Recent reviews by Stret

if you like IV2 then you should totally get this remaster, IV1's style of levels is great and many of the changes were cool. adds some much needed level variety

edit : i also feel like this campaign works a lot better with certain gameplay elements or playstyles than the levels from the Collateral campaign. Most notably the Fog Of War mutator, which i feel matches IV1R's levels way better for stealth and shootouts alike

unequivocally one of the best roguelites ever made, by far some of the best itemization in the genre & hundreds of hours of quality content. the "Repentance" expansion is by far the best state the game has ever been

the ammount of cool combinations and mechanical interactions is immense, and theres far more potential strategy and creativity involved in generating items/resources than in just about every other roguelite. the item pool is gigantic, and yet hundreds of them are of incredibly high quality/effort, with tons of interactions, synergies, and sometimes even mind-boggling programming feats.
Theres a huge disparity in the power of items, and yet majority of them will be pretty useful in most runs. Many low quality items are super likely to end up being run-saving, or to become super good when combined with something else

post-repentance, the character variety is massive, the enemy/boss variety is massive. The more you unlock things, the variety in terms of ways to become powerful also becomes immense. all of these things generally feel pretty great and smooth to play

theres a lot of very hated aspects that i found to be perfectly great, the steak is nowhere as chewy as people claim, its just a very large steak of consistent comfortable progress
Theres only two characters i genuinely disliked, while most of the infamous characters were really neat (and mostly overpowered)

i think the only big issue with the game is when youre a new player in an early savefile : It takes nonsensically long for you to unlock a lot of the core content and biome variety, it blocks you from being able to easily access half of the game for over a dozen winning runs

most roguelites do nothing special with the genre, often its used as simply a cheaper way to make the game as opposed to a proper campaign. but games like isaac and noita are a perfect example of using the roguelite formula to do something uniquely great that could not have been done in any other way

A very charming and unique game!! :D
As you unlock perks and abilities, theres a ton of different ways to complete missions. Hack all the way to the objective remotely, take control of enemies and make them kill eachother, turn all turrets against enemies, bring in your small army, make yourself a death machine that shoots and explodes everybody, sneak past everyone, hack a bullet and guide it around the environment until it reaches your desired destination, cut through all enemies with a gigantic sword that crosses walls, and many more!!
With just a few slots, you can make yourself incredibly powerful at combat/stealth/hacking, in so many different ways. Theres all sorts of gimmicky and mechanically transformative skills for you to equip, apply some creativity and make yourself powerful in whatever way you come up with.
Some playstyles are definitely far more exciting than others, but its hard to get something that isnt fun.

Some of that is built on top of a cool hacking mechanic that works on nearly any object. Think of the hacking gimmick from Watch Dogs, but far more involved and with more possibilities/strategy/risk/etc, except combined with great shooting and melee, that can often get pretty tense. So if you like that sort of gimmick and want an actually challenging game involving it, then DDS is for you

The aesthetics and setting are great. Great, interesting decisions, questlines that had me questioning who i could trust, missions that had me wondering if i was making a terrible decision, some significant surprises here and there, and lots of cool secrets & unlocks to find along the way. Theres different routes, questlines, objectives and endings for different playthroughs.
(*debatable)

Excellent visuals, cool HUD
Fun characters
Enemy death effects are awesome
Fantastic soundtrack

It has a 99% score for a reason. Give it a try (⁠✿⁠^⁠‿⁠^⁠)

fantastic free update
good changes across the board, multiplayer is fun

everyone complaining about input lag doesnt mention how
- every bit of feedback is perfectly and instantly responsible across the board. You see your tears hit and damage/kill enemies as soon as they hit them, your actions feel delayed but not their results
- synchronization is insanely good, what you see is reality, the location of projectiles in your screen almost perfectly matches the host's screen

I genuinely wish more games went with this approach of
"basically your video and audio is delayed, youre seeing something pretty accurate but your inputs take a while to come out"
instead of
"yeah your inputs are instant and responsive, but your hits take ages to register, all your actions take a while to have an actual effect, you cant actually see where the projectiles are, it slightly desyncs constantly, and..."

IV2 is a good, worthy sequel. I wouldnt say its a direct upgrade, there are some things that i find better on one or the other, but this certainly adds lots of neat levels, good additions, environmental interactions, and fun challenges.

Bottom line : If you liked IV1's gameplay, you will most certainly enjoy IV2.



