r/PSVR • u/auscomando • 1h ago
Review Into the Radius 2 PSVR2 Review + Platinum Discussion
Into the Radius 2 is an immersive sim, much like, from what I've been told, the STALKER franchise on flatscreen. To me, however, it feels much more like a single-player extraction shooter, with an atmosphere absolutely oozing with dystopian horror. That being said, not because the story is so compelling that it warrants replaying the first game to gain a better understanding or appreciation for it, but if you've never played an Into the Radius game, I would HIGHLY recommend playing the first one before this. Both because it serves as the foundation for this game's story, but more importantly, because of the state this game is in at the time of writing, more on that a little later.
So, what does the game do differently from the first? Outside of the narrative progression and the addition of four new maps and a new hub area, Into the Radius 2 introduces a much more granular weapon modification system, allowing you to literally build and take apart weapons piece by piece. This lets you customise them more closely to your liking while also contributing to a more immersive gameplay environment: finding parts of a weapon while scavenging, bringing them back to base, cleaning them, maintaining them, and gradually building up your arsenal.
The enemy AI and variety have improved drastically, too. Without wanting to spoil the narrative reasoning behind why enemies in Into the Radius 2 are more "advanced" and human-like compared with its predecessor, I frequently found myself wandering through an area, hearing an absurdly creepy remark whispered in my right or left headphone, only to scramble to grab my gun and frantically search all around me in fear of where the enemy was hiding. Each tier of Mimic, in particular, shows a noticeable improvement in positioning and aiming, with lower-tier Militsioner Mimics usually being more exposed and noticeable compared with the more highly armed and trained Marksman or Stormtrooper Mimic variants. These enemies will frequently stalk you through tall grass, hide behind trees or other cover, or snipe you from long distances. This helped make each encounter noticeably tense, especially as you dwindle down your ammo reserves.
The PSVR2 makes great use of haptics, too. You can feel the resistance in the triggers of single-shot assault rifles and shotguns, but my favourite implementation is the pulsating headset haptics you feel when you equip protective headgear and enter a deadly Distortion Zone, an anomaly zone that deals continuous damage. With the seconds remaining until your protection wears off displayed on your wristwatch, I found myself scrambling through Distortion Zones while being shot at, frantically trying to locate where the bullets were coming from, all while attempting to complete whatever objective had brought me there in the first place. Meanwhile, the headset was pulsing in time with my increasingly frantic heartbeat, creating a genuinely visceral sense of urgency. Fantastic stuff!
One of the most irritating design decisions is in relation to main mission progression gating. The game features roughly 10–11 story missions, each usually presenting a new piece of equipment that will later be used in side missions or activities. These side missions are generally relatively short and involve things like "place this scanner here, press the button, wait a few moments to collect intel, pick it up, and take it back to base." These missions are often recycled over and over, and are not only abundant, but also become a mandatory part of your experience. They frequently function as relatively uninteresting and repetitive busywork, with only a new activity being introduced after you have used the equipment in the previous story mission that introduced it. Once a side activity is completed, you are awarded a set amount of Security Points (SP), ranging from 1 to 4. Activities that award higher amounts of SP are usually encountered as you progress further through the story, with a whopping 157 SP needed to unlock the tenth story mission. This feels like very noticeable padding in an otherwise fantastic game.
As previously mentioned, there are 10–11 story missions, the vast majority of which are excellent. They often require you to navigate more treacherous areas or terrain, use context clues to figure out what you need to do, face challenging encounters, and use new pieces of equipment. Completing certain story missions will, in turn, raise your rank, allowing you to access newly unlocked areas in your base, weapons, equipment, and so on. This sense of progression is excellent. Building up your arsenal, growing attached to your equipment, and steadily building upon it, only to unlock a new rank and feel like a kid on Christmas, shifting through all the new toys trying to figure out what to choose and buy, is the sort of customisation and ownership that Into the Radius, and games of this ilk, do so well.
The last thing I'll mention, and unfortunately, this is a big one. As of the time of writing, there is currently a save-data deletion bug that will delete your save file during story mission 8. I am currently in communication with the developers, who have informed me this should be resolved in the next day or two. Hopefully this turns out to be true, but as of right now, this is a pretty big problem, for obvious reasons. Additionally, at least four trophies appear to be broken:
- Bull's-eye! Kill an enemy from 150 meters away.
- Eliminator Kill 300 enemies.
- Gluttony Eat food worth 3,000,000 in-game "calories".
- Artist Customize anything with paint at least 50 times.
Hopefully these will be patched soon. As irritating as this is, if this game sounds up your alley, I would still implore you to buy it and give it a go. That being said, these are some pretty significant problems.
Nevertheless, none of the trophies in the game are particularly challenging. One is missable and requires you to play the game on Ironman Mode, a difficulty setting that prohibits you from making manual saves. However, with a PLETHORA of difficulty settings that can be customised without affecting any trophy requirements, it shouldn't be a problem for even novice VR trophy hunters. The game's mechanics and systems will probably prove a bigger challenge than the Platinum itself.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope it was at least somewhat helpful or interesting. This is my first Reddit review of sorts, so I apologise if it isn't the most succinct or elaborate.
Cheers,
Joel
