A guard strolls right past you, a few feet away, with no clue you’re there. If that moment is why you play stealth games, there’s a new one on Steam you should grab now, and it won’t cost you a cent.
It’s called Intravenous 3: Borderline. It’s a free standalone prologue to the upcoming Intravenous 3, and players are already comparing its stealth-heavy gameplay to Metal Gear Solid V. Having seen what it asks of you, I think they’ve got a point.
A mercenary with nothing left to lose
Borderline launched on October 2 as a preview of what the developers have been building for Intravenous 3. Think of it as a playable trailer.
You play Gideon, a mercenary who barely made it through his last run-in with Steve. He was hired to protect a corrupt politician, and when that job fell apart, he was left with very little. Now he’s got a trail leading back to the people responsible and one simple reason to follow it: revenge.
That setup plays out over two full missions. They introduce Gideon’s story and show where Intravenous 3 is headed.
Where the Metal Gear comparison comes from
The resemblance shows up in how you approach every encounter. Intravenous has always been a stealth series, but hiding behind a wall won’t save you here. You have to watch the guards, think about where you’re standing and decide whether taking someone out is worth the risk.
And just like in Metal Gear Solid V, things go sideways fast once your plan stops working.
The developers described the original Intravenous as a stealth game that also offers tactical hardcore gunplay for players who’d rather not find a quiet way in. Borderline keeps that balance, with stealth and combat tightly linked. That’s a big part of why The Phantom Pain worked so well, too. Its missions let you choose how to handle an enemy outpost, whether that meant creeping through carefully or improvising when everything inevitably went wrong.
It’s harder than Snake ever had it
Don’t let the prologue label fool you. Borderline is much more punishing than Metal Gear. One mistake can turn a carefully planned infiltration into a desperate scramble to stay alive.
That changes how the stealth feels. You aren’t sneaking because the game tells you to. You’re sneaking because getting caught has serious consequences, so every move ends up feeling more deliberate.
Keep your expectations in check
To be clear, Borderline isn’t trying to remake The Phantom Pain on a smaller budget. Don’t expect a sprawling open world or dozens of hours of content. It’s a compact prologue built to give you a taste of what’s coming.
But it’s a meaningful taste. You get two proper missions of tactical stealth, which is a lot more than the usual tiny demo that ends just as it gets going.
So if you miss scouting an enemy position, plotting a route and hoping your plan survives the first guard, make room for this in your Steam library. Whether it earns the Metal Gear comparison is something you can find out for free.