Theres a lot of good levels, some of which in remarkable locations with their own unique styles/gimmicks.
Theres generally more variety in that sense : some levels will have civilians and potentially a little bit of social-stealth. Some levels will have followers, such as Sean being alongside an AI-controlled steve, which i found surprisingly well implemented. It has its issues, but most of the time the ai is nicely competent at pathing, fighting, shooting enemies at the right moments, and correctly choosing whether to shoot or to let enemies pass without noticing you.

The player's toolkit is quite bigger : You have a few new gadgets, weapon modifications, and some specific cool guns with their unique qualities like the Multi-launcher and the MP5SD.
The weapon modifications are a big upside for variety : you can put suppressors on all sorts of things (with varying levels of performance)
It introduces some new mechanics like zoom scopes, and the laser sights which indicate your weapon sway. Alongside some other useful options, like being able to reduce or increase the firerate of weapons to either improve stability or firepower. Or giving your automatic glock a drum mag.
My one qualm with them is that some of the potential is wasted because of a few imbalances. For example, i dont see a good reason to put suppressors+subsonic on an assault rifle as opposed to a SMG. It worsens rifle damage by a lot, makes their overall stability pretty poor, and still keeps them very loud. Suppressed SMGs feel directly better, because theyre just directly more stable & faster, and enemies never wear body armor to protect from weaker calibers.

Theres a lot of new environmental interactions that can sometimes come in very handy, like throwing objects at light switches, outright destroying doors, or shooting knocked-out enemies with your gun using the targeting mode. Depending on your playstyle, you might either love them or not really use them

More music by Xtrullor. I personally prefered the first game's OST but the second one still has lots of cool tracks, and it seems a lot of people prefer the new style over the old one.

I would say that it did a good job at improving one of the two things that i consider one of IV1's big negatives : The lack of variety in terms of objectives.
The other negative however hasnt really changed though, which is the lack of enemy variety. I think it would have been great if there was at least a little something in that department, such as a few instances of enemies having attachments on their weapons, even those that would end up making things easier for the player like suppressors and lasers.

One of the things that feels a bit weak is the leveling of skills : They are conceptually interesting and add a bit to the relation between the two main protagonists, but i feel like it was too unsubstantial in gameplay. I dont feel like its remotely near relevant and impactful, i think it would be cool if it felt more significant by unlocking new options, instead of only relatively small stat boosts. Its actually so irrelevant that some of the skills were bugged to have no effect and it took months for people to even notice.


The specific mechanics and details have been changed in a lot of ways, i wouldnt say they are all directly better, and theres some stuff one might not prefer compared to the first game, but its overall pretty cool

The AI has a lot more stuff going on in it, most of which i like, a few of which i really dislike, and its interesting overall. Its smarter in lots of ways, arguably dumber in some other ways, sometimes sillier/funnier in several manners.
In particular i really appreciate how enemies can now notice their friends are missing during stealth, most stealth games have a painful lack of this feature. The way they no longer instantly react to noise is also a huge upgrade, & noise reduction based on the environment/walls/etc also feels a lot more significant than in the first game.
The two big things i dislike : The enemy blind-firing mechanic has its upgrades, but it makes them very eager to shoot at a nonsensical empty spaces after briefly seeing you during stealth, which alerts everybody and looks pretty dumb. The other is that they can end up taking cover in one place for really long/indefinitely during combat, which even keeps you stuck with the combat music.

Theres a variety of rebalances to the weapons too. For example, the many shells from the shotguns will get soaked up by the bodies of enemies that are killed, so they can no longer utterly delete lines of enemies. Suppressors are overall louder than the MK23 from IV1 so you can no longer use them as carelessly, but in turn, enemies that hear it will not immediatelly identify its gunfire if they are far enough away, which i personally really like.

My only big complaint against the gameplay is that, compared to IV1, 2 feels a lot more towards combat and shootouts than stealth.
I met lots of friends into this game, and nearly every one of them usually just plays it guns blazing and rarely ever tries to do something closer to ghosting.
Some levels in middle-lategame take so much more effort to sneak past compared to shooting everyone. The player has so many more powerful tools for combat compared to the first game, and yet enemies havent really evolved much. If anything theyre less suicidal, but also less aggressive and deadly.


The premise of the plot is good, its entertaining and interesting.

If youre one of those lame people that disliked IV1 for its revenge plot, then i have good news for you : IV2 has a different approach, with a more involved/nuanced focus than just revenge.
It did a perfectly good job with utilizing the characters and setting of IV1's sillier plot to make something more nuanced. In particular, Steve as an extra protagonist worked really well, and id say its the highlight of the game's story, from the beginning to the end.

