Once upon a time, the world of PC gaming was set alight with squad-based, tactical shooters. Ready or Not joined their ranks back in 2023, feeling like a homage to some of these classics. Now, Void Interactive has decided it’s time for the console gaming audience to get a chance to pick up their controllers and fight crime in Los Sueños.
There Is Always A Conspiracy
Ready or Not has players step into the boots of David “Judge” Beaumont, the commander of the Los Sueños Police Department’s S.W.A.T. team. This team was formed in reaction to a giant crime spike in the city. It’s up to Judge and his hand-picked team of professionals to undertake the most dangerous missions. Their goal? To reduce crime and improve public perception about life in Los Sueños.
Players can tackle missions in any order; they are all perfectly playable standalone. However, several missions explore a deeper narrative that involves corruption and conspiracy, featuring government officials, organized crime gangs, and even a literal cult. You need to read your briefings carefully and pay attention during the mission if you want to get the full story. This approach rewards those who choose to pay a little more attention to the details.
Gameplay aside, Ready or Not reminded me of tactical shooter classic SWAT 4 in the way the levels and missions are presented. Each mission tells a different story through some fantastic environmental storytelling. For example, one mission has you tackling a meth lab. By the end of the mission, you’ve crawled through a mine connecting several areas in the dark, shadows dancing as you slowly progress through. You’ll have your first encounter with a mysterious cult. Its presentation is almost horror-like. This aspect truly sold me on Ready or Not.
Boots Firmly On The Ground
Ready or Not is a tactical first-person shooter with an emphasis on strategy and realism. There isn’t room to run and gun in this game, even on easier difficulties. If you want to aim for the best scores, you’re going to have your thinking and decision-making cap on the entire time. If you’d like another comparison, it has similarities with the classic Tom Clancy: Rainbow Six series.
This is a very slow, methodical shooting game that rewards players for taking their time. You’ll find yourself observing your mission area for the best entry point and take your time creeping and leaning around corners. Even before the mission, you’ll spend time carefully deciding your loadout. This ensures the mission is not only a success but also that you’ll come out with a good score and everyone is safe. You don’t have a “Sprint” button and need to lower your weapon to move quicker. Even then, you won’t be moving like Call of Duty, and that means no classic shooter tech like bunny hopping. You have buttons to lean around corners. You really will need to use these all the time, as walking into a room blind usually results in seeing “Mission Failed” quickly.
Another reason why a run and gun playstyle isn’t viable is that indiscriminate killing hurts your score. You are the police after all. Instead, you have the option to shout commands at enemies and civilians. This prompts them to drop their weapons or come over to you. For higher scores, you need to ensure every threat receives enough warnings. There must be a clear sign of danger before you open fire. Even then, the game favors non-lethal responses such as tasers or bean-bag guns. Trying to disarm or disable a threat using an actual firearm, I found, was really hit or miss. This often resulted in me reporting a death rather than a mere casualty.
Your loadout is important. You only have a certain amount of items that you can carry into missions. This includes your ammo, weapons, and tools. Examples include a mirror to look under doors, or C4 and flashbangs to help you breach rooms with minimal to no resistance. You’ll find yourself spending quite a while figuring out exactly what you and your team need to take to match the resistance. There are so many different weapons and tools; It’s not an exaggeration to say you can spend as much time in the shooting range finding your perfect loadout as you will out on the street dispensing justice.
Annual Performance Review
In order to get the big points for missions, you’ll also be looking around for evidence. One of the earlier missions sees you looking for an illegal bitcoin farm in an apartment complex, and while you’re doing this, you need to remember to bag up any weapons you come across and any stray drugs that may litter the area.
While the pacing is excellent, there can be issues. One mission went on for nearly 40 minutes as my co-op partner and I walked around trying to find a missing objective. It turned out it was because of a hostile who was just running around this giant stage and constantly evading us. Later, I learned you can just spam the shouting button to get a reaction, but it was an exhausting time.
The controls on console are fine for what they are. The AI commands and weapon choice menus can be a bit finicky. However, you will rarely use either of these in time-critical situations. There are so many options for the AI that it’s worth taking the time to go through the tutorial to learn how to get the best out of them.
