Intravenous: “A Love Letter to Tactical Stealth Action”
Roman Glebenkov’s Intravenous (2021)
By C.A. Ramirez
Sweet, tap-dancing Christ on the cross, this game is one of the best I have played during the pandemic. Intravenous was developed by a solitary code-drunk gamer from Vilnius, Lithuania, named Roman Glebenkov, and his talent bleeds through his second title like a gnarled bullet wound. Not many games can hold my attention, but this one has found a way to drive itself into my frontal cortex with some of the most addictive and rewarding gameplay that I have come across in a stealth/action title. Fans of retro games will be right at home with what I feel is going to be the new standard of the indie stealth genre for decades to come.
Main Menu, Screenshot by C.A. Ramirez (2021)
Intravenous plays like a combination of Super Nintendo’s True Lies mixed with Nintendo’s Metal Gear to form an incredibly rewarding gameplay experience. The layout of the levels slaps you across the face with its design, and its frantic bouts of intense action will have adrenaline leaking out of your ears. The game’s sole designer has stated on his website that Intravenous is, “a love letter to Splinter Cell games.”, and Glebenkov has successfully lived up to that franchise. AAA game titles have failed more than they have succeeded, and it is a breath of fresh air to see a solitary game developer churn out a release that is free of all the bugs and glitches that plague so many corporate game studios. Glebenkov has treated this game as a labor of love and this passion shines through every pixel.
Sporting a top-down view is not for everyone, and one I am not too fond of, but the game’s stealth and action mechanics are executed so well that I never found the perspective to be a problem. Instead, I fell in love with it right away, preferring an over-head viewpoint to an FPS right away. The limitations of a top-down view are what made certain moments of the original Metal Gear so compelling; a constraint on your view distance is what makes sneaking around so necessary and rewarding. You can go in guns blazing, but that is almost certainly a guaranteed death while sneaking in is far more satisfying. Turning off the circuit breaker to get the drop on a denizen of armed drug dealers with a throwing knife and silenced pistol is exciting, but tossing a flash bang inside before I mow down a cadre of drug-addled dullards with an AK-47 is, too. Intravenous gives you the weapons, explosives, and body armor to play your way, no matter how sloppy and noisy your playthrough may go.
Pre-breach, Screenshot by C.A. Ramirez (2021).
To add even more fuel to an already roaring fire are the multitude of gameplay mechanics that Glebenkov has been able to implement within Intravenous. In a nod to Metal Gear, your character can evade detection by crawling under their sight line behind low obstacles and even scramble through air vents that often lead to alternate entrances for well-guarded strongholds. You have a snazzy set of night vision goggles that click on and off with that delightful electrical whine, like they do in Splinter Cell. Electrical panels can be shorted for a clandestine breach and clear; guards can be knocked out and shoved into dumpsters. Lights can be turned off by their respective switches on the wall or you can shoot them out in a pinch. Even the weight of your equipment has an effect on your ability to remain unseen and unheard. Loadouts that are deadly are usually heavy, and that means risking detection. Intravenous may seem basic at first glance, but it quickly unfolds into a delightfully intricate world.
Light Gear Loadout, Screenshot by C.A. Ramirez (2021)
The rudimentary story is about a man who is out to seek revenge against the criminals who gunned down his brother. Truth be told, I could care less, and I am a person who loves his backstories. not to say that the backstory here is lackluster. The problem with it is the gameplay; it’s too damn good. I confess it here and now. I couldn’t wait to click past the storyboard sections of the game and get right back to executing the perfect breach and clear of the first few levels. This solitary endeavor by Glebenkov has me replaying levels over and over just like I would with the Hitman series – it is that addictive. I must have replayed the first level a dozen times after I finally beat it, and I was shocked at how deep the gameplay is and how smooth the entirety of the experience was. Enemy A.I. and pathing are done pretty well, and there were no instances of enemies clipping through walls or graphical hitches that broke the immersion.
Heavy Gear Loadout, Screenshot by C.A. Ramirez (2021).
Intravenous is hooked up to my veins now and has been permanently grafted to the “favorite” section of my Steam library, My Friend Pedro and Dead Cells now have a third misfit to call brother. The gaming world should keep an eye on Glebenkov and his work. If Intravenous proves to be a one-hit-wonder, then so be it. I am expecting great things from this Lithuanian coder as his sophomore release has proven that Vilnius is home to more than great architecture.