Akin to IV1 it is simple/basic writing, but that doesnt stop it from having a few really cool dialogues and moments. Quite simply, it was often fun, and its more notable with how it comes with a more heartfelt/personal meaning from the developer, in which id say it was successful at conveying the feelings it wanted to convey.

The part of the plot that i found weak is how it gets a bit rushed near the end, where things start happening really rapidly. Eventually it stops feeling like much of a confrontation with how the protagonists just go ahead and delete several of the main antagonists as if it was any other level, in particular the most remarkable/iconic antagonist.


It is certainly a good, worthy sequel. I personally dont think it is directly superior to the first game, i think they are both very special with some different qualities, but im certain a lot of people will find IV2 to be way better. Either way, its 100% worth playing for anyone who enjoyed IV1.

But most importantly, comparisons aside : Just like IV1, it is still an excellent stealth-action game. Stealth and combat both coexist & flow across eachother nicely. Its good for sneaking past enemies, and its good for shooting / messing with enemies.

Im very interested in any future projects the dev makes in the future : He more than proved himself able to make fun games, and its very impressive how basically everything in IV1 and IV2 bar the sprites & music was almost entirely made by just one person.

Intravenous is my favorite stealth-action game. Its a short but fun and charming game of very high quality, in a time where there are very few good & remarkable stealth games coming out.

I think it does a really good job for all playstyles : Ghosting, stealth killing and combat are all very good, which is different from most other such games : Usually the combat in stealth games is pretty terrible, or maybe stealth kills/knockouts just trivialize everything. This one does a great job of making all three coexist.

Playing mostly ghost and non-lethal is fun because this is a genuinely very good stealth game. It does an excellent job with light-and-dark and sound mechanics, theres a lot of cool things you can do for distractions.
Stealth is also a pretty major part of the combat, too : Constantly weaving in and out of the line of sight of the enemies, staying in the dark so its harder for enemies to shoot you down, etc.
Combat is very deadly for both sides if youre playing on the "True" difficulty, it can be very exciting and satisfying. A lot of people would say it feels similar to Hotline Miami, which is pretty positive.

The AI is mostly very well made and very fun : They respond to things very well, they will try to stick together when theyre aware youre going around killing everybody, and so on. Early game enemies are slower and innacurate, but as you progress more, they become sharper, being far faster at shooting you down

The arsenal is cool : gadgets are neat, everything factors into how much noise you make, you can select three different types of armor (or none), the equipment you have holstered increases your noise when moving around. You have two choices for suppressed pistols : The normal one which is a potent firearm but makes quite a lot of noise, far more than your typical videogame silenced pistol.. Or a weapon made for shooting animals, that is much weaker and slower, but quieter and capable of taking down people too.

Its full of great interactions and mechanics. Bashing doors into enemies, using your own microphone to make noise and bait in enemies, getting killed by the shrapnel of your own explosion, enemies getting disoriented and accidentally firing at their friends after you flashbang them, enemies trying to run away from a grenade and getting blocked by their friends right behind them, enemies rushing to the other side after they see you get inside a ventilation shaft...

The game is also aesthetically awesome : The soundtrack is fantastic, the atmosphere of the levels is great and the NPC chatter during stealth is pretty entertaining, there are descriptions for every weapon and caliber, a lot of the UI looks awesome, and so on. Theres a lot of cool gameplay related things like the choice between the two silenced pistols, how everything plays into your noise, and the general behavior of the AI that adds to it.


The story is more divisive : Its a pretty basic and quite edgy, its not really trying to be a coherent proper nuanced plot, its just a plain entertaining revenge story. Its admitedly its a bit cringy, and i get why some people dislike it, but i think it was pretty entertaining, and it matched the gameplay really well. Its just fun.


Genuinely very great game, i would recommend this to anyone that likes stealth games overall, and im very interested in the sequel.
There are a few things that i wish were better about this game, such as the low enemy variety, the lack of variety in terms of objectives, and how enemies are often innefective at combating the player camping in a spot with only one entrance.
I also feel like enemy footsteps can be too hard to hear when they are sprinting in combat, in part because of the soundtrack, which can make it pretty easy to get caught off guard.
But overall, theres nothing very bad, and its consistently very fun, and i heard that the sequel will improve upon some of these aspects, like adding more forms of primary objectives & side objectives.


