Intravenous 2 is a vast improvement over its predecessor in almost every way. Staying in-line with its inspirations, this is a pretty old-fashioned sequel; the mantra here is "bigger might be better, but damn if it's not cool going big, even if it bites us in the ass." It's not always cohesive, but it does bring about the aura of an era I wasn't really around for. That's something that stood out to me with the original game, and it's even truer here. One can almost smell the fading scent of an old-fashioned gaming magazine while musing over its additions to what the original game offered in its stealth sandboxes.

Whether or not I recommend playing Intravenous 2 is a matter of how curious the above statements make you feel. If everything I've written there seems tacky to you in some way, it's safe to say you can probably write this one off. If you're looking for a worthwhile narrative, it's abundantly clear that a lot more effort was put into it this time around, although I can't say it will be enough to compel you if this nothing else on offer seems of note. I would roughly compare it to one of those pulpy thrillers sold at airports around America that aim to entertain rather than provoke. I don't mean that as a backhanded compliment in any way, just that you aren't going to come away from Intravenous 2 musing on its broader themes and character arcs. What's there is solid for what it is, and the addition of branching paths is neat and adds enough replayability to the overall package, although, going in-line with its classic inspirations, you aren't faced with any moral quandaries here. The good choices are obviously good, the bad choices are obviously bad, and there's very little in-between. The game is self-aware enough of this to crack a joke about it at the end of its golden route, though, and that got a small chuckle out of me.

Overall, pretty decent and well worth the twenty dollars if you're the type of person who would be interested in buying it.

[i]Intravenous 2[/i] is a vast improvement over its predecessor in almost every way. Staying in-line with its inspirations, this is a pretty old-fashioned sequel; the mantra here is "bigger [i]might[/i] be better, but damn if it's not cool going big, even if it bites us in the ass." It's not always cohesive, but it does bring about the aura of an era I wasn't really around for. That's something that stood out to me with the original game, and it's even truer here. One can almost smell the fading scent of an old-fashioned gaming magazine while musing over its additions to what the original game offered in its stealth sandboxes. Whether or not I recommend playing [i]Intravenous 2[/i] is a matter of how curious the above statements make you feel. If everything I've written there seems tacky to you in some way, it's safe to say you can probably write this one off. If you're looking for a worthwhile narrative, it's abundantly clear that a lot more effort was put into it this time around, although I can't say it will be enough to compel you if this nothing else on offer seems of note. I would roughly compare it to one of those pulpy thrillers sold at airports around America that aim to entertain rather than provoke. I don't mean that as a backhanded compliment in any way, just that you aren't going to come away from [i]Intravenous 2[/i] musing on its broader themes and character arcs. What's there is solid for what it is, and the addition of branching paths is neat and adds enough replayability to the overall package, although, going in-line with its classic inspirations, you aren't faced with any moral quandaries here. The good choices are obviously good, the bad choices are obviously bad, and there's very little in-between. The game is self-aware enough of this to crack a joke about it at the end of its golden route, though, and that got a small chuckle out of me. Overall, pretty decent and well worth the twenty dollars if you're the type of person who would be interested in buying it.