Speaking of controls, Ready or Not is compatible with keyboard and mouse on console, just like the PC release. Funnily enough, when you’re looking at the inputs in the option menu, the game presents this as the first option over the controller. It’s not that the developers have dropped the ball with the console controls either. However, understandably for a shooter, the game works so much better with more buttons, especially in Commander Mode. It’s almost like a console RTS in that it’s playable with a controller, but there are better ways of doing it. Thankfully, Void Interactive has made the steps to give you both options.
Theatre of War
While the main focus of the game is really to grab a bunch of friends and work through the missions together, there is quite a comprehensive “Story” mode. This is called “Commander Mode.” It puts you in control of “Judge” as he leads his team through all the missions in the game. You have to control the friendly AI through very specific commands. Your team can be affected by the stressful conditions they enter, any damage taken, and even be taken off with stress. For every hardcore player, there’s also the favorite feature of the hardcore gamer: permadeath.
In Commander Mode, you are not only looking after yourself but also your team. The more you use them, the more traits they unlock. However, there is also a higher chance of them needing therapy for mental health conditions. Failure to manage this sees them resign from your team. Therefore, it’s worth balancing your team members. This way, you aren’t left on a tough mission with a bunch of rookies, which can only spell disaster for you and the residents of Los Sueños.Other available modes include Quick Play. This forgoes the Commander management style for more pick-up-and-play sessions. Perhaps you want to re-run a map to get a better idea of it, or just really enjoyed that mission. If you truly want to challenge your mettle, there is Ironman Mode too. This is like the Commander mode, but it includes Permadeath and deletes your progress on death, making it the most high-stakes version of the game.
In terms of difficulty settings, the console release of Ready or Not saw the inclusion of both a Casual and Hard mode. Casual is much more forgiving and an ideal way of dipping your toes into the game if you want to make progress quickly. The Hard mode, frankly, is for masochists. It cranks things up to a near-unmanageable level of unfairness. Personally, I found the Standard difficulty to be ideal, but then again, I’ve played a lot of the previously mentioned SWAT 4 over the years.
Ready or Not has 18 missions for you to tackle. They start from a standard hold-up of a gas station and increase in both scope and difficulty. Each mission requires a different tactic and loadout. With this release, there are also 2 additional missions both on PC and console versions. These are unconnected to the story and were initially “beta” levels, but have now been redesigned and fully realized as playable missions. Finally, another 2 purchasable campaigns add 6 more missions. While the game already has plenty to do, it’s good that the developer is providing even more challenges for players.
Terms of Engagement
Ready or Not is, frankly speaking, an amazing-looking game. It really leans into realism and looks almost photorealistic in its environments. Sadly, the same doesn’t quite apply to character models. While they still look good, they don’t quite match the quality of the world they inhabit.
I played Ready or Not on the PlayStation 5. Yes, it looks and performs brilliantly. It isn’t going to give you quite the same level of quality as a PC running the best hardware, but it gives you a visually pleasing version of the game which nails the performance. Plenty of effects from the PC version remain, but it can be quite jarring to see gameplay of the PC version when compared to the console versions of the game.
Sound is a huge part of Ready or Not, particularly when it comes to the sound effects. I was listening out for footsteps, guns being loaded, and the voices of civilians and threats. This helped me predict what was going to happen. Yes, you have a mirror gun to help you see what’s going on in a room. However, you’re also really going to have to listen out in case a threat is sneaking up behind you or loading in a blind spot. The sound design in Ready or Not is fantastic. Making sure you take advantage of it is your key to saving the city and making it home at the end of the shift.
Ready or Not is a rare breed of a game. It leans more on realism and strategy to create an amazing sense of immersion. In a world where games are becoming more pick-up-and-play, Ready or Not commands your full attention. Failure to give it that attention will result in your loss. Allow yourself to get immersed in the game, and you’ll be rewarded with an experience rarely seen.
Verdict
Ready or Not has quickly breached its way into one of my most played games of the year. I can see myself going back to it time and time again, trying to beat my scores and playing on higher difficulties. The range of options and the seemingly random generation on levels make each run a fresh and terrifying experience in equal amounts. Run-and-gun fans need not apply. But if you think you’ve got what it takes to command the situation and make the toughest decisions, I have but one thing to ask you: are you Ready or Not?
READY OR NOT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another FPS, you may enjoy Doom: The Dark Ages.
Many thanks go to Void Interactive for a PlayStation 5 review code for Ready or Not.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk
