Into the Radius 2 Steam Charts & Stats

The tutorial was bugged in so many different ways that it prevented me from continuing. I had to restart the game or load a save multiple times. I eventually said enough was enough when no matter how hard I tried I couldn't take the chest rig off to put the holster on it. If I am having to search guides trying to finish the tutorial, this game is not worth playing. Such a disappointment since the first game was quite interesting, and this one has co-op. One of my friends actually bought it and we intended to play through coop together. However he had graphical bugs that prevented him from even getting to the main menu, and even though I was able to actually get into the game, there were game breaking bugs that softlocked me in the *tutorial*. What a disappointment. I'm refunding.

Great coop VR game! You end up preparing for scavenging runs longer than the runs itself lasts with loading magazines up with required ammo, shopping for weapon upgrades & add-ons for said weapons, loading up on food and meds while packing everything to be easily accessible but that type of stuff works really well for VR.

Maybe fix the online coop issues and bugs before releasing paid cosmetic dlc thats being advertised both in mission control and the shop.

The script is written by redditors and the tutorial it's forcing me and my homeboy into is terrible now

This game is a genuine masterpiece, and such a ridiculous step up from the first game, the gunplay is basically unmatched, the gameplay loop is addicting (I spent over 4 hours making sure my base looked clean and my gun rack was organized) its absolutely terrifying, but very fair. Even on my decently old pc, it runs quite well for an unreal engine 5 game and I haven't had any noticeable immersion breaks due to performance. Story isn't anything special but it moves the player along the areas and the shop progression makes sense. Overall, its really fun and I can't wait to convince some friends to get it (they added 4 player so I can get a few) and we can goof around for hours. 9/10

New update makes the screen shake violently for no reason, it's completely unplayable and didn't do that before. besides that, the game keeps shoving annoying voiced npcs down my throat that I could not give less of a ♥♥♥♥ about. Katya in the first game was nice because you only heard from her once in a while when you were out exploring, and you didn't have to wait for her to finish blabbing for 5 minutes everytime you wanted to go out into the radius. The anomalies are also ridiculous and make the game not fun, idk why they're all modeled after the lightning anomaly when one of the most popular mods for the first game was to remove it completely. Even playing with anomaly damage and spawn on very low they are still everywhere. They also limited the probes so unlike the first game you cant throw them around and see where the anomalies are. There's just so much about this that's a huge step back from the first game, so just go play that because it's incredible.

