11 Ways Into The Radius 2 Is Better Than The First Game

So Into the Radius 2 (aka Into The Diameter) has finally released into early access!

This game is an absolute blast and is a VR survival shooter that is even better than the original Into The Radius, despite some early access jank and bugs.

That's because Into The Radius 2 does exactly what a sequel should do, take what made the first game so enjoyable and refine it. Update things, add new pieces, change up the existing formula, and create something even more fantastic.

1 - Improved Visuals

The big orb in the center of the radius looks better than ever in Into The Radius 2.

This is the most obvious in the visuals. Into The Radius 2 is gorgeous. As you'll see from these screenshots, the beauty of the game's environments goes beyond the technical details of nice particle effects and textures.

Into The Radius 2 is like fighting to survive inside a surrealist painting. Everything from the mundane objects that you'll find in the oddest places to the deadly red water to the trees both seem entirely strange and out of place, while also being close enough to a real life environment to be somewhat believable as a real place.

It's that classic mixture of Soviet era decay, unknowable horror, and apocalyptic blast, sharper and better than ever before.

2 - New Anomalies

A crazy looking new anomaly.

This fantastical aesthetic and artistic direction extends to the new Anomalies, many of which were basically just deadly geometric shapes in the first game. Now they look better, and more like real objects twisted by the radius's phenomena into something otherwordly.

They also have more interesting new mechanics surrounding them. Not all will just hurt you the moment you come into range, and so while anomalies are still very deadly, you'll have to be much more clever to circumvent them.

3 - New Artifacts

Some artifacts float around in containers you need to shoot to open. Others are trickier to get to.

Even when you get past the anomalies to the profitable artifacts that they hide, collecting them isn't as straightforward as just flashing a light on them like in the last game. Nope, now you'll need to figure out and understand the world of the Radius in order to get to the artifacts.

Some you can just grab or shoot to collect, but others... others will take more equipment or more cunning to get your hands on.

4 - New Home Base

Look at the new UNPSC base in Into The Radius 2! Very pretty.

Where you'll go to sell these artifacts has been improved on as well. While many lovers of the original Into The Radius will surely always have a soft spot for the dilapidated trainyard of Vanno in their hearts, Into The Radius 2 features a much sleeker and modern looking home base.

It has impressive walls and guard towers which might make you feel safe or trapped, and more buildings and space to store items than ever before. It's like you're on a futuristic military base.

Everything seems new, and even the computers all look much more modern.

5 - Interactive Store

New you can create loadouts before you buy them.

Of course after you sell those items you'll also be buying things in the base, and that's where the new store comes in. Unlike Into The Radius 1, the sequel has a store where you can actually pick up and put on the items you want to buy before you buy them.

This is a fantastic idea, and makes every trip to the store when you're fat with cash and ready to get a major upgrade a ton of fun.

6 - Loadout Options

There are a bunch of different rigs to try out.

This is also especially important because now you have many more options to experiment with before you buy them. Your choice of loadout is now much more personalized, with a variety of backpacks and tactical rigs to customize how you store your weapons and magazines.

There are rigs that store your pistol at your side and a long gun over your shoulder in classic Into The Radius fashion, and others that change things up in intersting ways. There's even a rig with two pistol holsters, or just one long gun holster.

7 - Gun Weight

This Saiga shotgun is VERY heavy and feels like it in this game.

With these new loadout options comes a wide array of firearms, and those firearms feel more impressive in Virtual Reality than ever. Seriously, a surprising amount of VR games, including the first Into The Radius, have weightless and floaty feeling weapons. Not Into The Radius 2, these guns feel like guns.

They're heavy, and if you try to whip a large assault rifle around like you're John Wick then you'll be surprised to find that the heavy weapon you're holding will take a while to catch up to your unencumbered physical hands.

The weight of the weapons makes you move and shoot more carefully, and overall is very immersive.

8 - Weapon Wiggle

Running with even a light weapon out like this pistol makes it incredibly hard to aim in Into The Radius 2.

It also helps that every time you run, your weapon will actually wiggle a little bit. Surprising, right? Well, this is a pretty radical change, and an innovation in how a VR game can keep you from just running and gunning all of the time.

You can technically still aim while moving quickly, but it is much harder to hit a target with your sights jiggling all over the place. Kind of like if you were actually trying to run while keeping a gun steady at the same time.

9 - Gun Sounds

The guns sound absolutely tremendous in this game.

The guns in this game don't just feel weighty when you carry and point them, they have a lot of kick to them when you shoot them, and they sound tremendous.

These guns sound absolutely forceful, and feel and sound like firing an actual firearm much more than in Into The Radius 1.

10 - Better AI

The AI is much improved in Into The Radius 2. This mimic is running to a new piece of cover after being hit.

The enemies you will face also have powerful sounding weapons, and they aren't afraid to use them. The AI in Into The Radius 2 is much improved over the first game.

Where the AI enemies in Into The Radius 1 did a lot of crouch walking around towards you, the enemies in the sequel dash from cover to cover, and will suppress your last known position with withering fire if given the chance.

The AI in Into the Radius 2 is much better at taking cover and exchanging shots with you.

11 - Fantastic Firefights

You’ll be outnumbered all of the time in Into The Radius 2, but the gunfights feel fantastic.

All of this adds together to create firefights in Into The Radius 2 that force you to treat them seriously, and don't allow you to just run and jump around through them while firing from the hip like you're in a Call Of Duty lobby.

There is a lot more emphasis on fighting enemies with guns in Into The Radius 2 than in the first game. While that being an improvement is debatable, it is impossible to deny that these firefights feel stunning to take part in on so many levels.

BONUS - Multiplayer

Eh well, that's eleven but let's throw in one more. MULTIPLAYER. Enough said.

Multiplayer in a game like this is tremendous.

That’s all for this list of 11 ways Into The Radius 2 improves on the original game. Enjoy yourself out there in the Radius.