>finish tutorial
>see chat pop up in the bottom left
>first message i see is "where is the gambling tavern"

Game of the year

There’s no solo mode — it’s just like that trash game Apex Legends, which is the worst game ever made. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend it.

The game is good, it’s extremely fun, HOWEVER it’s not the groundbreaking experience many reviews here are claiming, like “it invented a new genre” or anything like that. It’s basically just a more simplified Risk of Rain 2 — not that this makes it worse or anything, but if you buy it expecting something completely new and never seen before, you’ll be disappointed.

That aside, the game is really fun and will definitely suck up hours of your time, especially if, like me, you’re addicted to roguelikes with tons of characters to unlock.

TL;DR: Never played Into the Radius? Should you buy 1 or 2? Buy the first one — it’s a more solid experience. Wait until 2 leaves Early Access, or only grab it if it’s at least 75% off. The first one is worth full price, the 2nd not at all.

I “gifted” myself Into The Radius 2 for my birthday, because I absolutely loved the first game. As a longtime fan of survival and post-apocalyptic games, especially the Metro and Stalker franchises, being able to experience a world like that in VR was fantastic.

And without a doubt, the biggest highlight of this game — both the first and the second — is the weapons, and the way you handle them. You need to repair them, reload them manually, fill the magazines, etc. There’s nothing else like it on the market, it’s simply fantastic.

Into the Radius 2 is better than the first in almost every way. Now you’re no longer just shooting at formless smoke enemies… I complained a lot on the Steam forums about how frustrating it was to have such a well-made weapon system, only to end up shooting at smoke (literally, the enemies in the first game are shadowy smoke figures). Here they improved all enemies — there’s even a clone of the WWII soldiers controlled by Cliff Unger in Death Stranding. It’s simply fantastic.

Well, the game really is better in every way — graphics, gameplay, the base is now beautiful and well-organized, and the maps are also nicer and more fun to explore, but the game is just way too frustrating.

The devs don’t seem to know what balancing means. Sometimes you’re exploring an empty map with no enemies at all, and then within seconds, 4 or 5 enemies spawn all at once, from every corner. One of them will shoot you from kilometers away without missing a single shot — basically eagle-eyed vision. Others are huge melee brutes that will chase you until you’re dead, some of them with those head-balls like in the first game that you need to stab with a knife. And then there are fast enemies that are basically some kind of Half-Life headcrab clone — if 2 or 3 of them attack you at once, it’s impossible to survive alone. Now, imagine all that happening at night, when you can’t see a thing, with no idea where the enemies are.

And that’s where another huge problem comes in: the flashlight. At least the starting one is terrible. You attach it to your chest, but whenever you aim your gun, your hand blocks the light and you can’t see what’s in front of you. And even when you can, it barely illuminates anything — if an enemy is more than 5 meters away, you won’t see them, but they will see you, won’t miss a single shot, and will kill you very quickly. It’s extremely frustrating. This never happened to me in the first game — I never felt like just quitting. In the second one, though, it happens frequently. And no, this is not a skill issue, because I have experience with the first game and I know how to play it. Now I can only imagine how a newcomer would feel playing it for the first time.

And the balancing problem doesn’t stop with the enemies. The devs didn’t hold back — they just flooded the map with anomalies everywhere. There’s literally no place on the map without anomalies blocking your way. . It’s not like Stalker, for example, where you’ll occasionally run into one or two anomalies on the road. Even in the first game it was different — anomalies were well distributed, often appearing in higher concentrations only around artifacts, and the balance was good. To make it worse, the probe item you throw to “poke” anomalies and find a safe path is now limited instead of infinite like in the first game, which makes the situation even worse. Now, even a simple house can have at least 50 different anomalies preventing you from entering, limiting your options. And worst of all, .
Into the Radius 2 is… frustrating, plain and simple. And I don’t believe the devs will ever balance the game, because it seems like the way it is now is exactly how they envision their product, and this is the result they want. That’s why I say it’s much better to get the first game, because it’s a far more solid experience. Maybe the devs’ intention is for this to be played exclusively as multiplayer — meaning the balance and design are aimed at at least 2 players. Unfortunately, I only play solo, and this ended up being one of the worst VR experiences I’ve had in terms of fun.

I saw many people complaining that the missions are extremely weak — boring, repetitive, or overly simple. I agree, but that’s something that I’m sure (or at least I hope) will improve over time, and I really hope they add a main campaign to follow.

Once you progress further into the game and get better equipment, the situation gets even worse. On a single mission, you’ll constantly burn through 10–20 magazines just to kill all the enemies in the area you need to reach. You’ll take a lot of hits, use a ton of healing items, spending around 20k to 30k of in-game money… only to receive in the end… 1,500. That’s right — you’ll spend all that just to get this miserable reward.

The biggest enemy in this game is the balancing itself.

Other than that, I just can’t recommend the game in its current state, except maybe with a very generous 75% discount — and even then I’d say be cautious. I don’t think the current state of the product is worth full price.

Maybe in a couple of years the game will be in a better state, and I really hope so, because I truly love this franchise.

One of the best games I've played in the last 10 years.
The soundtrack is incredibly atmospheric — it will keep echoing in your head even after you stop playing. And every time you do stop, you'll be left with that feeling of "what could be over there?" in an area you haven’t explored yet.
The game doesn’t have a navigation system or maps, just a compass to help guide you.
Part of me still wishes this was a shooter instead of melee combat, but as I kept playing, I came to accept and actually enjoy what the devs created here.

I grew up playing puzzle games like the Dracula series, so I feel right at home with Hell is Us. If you don't enjoy solving puzzles and prefer brain-dead combat—just mashing buttons without thinking—this game isn't for you.

I was hooked by the graphic style, which I love, but this turned out to be one of the most boring experiences I had througout indie games. Lookslike whoever made this game never played a videogame before in his life, because the game is not fun at all. Don't worth your penny.

If this game were third-person, it would have been a success. Nobody wants to play as Chuck Norris and only see his hands

if this game were a medical condition, it'd be diarrhea.

Playing one-handed