[Before I begin I would like to say that I have written this review in a fit of rage after a sort of "final straw" situation while playing the game. You can probably tell it is emotionally charged, so if some information isn't 100% accurate, I do apologize. With that out of the way-] I don't think I've had a worst first impression with a game in awhile. Somehow, someway, everything is worse than the original game. Nerfs to things that didn't require it and mechanics that did not need to be added or were made too in-depth. I understand wanting customization but understand that some people (Myself included!!) would like to just buy a better gun and better attachments. Don't get me wrong, I love the ability to mix-match things, but with how LITTLE money you have in the first place, how are you supposed to anyway? By the time you can afford to, you will have beaten the game and there's no point. Not to mention that 90% of the gear is locked behind high-security clearance, which ALSO is end-game. Where there's no point. Speaking of which, the economy? In the first game it was bad enough, you BARELY had enough money for meds and whatnot after a run. It was acceptable, though, because this fit the tone of the game. You lived in a shipping container, times were tough. And before you call it a skill issue, I would min-max the hell out of my days. The second the sun was up I was out there, I'd be over encumbered by at least 50 pounds and both hands full and all slots filled, walking back to my place once the sun was down. I like to consider myself decently skilled at VR combat, so I don't waste that much ammo or meds either! And yet after all of it, the money to repair my stuff, heal myself, buy back what I used, I BARELY have enough to buy new stuff. And it's even worse in the sequel, because now you have EVEN MORE that you have to focus on buying, like INDIVIDUAL ARMOR PLATES as opposed to just armor, different tiers of medicine, the insane amount of different gun parts. It's genuinely shocking. Also the probes! You have to buy probes ALL THE TIME because they decided to limit how many you have as opposed to only making you buy them if you died / lost yours. I get that it's more realistic, but this isn't exactly a realistic game. There's floating trees. Let me have a never-ending probe box, please. The amount of changes feel so unnecessary. I'm okay with the modernization of everything given that it takes place AFTER the first game, but some things changed for the worse and it makes 0 sense. The tablet holding ALL the information on it in a (somehow) unorganized organized way rather than having a map and a journal separately threw me off as well. I get that it's nice for convenience but not when it's inconvenient to look at. Also, inconsistency. Lets talk about that. For example, how many times I've loaded into a game and all my weapons are completely empty? My mags are all empty? Nothing has bullets except the ammo box in my bag, so I'm just down 800 dollars in ammo for no apparent reason. Inconsistent anomalies on top of that! In the first game, anomalies reset after each tide. Some would change places to somewhere else. Now they reset DAILY, with no way to learn exactly where the anomalies are. The tutorial doesn't teach you how to do anything except the basic controls, which is fine! The first game was similar! Except the first game taught you how the Radius worked OUTSIDE OF THE TUTORIAL, you could infer a lot of information or figure it out yourself through trial and error! But when I die to a spark anomaly and have NO WAY to learn how to avoid it, do you expect me to be happy about that? My probes do nothing, walking slowly does nothing, not crouching, standing up, sprinting, jumping, flashlight does nothing, shooting does nothing, everything you'd think to try does nothing. Look it up? Says to throw a probe. So what the hell. Watch a video, it's exactly what I've already tried. But it just does nothing. Works on other traps of the exact same type (yes I understand the different types, this isn't that) but not the one I NEED TO GET PAST to continue the story. Speaking of the story, The dialogue? If you can call it that? Or any of this actually- The first game was super compelling, had me hooked within seconds. Nothing was given, you had to look around and pry. It was interesting. The notes changes as you progressed, you got a feel for what the Radius actually was. And for some reason we've decided to ditch that and go the AAA approach. Literally the first ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cutscene tells you to "Go Into The Radius" and it cuts to the title. Most of the dialogue so far is corny and really feels like either Sony or Vivienne Medrano wrote it. I played hours upon hours upon hours of the first game and still haven't fully completed it, I've loved every second of it. The developers GENUINELY cooked so hard with that game, it's one of my all time favorites. I have no idea where the story picks up from where I left off because there's no way to guess! It's so in depth! And yet in this game, I was able to correctly guess the entire plot within the first two missions based on the dialogue alone. Only AAA dialogue or terrible writing will do that to you, and I know the devs aren't bad at writing because the first game was amazing. And lastly, the fact that it doesn't even feel like we're in full release. They need to re-mark it as early access because if this is what a 1.0 release looks like then I am truly appalled. Requires better hardware than the first game and yet runs worse with that better hardware. Looks worse, too. Just because you've updated to a better engine with cooler shadows and lighting doesn't mean the game looks good. Visually the style has changed SO MUCH that it feels like they were sitting in the office thinking "What CAN we change" instead of "What SHOULD we change". Some of the designs, mechanics, visuals, it all just was unnecessary. For example, the style in general. The models. All of it. The rustic "S.T.A.L.K.E.R adjacent" feel that the first game had has been completely stripped for a colorful apocalypse. It's not rustic anymore, it's way too modernized. It's kinda like the difference in vibe between Battlefield V and Battlefield 2042, where they went from "War is hell" to "Omg guys we're going to war x3". We've moved from "The radius is dangerous, people die. I am afraid for my life, despite the fact that I can respawn. I do not know who or where I am, or who I can trust" to "And Explorer? You just be Explorer. Together, we ARE the Radius!" It just ruins the vibe that the first game was pushing us towards. I watched as the game progressed, I thought we'd just get an updated engine and models in terms of feel, but instead we got.. this. I can't even equate this to anything. This is a brand new low when it comes to modernization. (Edit; I would also like to point out that the devs admitted that they knew most of us wouldn't like the tonal shift, yet they did it anyway. Cmon man :/ ) Overall it's just.. disappointing. I REALLY wanted to like this game. I still do! I'm still going to give it a chance once I've calmed down. Despite how much I dislike it, I have faith that there's SOMETHING that can keep me going, surely! So I'm going to keep trying. And I suggest anyone that is dead set on playing to do the same! But if you've played the first game, you might not like this one. It is worse than the first. Might be a good game on it's own, as a standalone, but right now it fails as a sequel. Other reviews have worded it way better than I, so you probably check those out. Like I said, my review is emotionally charged. While there are good points that I've made, and I stand by most of what I've said, I am still angry at the exact time of review. Don't let my one negative review sway your decision on whether or not to buy the game, however. You should make your own decision.

