Shooty, Creepy, Stuff Simulator

Into the Radius has pulled me back into VR lately. After only five hours with it that have seemed like they’ve flown by I can already tell it’s going to be one of my favorite games.

It’s a survival shooter set somewhere in Russia in the zone of some anomalous black hole looking thing that dominates the sky. Everything’s messed up. Dead plant life, vehicles and bits of buildings suspended frozen in the air, unnatural dark featureless creatures roam the landscape, and other telltale signs you’re living in the apocalypse. I think it’s a pretty neat setting as far as post-apocalyptic ones go, and I especially love that you’re just dropped in and left to figure things out through exploration and environmental storytelling. Games that do that generally come closer to taking full advantage of the medium than ones that don’t.

I can’t quite put my finger on everything they’ve done right, but the devs have nailed the atmosphere. It complements the slow, tactical gameplay and really elevates what might have otherwise been a fairly run of the mill survival shooter. Some of my tensest moments in VR have come from this game.

Into the Radius to me is part “stuff simulator”. Like all survival games, you’re constantly on the lookout for loot to help you survive. The difference is that when you pick something up, you’re not just watching a number go up in a simulated backpack slot. All your loot takes up physical space. When you get back to base you have to find a spot to keep each piece of loot you brought back, and the result is that your base actually feels lived in. I’ve been finding a surprising sense of satisfaction in watching my shelves slowly fill up with food, guns, and ammo and coming up with organizational systems to help me keep track of everything.

So first impressions so far are that Into the Radius is one of the top games in the VR survival shooter genre. I’m definitely going to be playing more of it, and if it sounds like something that’s up your alley I’d strongly recommend it!