My personal recommendations for playing the game :
- Play on 'True' difficulty for your first playthrough.. The highest difficulty is not good, its actually easier and gets in the way of a lot of cool features.
- Enable "Tactical reloads" in the settings.
- Disable the light cone : its as if you had a flashlight attached to your face, in a game about hiding in the shdaows, which imo is quite ugly and makes it hard to see what places are considered dark. But that may make it harder to see in the first few levels before you get NVGs.

It is better than redux version. If you want to play this game then ideally get the original.

"*" on any of these points means it was something carried over from the sequel (Last Light)

Redux absolutely butchers the lightning and mood in several locations.
Redux has an inferior voice actor for the MC. *
Redux replaces a ton of amazing art with its own soulless garbage. *
Redux only gives you 2 weapon slots on the higher (more fun) difficulty settings, which feels awful compared to the original's 3 guns. *
Redux replaces a ton of great character models with awful, unfitting and boring ones. *
Redux enemies no longer have proper armor, and weapons no longer have different levels of penetration, so you no longer have to do something like aiming for their unprotected areas, or not shooting a helmet in stealth with your revolver. *
Redux has ugly modern-looking guns with lens flare sights instead of rudimentary, thematically fitting guns for the metro. *
Redux absolutely butchers the Shambler, once an iconic shotgun with gimmicks on its reloads, into something more generic with a generic reload. *
Redux makes you able to just take-down enemies from behind effortlessly with no noise. *
Redux removes the cool watch and replaces it with the boring watch. *
Redux makes you unable to hold your knife or cook grenades. *
Redux splits some levels in smaller fragments (because of consoles)
Redux doesnt let you buy different types of armor.
Redux removed a miserable but iconic section because it was too hard.

The only superior aspects of the redux version are the following :
Weapon costumization *
somewhat improved stealth AI (still atrocious)
A tiny bit more content in one or two levels

Its just not worth the money. Its nowhere near the level of quality of Queen and the Sea, the bosses are far less well made, a huge downgrade mechanically. the areas are stale outside of sheer aesthetics with mostly reskinned or irrelevant enemies. The game really could use some improvements and reworks to some of its systems that could make it a lot better, a lot fresher and a lot more worth revisiting, but instead the devs focus mostly on making more money with DLCs, making money with crossovers. Which i would be cool with... If it was as great and well made as QATS, or any other of the game's DLCs really.

If DLCs like this, at this price, are going to be the standard going foward, then this game is dead to me

very good and charming game

the map and setting is surprisingly awesome, the game seemed pretty simple at first and i didnt expect it to be something so vast and great. Its very large and yet very dense, the interconnection is one of the best in the genre
The main highlight of the game is its second half, which is a secret hunt with many steps, where you piece lots of things and clues together in order to progress towards the true conclusion, that takes place all over the map of the game, where you will find lots of new content along the way. Its an awesome use of the game's whole map and the full potential of its interconnectivity, you can progress a lot of it in a pretty non-linear manner and even pick up on some of them even while in the first half of the game.
Despite all the hidden things, it feels very fair to beat in its entirety without the use of a guide, with mostly nothing that someone can miss through no fault of their own.
It is all very, very memorable : There are a very few regions that are hard to remember properly, such as the first area, but overall, its hard to forget the entire layout of most places of the game, despite how vast and large it is.

the beginning of the game was one of the very few times where i felt like the graphics of a game were jarring. But as i got used to it, and the general sceneries got greater, the game started having having a really great atmosphere with really good music. Its all augmented by a lot of the secret hunting, uncertainty, and great feeling of mystique caused by all the secrets and things you need to piece together (which is also boosted by the game not being well known and not being well documented), the game definitely has a pretty strong soul. Its also one of the few times where i actually appreciated the visuals of such a game calling itself 'retro styled'.
The hookshot is fun, bosses start really basic but eventually they get really great, there are some excellent platforming challenges, and it feels pretty good once you get past the initial feeling of jank.

Its some really, really high density somehow. My first playthrough was 17-18~ hours, but by the time i finished it, it felt as if it had been a lot over 30.
Its really impressive how almost the whole game, outside of the great soundtrack, is made by a single dude with pretty much no experience on large proper games. And then this single dev goes on to make Baba is You and be one of the developers of Noita, both of which exceptionally brilliant games. And it definitely feels like the music of ESA carried over to the developer's own work in Baba's excellent soundtrack.

Genuinely very cool game, far more interesting than the majority of contemporany metroid-likes.

just play the definitive edition, its a superior version in almost every way