Intravenous Demo Gameplay Preview – Difficult overhead tactical shooter

Intravenous is a pretty darn difficult top down tactical shooter. It’s pretty punishing and you’ll die right away if you play in a very sloppy fashion.

The demo only has one level and it’s somewhere in the middle of the game so it’s not the best place to start out since there is a steep learning curve. The game is incredibly punishing if you make any mistakes. The enemies can easily see and hear you so you have to pay great attention to where you are positioned on the map. They will oftentimes straight up kill you in one shot if you are not careful.

I didn’t try playing in a stealthy fashion as the silenced pistol was a little too weak for my taste. It is entirely possible I may be using it incorrectly. My go to tactic that I developed was to shoot one enemy to draw the attention of the nearby guards and hold an angle and prefire my rifle in bursts to take down as many as I can, and then retreat to a nearby safe location. I would reload and slowly walk out to repeat the process until all the enemies were defeated.

Even using this tactic is quite difficult and I oftentimes just ended up dying. There are many layers of strategy in this game. You can lower the enemy’s vision by turn off lights or just shooting them out. You can even use the circuit breaker to turn off power to an entire building. You can go prone to hide behind low walls and windows to break line of sight. You can also use empty mags and bottles to throw to distract enemies.

Overall, Intravenous is looking to be a brutally difficult top down tactical shooter. It probably won’t be for everyone unless the easy mode is tweaked to be more accessible. The enemies will often times just snap immediately to your location and shoot you instantly. This makes the game quite difficult. There’s definitely fun to be had but getting to the point where you can take down enemies with ease will be a road filled with frustration. It’s definitely great for people who want a challenge and definitely not for people who want a stress free experience.