hey! Intravenous creator here! i'd like to say that this video was very entertaining, and address several things: 1. a second Intravenous game is indeed in development! if you liked the gameplay in the first game, you'll love IV2. this will probably sound like extreme advertisement, but gameplay-wise IV1 will feel like a huge downgrade after IV2 - i'm being real here, not trying to drum up hype, that's the sentiment i currently hold 2. i'm honestly surprised people interpreted the game's story as with some sort of hardcore anti-drug message/moral stuff - when i wrote the story i had no messaging in mind and the story in my mind could be broken down to: "guy gets mugged by hardcore drug addicts, sets out to get revenge, only to be driven by bloodlust" - the simple story was there to drive the gameplay, nothing more, since i am no writer and perfectly knew that i wouldn't be able of writing some kind of compelling story :) 3. the disclaimer was put in the game because people kept interpreting the story as some kind of moral grandstand against drug use/etc... evidently it hasn't helped lol thanks a lot for making this video!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video and appreciate you addressing the points! The fixation upon the fact a lot of your foes in the story are drug users/drug addicts drives forward the notion this is what justifies the violence, even if it was unintentional. Fortunately, the game's complexity speaks for itself more than enough to compensate. I anxiously await the sequel's release and will be first in line to play it.
@@larubric there wasn't a fixation, rather budget and time constraints :) (tho i guess you could argue that counts as a fixation, haha) if i could've had more time and money to develop the game with, i'd say the story would be different altogether again, there was no messaging in my mind when i wrote the story, and i thought people would understand that since they can finish an entire level without touching a single enemy (except for certain levels), and the fact that the player is not rewarded in any way for killing said enemies, that would make it quite obvious that there is no messaging going on though as i write it out it makes me wonder - have gamers been conditioned to see/infer/assume some kind of messaging in video games? i certainly don't unless it's really, really on the nose ah well, all water under the bridge, definitely was something to reflect on for future projects lol
@@SpysBizarreGameDevAdventure You're not wrong that you can spare all the enemies in the level and just go past them, something I found myself doing a lot as a true stealth run, but you also do kill a lot of the head honchos of each level as mandatory cutscenes and a big arc of the game after the fourth mission is the protagonist's continued involvement in hunting down and killing manufacturers and distributors of drugs who aren't even related to the death of his brother. The drug trade in the real world is an extremely dark place, I'm not trying to say the story wrongly demonises gang/cartel leaders, but there is a lot of mention of drug use/drug involvement that seems to become the motivation for the protagonist's violent acts more so than his dead brother who I think was brought up less lol. I don't know if it's gamers being conditioned to read too much into things more so than that just being how the story got told and the neutral intent wasn't apparent. I imagine constraints on budget and time did make it difficult for threading together the story, though, and I'm sympathetic for that lol. I like writing stories and I couldn't imagine anything more creatively frustrating than being constrained on what I want to make.
It's one of the best games I've played in a long time. These AAA games have really been lacking compared to indie games, especially compared to pixel art games. I enjoyed the simple story, it's not different than me watching the original 1987 punisher, blue steel or death wish. I think too many gamers today want too much of a story and comes at a sacrifice of gameplay. The ai is pretty good. I've been wanting ai like this in almost every VR game I played in the last few years. The only thing I would like to see in the 2nd game is, some type of item highlighting. Sometimes I would throw a knife, can, mag and lose track of it due to the darkness. It would be nice if we could highlighting similar to when you are close to a scalable wall. This way it doesn't intrude on the visuals. Sometimes when multiple objects are stacked, it's hard to select their options. Sometimes I wouldn't see the option for pickup or stomp, well at least before the next enemy appears.
i didn't see the story as very pro drug user killing because sneaky steve's actions get him manipulated for use by another drug lord and at the end he's like "well i did all this shit now what"
That's true, potentially the story showcases how the main character's anger and lack of control can be easily weaponised to wreak havoc and destruction that serves no end to avenge his brother. Unfortunately, I didn't think the story was well written enough to really warrant that and a lot of the dialogue with Steve makes specific mention of referring to drug users as degenerates and pieces of sh*t on the basis of their drug abuse. It comes up so often that it kind of eclipsed the whole avenging his brother thing. The dev did explain in the comments about his intentions and constraints, which give important context as to why he wrote the story he did, but ultimately what carries Intravenous is its complex mechanical systems. Narratively there is nothing here.