This game has been great and the first ITR is one of my favorite VR games of all time. HOWEVER. Now that they felt the need to drop paid DLC for a throwback cosmetic that should be free to anyone who owns the first game while many base issues still persist I feel I can't in good faith recommend this. Since Beta it feels like it has been one step forward and 3 steps back. Many of the bugs that plagued the game in the beginning are still preset, especially in coop: -Enemies glitching through the ground -Items like NVGs and flashlights sometimes decide to no longer toggle. -anomalies are sometimes invisible which makes missions that need them extra difficult for no reason. -if you drop your gun too fast out of the holster you better hope the host is nearby so they can pick it up cause you cannot. -pop in if you're not host can sometimes be incredibly bad, got killed cause I walked into a distortion zone that I couldn't see till it was too late Altered items were changed from interesting items morphed by the radius (3 forks smushed together, multiple rubicks cubes fused) to every day items that you can only tell are altered by staring at them for multiple seconds to watch the texture change. Why they felt the need to changed altered items and swap the anomalies (which were neat) with the interesting altered item designs, leaving you to stare at a shelf waiting to see a texture change is beyond me. The ambience and atmosphere of this game can be tremendous but in a second you can be taken out and frustrated by a ton of annoying bugs. Pulling out of Beta/EA and having a 1.0 release when almost nothing that should've been in the base game was present or fixed was the first slap but paid DLC for a game people are clearly enjoying but frustrated with your choices/lack of fixes is abhorrent.

This game should've stayed Early Access for much longer because it doesn't function super well as a 1.0 release, bugs everywhere and constant crashing. The co-op was my main seller and even I can't hardly enjoy that with my friends.

As someone who loved the first game, Into the Radius 2 has turned out to be pretty disappointing for me. While I’m a fan of the coop and customization, everything else feels like a departure from the game I liked. The vibe is less stalker with an emphasis on more modern/tactical gear. (more NATO less Russian) It feels like not as much effort was put into enemy design in this game. In the first game enemies scared you, snuck up on you, patrolled around. In this game it feels like they just walk at you or shoot you from afar, and are generally less fun to fight (*cough* spawns). I like how enemies hide in houses but other than that they aren’t really scary in the way that the first games hunters and sliders were scary. Anomalies are essentially just different kinds of landmines you have to avoid stepping on. You don’t really need probes, you just need to walk around them unless the linear nature of the maps forces you through. The other systems I liked about the first game like ammo types, food, and looting have been neglected, poorly tuned, and basically ruined. Other than +P for 9x18 there is no indication that the devs intend to make ammo types like AP, SS, or CHP a reality. Food isn’t really found in the radius anymore and is really expensive in the shop so if you’re trying to save money you better get used to the noise of your stomach growling. The point of food isn’t to add another drain on the player budget, it’s that it’s immersive to eat a can of pineapple with a knife. And gone are the days of finding useful items in the radius, now all you find are things that you can sell for money and things that are worthless (they look the same but one flashes a black texture). No more loot crates, now you just occasionally see a statue holding half a gun. If you asked me what the worst part of this game was I would tell you without hesitation that it is the story. I don’t know why this game got so high off it’s own supply on the lore but what used to be a subtle, unobtrusive story in the first game is now told to you and your friends faces while you wait in a box for the NPC’s dialogue to be over before, during and after every single mission. It’s comparable to Subnautica Below Zero, except at least in that game you could skip the story and just explore the map. In ITR1 you didn’t need to do any missions to explore the map. In ITR2 you cannot enter a new zone until you have done enough missions that the game lets you (along with another mission where you walk around and light lanterns while an npc talks to you). As someone who was in the ITR discord before this game came out, I can confidently say that nearly every single feature added to this game was something I saw in a suggestion post. Everything from multiplayer and gun building to night vision and npcs was a suggestion that people made. While I think feedback is a good thing I also wish CMI used more of their own ideas. This game feels like a list of cool features with none of the design and purpose of the original. It feels like little thought has been put into things like immersion, progression, and enemy/anomaly design, and that really affects how it feels to play the game. Theres so many things that just take you out of the game and ruin whatever atmosphere the game was trying to build. It’s like if the first game overlayed your screen with **YOU ARE PLAYING A VIDEOGAME** every ten minutes. I think this game is fun but it just feels like its moving further and further away from what I liked about the first one, and that sucks.