake with trying to save Sean's father. It's only when you get to the plotting and pacing that things start to fall apart.

Most of the missions (or, in effect, story chapters) follow a very similar progression:
Sean gets pointed to a new target. Steve comments that Sean probably shouldn't kill the person his blackmailers want dead. Sean makes his way through the level and interrogates the target about who wants them dead. The target doesn't know, but promises to look into it if Sean spares them. Having spared the target (at least in my playthrough), Sean returns to base and waits for the target to reach out. The target eventually lets Sean know they haven't found out much, at which point the blackmailers point Sean to a new target. Rinse and repeat.

This was the pattern for a solid 80% of the game. Interspersed throughout are side missions where you play as Steve, usually exterminating criminals, echoing the events of the original game.

This kind of start-stop plotting kills any buildup of tension and mystery, which is absolute poison for a plot where you try to uncover a conspiracy. In fact, Sean very rarely puts anything together by himself, even the really obvious stuff that the player will catch on to immediately. He's typically fed all the important info by other characters, up to and including where his father's being kept, which he's told by a random NPC we first met only two missions prior.

Look, I'm not trying to be an a.ss.ho.le here. The game is dedicated to Roman Glebenkov's late father, who sadly passed away in 2023. The in memoriam during the game outro is really sweet and a little heartbreaking, and there's a definite theme of doing everything you can to help a parent out during a difficult time.

And that's a real shame, because there's a genuine emotional core to the story of Intravenous 2. Had it been couched in a more structured and better-paced plotline, it would have made the themes of the game so much more impactful.

When it comes to gameplay, Intravenous 2 is basically Intravenous. Everything I talked about in that review is also present here, including the immersive stealth and limited game saves.

One thing of note is that the gunfights in the sequel feel a lot easier to manage. This makes them a much more viable alternative to stealth, especially in missions where you play as Steve. There are also certain attempts at improving the gameplay, like the addition of chain-link fences as obstacles, and a wider variety of weapons and gear.

One of the early missions lets you choose if you want to go in during the day or night, seemingly offering a choice between social and conventional stealth. However, social stealth doesn't really work as advertised, and the missions play out pretty much the same regardless of your choice, which seems like a real missed opportunity. It's also the only mission with that option available, making it look like an early game design idea that would have played a bigger part in the overall gameplay, but which has since been abandoned.

The presentation is also pretty much the same as in the original, which isn't necessarily a bad thing - in the first Intravenous, the presentation did a lot of the heavy lifting in making the game feel gritty and immersive. A slightly more varied soundtrack wouldn't have gone amiss, but even so, the vibe is well above average.

Intravenous 2 feels like a very safe and by-the-numbers sequel to a game that was anything but. At its best, it's on the same level as the original, and at its worst, at least a couple of rungs below. While the core of the immersive stealth gameplay is still very much present, given the ineptly handled story, I would struggle to recommend this to anyone but the superfans who absolutely have to play the sequel.

This hidden gem gives you the good old Payday 2 dilemma of whether you should play each level sneaky beaky like with the in-depth stealth mechanics or bring the heaviest, noisiest gear and go ham from the get go with the banger loud soundtrack. The only catch is that you're always outgunned, outnumbered, and are a glass cannon. Kinda wish the story goes a bit longer tho, 8/10.

Also the Merchant's Guild sends its regards.