Yeah, he killed innocent drug addicts, none of them did have firearms and were protecting a higher dealer while having total control of an entire zone. Clearly, Steve was referring to teenagers and old people. Outside of the first level (where they did have smgs and shotguns), everyone was protecting some dealer, yes, the game goes repetitive with the "f*cking druggies" but this isn´t some gray area like killing mercenaries or enemy soldiers.
My compassion for drug addicts only extendeds to if they are willing to fix there issue and if they have hurt other people just for a fix. The discrimination isnt there for no reason. So in this game I will absolutely give every npc the wetwork. Free if charge.
Well after watching the video I think I am gonna try it out, tho shame that they choose 'everyone involved in drugs' as the bad guys and not human traffickers but oh well I could ingnore building a police state for chimera squad think I can ignore this aswell. 0:47 Impressive very nice
I mean I don’t think I really get the complaint about the story, you yourself admitted that it’s a revenge story of gruff angry old men fighting gruff angry old men. My thought process goes, that, using that logic it could be literally anyone that you’re killing. Hell it could be robots or just random rich people. Hit man has pretty much gotten away with doing the latter for three games now.
My complaint about the story was that the protagonist is written to have a very strong and specific hatred of people who use drugs or deal in drugs, describing them as filth or pieces of shit, and that sentiment being used to motivate acts of disproportionate violence. I also think its used as a signifier for 'bad person' in the story, that on the merit of them partaking in drug use their demise is a simple means to an end, and I think it's a very black-and-white way of writing people who just sniff a powder every now and then. Arguably the creator may have written it as a deliberate drawback of Steve - that he is so blind to what he is doing and what he was originally doing it for, he sees anyone at all in league with narcotics as complicit in his brother's death - but I don't think it's written well enough to come off that way.
@@larubric Okay so here is my biggest issue. I’m not saying that one dimensional writing for your characters and villains isn’t a weakpoint but let’s set the stage here and use an example we’re both familiar with. John Wick in the third and second movie established that pretty much everyone associated with the continental is after John Wick. The movie never states that those people associated with the continental are necessarily evil(with the exception of I think the tall guy and the adjudicator) as indicated by the “it’s just a professional courtesy scene”. John wick and Steve aren’t necessarily against the people in between them and the organization they’re fighting to bring down but they’re not going to be deterred. I think the best example of this for Steve is simply the pacifist achievement and the genocidal achievement(hippie and unrelenting anger respectively.) As a matter of fact I would almost argue that is a stroke of accidental genius to show how Steve is at a crossroads in his life. By the way, I’m not trying to argue with you I’m just trying to explain my confusion. If there’s anything I’m misunderstanding about your argument a further response would be very much welcome. Thank you for the polite and well mannered response by the way.
@@larubric Wait okay I think I get it. So you’re big issue with the story is that without a scene to humanize the bad guys, they stay just as that and we are left with nothing more than to take our protagonist’s opinion as fact.
@@allknighter5791 I think that's more so it, yeah. The thugs and enemies you dispatch seem very malicious and violent to a ridiculous extent straight down to their interactions with one another. You'd think some of these guys would just have a regular conversation about lunch or something but instead everyone's always picking fights or swearing every other sentence. And I think when that's paired with them being drug dealers/cartel enforcers/regular 'junkies', and this also being coupled with Steve seeing them all as nothing but filth that deserve to die horribly, it comes off almost like the creator's own morals are being shown through the character. The dev has said that wasn't the intention so I don't think that's the case but you have to consider what is being presented, intended or otherwise, and Steve's unending hatred of anyone who smoked weed in high school seems less like a cautionary tale about following violent means to resolve problems out of your control and more so a very shallow justification to absolve our protagonist of moral repercussion and try to keep reminding the player that he's the good guy cos the people he kills are junkies that have it coming anyway.
