Intravenous

Intravenous is openly framed by its developer as a love letter to the early Splinter Cell games — translated into a top-down perspective and tightened around a single-player vengeance plot. You play Steve Robbins, a man whose brother was killed by low-life junkies and whose patience with police inaction has run out. With the help of a mysterious benefactor with their own reasons for cooperating, Robbins starts working his way up the criminal ladder one body at a time.

The stealth simulation is the core of the game. Visibility is keyed to real-time lighting — well-lit rooms expose you, dim corners hide you — and every step you take makes noise that AI can hear. The toolkit is wide: shoot out lights, flip circuit breakers to kill the power, throw bottles to lure guards, mimic their wives' voices to draw them off-post, lockpick doors to enter from unexpected angles. Or, when stealth collapses, shoot the lock off and go in armed to the teeth.

The enemy AI is the other half of the design. Guards don't simply charge you — they take cover, use flashlights in darkened areas, radio in suspicious activity, alert allies when they find a body. The loadout system supports two extremes equally well: pick a rifle, pistol and bulletproof vest for a kicked-door approach, or just a pistol and nothing else for full agility. The story underneath all of it is grittier than most stealth games, with the moral lines getting blurrier the closer Robbins gets to the truth about his brother.