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Intravenous
Teeth-clenching stealth, followed by tactical hardcore gunplay for those not looking for a quiet way in. Intravenous redefines challenging stealth-action and will keep you on the edge of your seat!
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
77 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Very Dynamic Lighting. Better than Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, even. Splinter Cell was never this hardcore; it’s just a glorified hide-and-seek simulator for babies.”
14 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Punisher-like. Best way I can describe it. Very challenging to play. Very easy to mess up an ambush. There is only three ways of playing and that is True Stealth, Full commando, or combine both. I've used most of the…”
“Review based on "True" difficulty, played on mouse and keyboard. Stealth gameplay is very addicting. Silencers seem to have more realistic range on the sound they make, which forces you to think about not just who you…”
11 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“A very stealthy game. Weapon selection is very well-detailed, and I haven't unlocked them all yet. Would recommend this if you liked Hotline Miami. The story is good for a game like this.”
“very good game with good story and gameplay”
“ever wanted a top down shooter game where you have the free will to do stealth, loud or a mix of both? well you can in Intravenous!!! it's about a guy named Steve who loses his brother and goes on a anger motivated…”
7 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Very Dynamic Lighting. Better than Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, even. Splinter Cell was never this hardcore; it’s just a glorified hide-and-seek simulator for babies.”
“It’s a game with excellent tactical and stealth elements, and it genuinely keeps you on edge. Sound, light, and every step you take can give away your position, and if you get caught in crossfire, the game can end…”
“Taking hints from metal gear solid and hotline miami intravenous seeks to deliver a gritty power fantasy where you avenge your brother and take on organized crime through a mix of stealth and combat. It mostly succeeds,…”
7 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“ever wanted a top down shooter game where you have the free will to do stealth, loud or a mix of both? well you can in Intravenous!!! it's about a guy named Steve who loses his brother and goes on a anger motivated…”
“As of the time of this review, I have 100%'d this game. Great game. Good music. Neither reaches the peaks of the primary inspiration - Hotline Miami, but it's good. Love the innovative stealth design and how beautifully…”
“I really [b]enjoyed[/b] this game overall. [b]Gameplay, graphics and SFX[/b] make a perfect soup of bite-sized sneaking n' murdering mayhem. The only thing that was a bit of a drag was the contrived storyline. Real dumb…”
20 of the 101 reviews raise this · 12 of them still recommend the game.
“Originally refunded this. Idk what's wrong in the head of the devs, but from the first hour of the game there is a very strong and very weird hatred for homeless people. This on par with those weird indie games that are…”
“With this game, I've realized 2D Stealth doesn't work as a genre for me - you have complete control over the enemies' whereabouts, and it defeats the all the excitement of sneaking around.”
“This must be one of the worst experiences I've had in gaming to date. I bought this game many years ago thinking it would be a fun experience. I hated it so much that I closed it and never looked back until yesterday…”
6 of the 101 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Originally refunded this. Idk what's wrong in the head of the devs, but from the first hour of the game there is a very strong and very weird hatred for homeless people. This on par with those weird indie games that are…”
“As of the time of this review, I have 100%'d this game. Great game. Good music. Neither reaches the peaks of the primary inspiration - Hotline Miami, but it's good. Love the innovative stealth design and how beautifully…”
“Taking hints from metal gear solid and hotline miami intravenous seeks to deliver a gritty power fantasy where you avenge your brother and take on organized crime through a mix of stealth and combat. It mostly succeeds,…”
4 of the 101 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“top down stupidity with pathetic 'controls'.. belongs in the 80s! and should have remained there!”
“Movement and overall gameplay feels clunky and pointlessly complicated. I can't change my walk speed when near actionable items, so I find myself scrolling the interaction options instead of running away. I also saw no…”
“Hotline Miami but a real action not a puzzle-game. Very fun to play both in stealth and action playstyles. Only bad thing is gamepad controls.”
3 of the 101 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“What if Hotline Miami, but with a principal focus on stealth? It's enjoyable and implements that idea in a cool way, but with a LOT of jank. Infuriatingly omniscient AI that not only knows where you are from across the…”
“Technical game freezes”
Counted across 101 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 89.9% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“[h3] ---{ Graphics }--- [/h3] ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS [h3] ---{ Gameplay }--- [/h3] ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't [h3] ---{ Audio }--- [/h3] ☐…”
— a player, Steam review · 3 hrs played“The game is like Hotline Miami with stealth mechanics, and it's very good. The story is okay, it only serves to explain why you're doing what you're doing. After playing this one, I'll definitely play the second game.”
— a player, Steam review · 20 hrs played“i got this game for free and i was instantly hooked its pretty solid game i recommend it 9/10”
— a player, Steam review · 21 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-05.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-04). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Intravenous 3 Soundtrack Preview
Hey folks! We're aware how important the soundtrack was to both Intravenous 1 & 2 - elevating the polar opposites of stealth and action gameplay.Xtrullor is once again composing for Intravenous 3, and
Intravenous 3 Reached over 30,000 wishlists in a week
Hey folks! A week ago, the Steam page for Intravenous 3 went live together with the game’s first trailer. And in just one week, the page has already gathered 33k wishlists. For comparison, the origina
Intravenous 3 Revealed
Hey folks! I'm happy to announce Intravenous 3 is now available for wishlisting on Steam! Together with HypeTrain Digital, we are developing the third entry in the series, one that is more ambituous t
Intravenous 1 Remaster DLC Available Now!
Hey folks! Today is an exciting day - the Intravenous 1 Remaster DLC for Intravenous 2 is now available! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3391540/Intravenous_2_IV1_Remaster/ Also, if you own both In
Intravenous 1 Remaster DLC Coming Soon
Hey folks! I'm excited to announce the plans I have in store for Intravenous 2 for 2025! Starting today, you can wishlist the DLC page to be among the first to experience it when it launches on March
Games like Intravenous
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
Intravenous 2
95.8% · 2,741 reviews
shares Crime, Stealth, Top Down Shooter, Immersive Sim
Intravenous 2: Mercenarism
93.8% · 892 reviews
shares Crime, Stealth, Top Down Shooter, Immersive Sim
Police Stories
81.1% · 3,037 reviews
shares Crime, Top Down Shooter, Tactical, Violent
Desperados III
95.2% · 5,873 reviews
shares Assassin, Stealth, Tactical, Violent
Party Hard
84.1% · 4,516 reviews
shares Crime, Stealth, Violent, Difficult
Hitman: Absolution™
87.8% · 18,748 reviews
shares Assassin, Crime, Stealth, Tactical
Hotline Miami
96.5% · 49,419 reviews
shares Top Down Shooter, Violent, Difficult, Top Down
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
92.1% · 28,314 reviews
shares Top Down Shooter, Violent, Difficult, Top Down
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Action, Indie |
| Player tags | Stealth · Tactical · Difficult · Assassin · Top-Down Shooter · Top-Down · Action · Pixel Graphics · Immersive Sim · Indie · 2D · Simulation (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards · Steam Workshop · Steam Cloud · Includes level editor · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English, Russian, Spanish - Spain, German, Turkish, Spanish - Latin America, Portuguese - Brazil, Korean |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 45 |
| Official site | https://explosivesquatgames.com/index.php |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS: Windows 10, 64-bit Processor: Athlon II X2 270 or equivalent Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: 256 MB VRAM, Intel HD 5500 Graphics or equivalent DirectX: Version 9.0c Storage: 654 MB available space Additional Notes: 1280x720 Normal settings, 60+ FPS