@@Itz_GamePoint pretty sure xtrullor's vods just expired tbh. I don't believe he streamed making the ost anyway, since he only streams maybe a couple times a year at best
To be fair the game starts with a really based message that says basically "Hey. This game does not represent my thoughts on politics or crime. It's just an excuse for a guy to run around and do cool spy movie shit in dingy locales. Don't actually kill drug addicts. This game barely has a story. Have fun." I wish more games had the maturity and understanding to just say that up front, because hey, I love slaughtering a ton of people as a action movie dude in grimdark stories, but that stuff can be used as actual tone deaf propaganda for stupid and nefarious purposes (see modern call of duty, ready or not, etc)
@@drakep.5857how is RON tone deaf propaganda? pretty sure the entire story is a satire of modern America and our approachingly dysfunctional current day. how can you see billionaire PDFs, political extremism, and mass shootings every 2 weeks in game without noticing how it's a deliberate commentary on modern Americana? it's not an endorsement, it's a warning of things that'll come. you're probably the type of person who thinks Helldivers 2 is unironic. be more media literate next time before going "cop game=copaganda" ready or not is no different from RoboCop, there both socialist masterpieces guising behind the vaneer of broken windows-style police propaganda.
@@drakep.5857besides, adding a warning to the game misses the point that it's inherently a political satire. the fact that it can be used as propaganda adds to it's message and deliberate parody.
Is the mystery man Kurt Cobain? and honestly, I found it funny that the game was moralistic and killed drug users. I think people shouldn't take it so seriously.
hey! Intravenous creator here! i'd like to say that this video was very entertaining, and address several things:
1. a second Intravenous game is indeed in development! if you liked the gameplay in the first game, you'll love IV2. this will probably sound like extreme advertisement, but gameplay-wise IV1 will feel like a huge downgrade after IV2 - i'm being real here, not trying to drum up hype, that's the sentiment i currently hold
2. i'm honestly surprised people interpreted the game's story as with some sort of hardcore anti-drug message/moral stuff - when i wrote the story i had no messaging in mind and the story in my mind could be broken down to: "guy gets mugged by hardcore drug addicts, sets out to get revenge, only to be driven by bloodlust" - the simple story was there to drive the gameplay, nothing more, since i am no writer and perfectly knew that i wouldn't be able of writing some kind of compelling story :)
3. the disclaimer was put in the game because people kept interpreting the story as some kind of moral grandstand against drug use/etc... evidently it hasn't helped lol
thanks a lot for making this video!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video and appreciate you addressing the points! The fixation upon the fact a lot of your foes in the story are drug users/drug addicts drives forward the notion this is what justifies the violence, even if it was unintentional. Fortunately, the game's complexity speaks for itself more than enough to compensate. I anxiously await the sequel's release and will be first in line to play it.
@@larubric there wasn't a fixation, rather budget and time constraints :) (tho i guess you could argue that counts as a fixation, haha) if i could've had more time and money to develop the game with, i'd say the story would be different altogether
again, there was no messaging in my mind when i wrote the story, and i thought people would understand that since they can finish an entire level without touching a single enemy (except for certain levels), and the fact that the player is not rewarded in any way for killing said enemies, that would make it quite obvious that there is no messaging going on
though as i write it out it makes me wonder - have gamers been conditioned to see/infer/assume some kind of messaging in video games? i certainly don't unless it's really, really on the nose
ah well, all water under the bridge, definitely was something to reflect on for future projects lol
@@SpysBizarreGameDevAdventure You're not wrong that you can spare all the enemies in the level and just go past them, something I found myself doing a lot as a true stealth run, but you also do kill a lot of the head honchos of each level as mandatory cutscenes and a big arc of the game after the fourth mission is the protagonist's continued involvement in hunting down and killing manufacturers and distributors of drugs who aren't even related to the death of his brother. The drug trade in the real world is an extremely dark place, I'm not trying to say the story wrongly demonises gang/cartel leaders, but there is a lot of mention of drug use/drug involvement that seems to become the motivation for the protagonist's violent acts more so than his dead brother who I think was brought up less lol. I don't know if it's gamers being conditioned to read too much into things more so than that just being how the story got told and the neutral intent wasn't apparent.
I imagine constraints on budget and time did make it difficult for threading together the story, though, and I'm sympathetic for that lol. I like writing stories and I couldn't imagine anything more creatively frustrating than being constrained on what I want to make.
is X making the music for 2 as well? The OST is so fucking good
It's one of the best games I've played in a long time. These AAA games have really been lacking compared to indie games, especially compared to pixel art games.
I enjoyed the simple story, it's not different than me watching the original 1987 punisher, blue steel or death wish.
I think too many gamers today want too much of a story and comes at a sacrifice of gameplay.
The ai is pretty good. I've been wanting ai like this in almost every VR game I played in the last few years.
The only thing I would like to see in the 2nd game is, some type of item highlighting. Sometimes I would throw a knife, can, mag and lose track of it due to the darkness.
It would be nice if we could highlighting similar to when you are close to a scalable wall. This way it doesn't intrude on the visuals.
Sometimes when multiple objects are stacked, it's hard to select their options.
Sometimes I wouldn't see the option for pickup or stomp, well at least before the next enemy appears.
i didn't see the story as very pro drug user killing because sneaky steve's actions get him manipulated for use by another drug lord and at the end he's like "well i did all this shit now what"
That's true, potentially the story showcases how the main character's anger and lack of control can be easily weaponised to wreak havoc and destruction that serves no end to avenge his brother. Unfortunately, I didn't think the story was well written enough to really warrant that and a lot of the dialogue with Steve makes specific mention of referring to drug users as degenerates and pieces of sh*t on the basis of their drug abuse. It comes up so often that it kind of eclipsed the whole avenging his brother thing. The dev did explain in the comments about his intentions and constraints, which give important context as to why he wrote the story he did, but ultimately what carries Intravenous is its complex mechanical systems. Narratively there is nothing here.
Shoutout to *detected* , boutta be one of my favorite genders!
Yeah, he killed innocent drug addicts, none of them did have firearms and were protecting a higher dealer while having total control of an entire zone. Clearly, Steve was referring to teenagers and old people.
Outside of the first level (where they did have smgs and shotguns), everyone was protecting some dealer, yes, the game goes repetitive with the "f*cking druggies" but this isn´t some gray area like killing mercenaries or enemy soldiers.
Finally, a video on one of my favorite games. Amazing work.
I'm glad I found this channel
bet you have some savory pictures of the D.A.R.E lion on that computer of yours, btw top tier video
I don't but I do have someone in my Discord who unironically finds the DARE lion hot so it's equally as embarrassing
Another Stealth game what i recommend you: "Mark of the Ninja" very fun
Intravenous 2 is due in half a month yes sirrr
10:50 Those are screws, my man.
Deleting video
I forgot this was a stealth game...
Goated music taste
Thank you kindly
My compassion for drug addicts only extendeds to if they are willing to fix there issue and if they have hurt other people just for a fix. The discrimination isnt there for no reason. So in this game I will absolutely give every npc the wetwork. Free if charge.
Well after watching the video I think I am gonna try it out, tho shame that they choose 'everyone involved in drugs' as the bad guys and not human traffickers but oh well I could ingnore building a police state for chimera squad think I can ignore this aswell.
0:47 Impressive very nice
Chimera Squad was excusable cos they had a hot snake woman
@@larubric So Acab except egdy sexy Torque
I mean I don’t think I really get the complaint about the story, you yourself admitted that it’s a revenge story of gruff angry old men fighting gruff angry old men. My thought process goes, that, using that logic it could be literally anyone that you’re killing. Hell it could be robots or just random rich people. Hit man has pretty much gotten away with doing the latter for three games now.
My complaint about the story was that the protagonist is written to have a very strong and specific hatred of people who use drugs or deal in drugs, describing them as filth or pieces of shit, and that sentiment being used to motivate acts of disproportionate violence. I also think its used as a signifier for 'bad person' in the story, that on the merit of them partaking in drug use their demise is a simple means to an end, and I think it's a very black-and-white way of writing people who just sniff a powder every now and then. Arguably the creator may have written it as a deliberate drawback of Steve - that he is so blind to what he is doing and what he was originally doing it for, he sees anyone at all in league with narcotics as complicit in his brother's death - but I don't think it's written well enough to come off that way.
@@larubric Okay so here is my biggest issue. I’m not saying that one dimensional writing for your characters and villains isn’t a weakpoint but let’s set the stage here and use an example we’re both familiar with. John Wick in the third and second movie established that pretty much everyone associated with the continental is after John Wick. The movie never states that those people associated with the continental are necessarily evil(with the exception of I think the tall guy and the adjudicator) as indicated by the “it’s just a professional courtesy scene”. John wick and Steve aren’t necessarily against the people in between them and the organization they’re fighting to bring down but they’re not going to be deterred. I think the best example of this for Steve is simply the pacifist achievement and the genocidal achievement(hippie and unrelenting anger respectively.) As a matter of fact I would almost argue that is a stroke of accidental genius to show how Steve is at a crossroads in his life. By the way, I’m not trying to argue with you I’m just trying to explain my confusion. If there’s anything I’m misunderstanding about your argument a further response would be very much welcome.
Thank you for the polite and well mannered response by the way.
@@larubric Wait okay I think I get it. So you’re big issue with the story is that without a scene to humanize the bad guys, they stay just as that and we are left with nothing more than to take our protagonist’s opinion as fact.
@@allknighter5791 I think that's more so it, yeah. The thugs and enemies you dispatch seem very malicious and violent to a ridiculous extent straight down to their interactions with one another. You'd think some of these guys would just have a regular conversation about lunch or something but instead everyone's always picking fights or swearing every other sentence. And I think when that's paired with them being drug dealers/cartel enforcers/regular 'junkies', and this also being coupled with Steve seeing them all as nothing but filth that deserve to die horribly, it comes off almost like the creator's own morals are being shown through the character. The dev has said that wasn't the intention so I don't think that's the case but you have to consider what is being presented, intended or otherwise, and Steve's unending hatred of anyone who smoked weed in high school seems less like a cautionary tale about following violent means to resolve problems out of your control and more so a very shallow justification to absolve our protagonist of moral repercussion and try to keep reminding the player that he's the good guy cos the people he kills are junkies that have it coming anyway.
@@larubric Thanks man
bi flag patch on the plate carrier, furry jokes in the first 30 seconds
aight, you have my attention
I shall make good use of this, thank you for your viewership
20:00 i laughed so hard
If you love Stealth Games again, I'd recommend Intruder. Not only is it fun, but it's batshit insane and utterly hilarious.
And it's multiplayer!
Why did I thought the beginning was an advertisement for NordVPN ;-;
This gives me a good idea for if I ever get sponsored
Woah this video is kinda fluffy man
i subscribed where is my cookie
i cannot believe you liked your own comment like its twitter tess what is WRONG with you
@@larubric its a number on a screen! it has no meaning! no value! where is my cookie!!
wait you're a furry?
What gave it away?
Bru i didn't even know about this video and I already have the CBT achievements for the game, I legit finish the game before I seen the video 😭
It was on a controller
This game seems fun of you ignore the horrible messages about drugs.
@@Itz_GamePoint pretty sure xtrullor's vods just expired tbh. I don't believe he streamed making the ost anyway, since he only streams maybe a couple times a year at best
To be fair the game starts with a really based message that says basically
"Hey. This game does not represent my thoughts on politics or crime. It's just an excuse for a guy to run around and do cool spy movie shit in dingy locales. Don't actually kill drug addicts. This game barely has a story. Have fun."
I wish more games had the maturity and understanding to just say that up front, because hey, I love slaughtering a ton of people as a action movie dude in grimdark stories, but that stuff can be used as actual tone deaf propaganda for stupid and nefarious purposes (see modern call of duty, ready or not, etc)
@@drakep.5857how is RON tone deaf propaganda? pretty sure the entire story is a satire of modern America and our approachingly dysfunctional current day. how can you see billionaire PDFs, political extremism, and mass shootings every 2 weeks in game without noticing how it's a deliberate commentary on modern Americana?
it's not an endorsement, it's a warning of things that'll come. you're probably the type of person who thinks Helldivers 2 is unironic. be more media literate next time before going "cop game=copaganda"
ready or not is no different from RoboCop, there both socialist masterpieces guising behind the vaneer of broken windows-style police propaganda.
@@drakep.5857besides, adding a warning to the game misses the point that it's inherently a political satire. the fact that it can be used as propaganda adds to it's message and deliberate parody.
Bro dont tell me ur playing on easy mode
how does this only have like 900 views holy shit
Let us pray for growth inshallah
whats the original song?
Syrup by Slump AK
You are furry?
Is the mystery man Kurt Cobain?
and honestly, I found it funny that the game was moralistic and killed drug users. I think people shouldn't take it so seriously.
What the fuck dude spoilers
i didnt realise i couldnt talk about intravenous during my intravenous video my bad chief
@@larubric 😡