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Ready or Not... What kind of weird name is that for an ultra-realistic, merciless SWAT simulator anyway? When I first heard about Void Interactive's ambitious project three years ago, I thought it was a Gamepass-focused hide-and-seek game with a Viva Pinata aesthetic. Because that's exactly what it sounds like. "Ready or Not, here I come!" Ridiculous. At the same time, there is certainly value in not being overly predictable and typical in one's naming. I guess. Create initial mystery or wonder before you just throw a fistful of fine-calibre pistol ammunition right at the player. sh*t! Then you sit there, with burning cheeks and a light red skin tone that covers every centimetre of your previously beautiful face. I'm ranting. Sorry. I know and it has to do with this game's effect on my brain. Because in the last 24 hours I've concentrated so damn hard that I almost passed out at times, and that (believe it or not) is only a positive thing. Void's no-compromise cop simulator demands a lot from you but ultimately gives back a lot when things go right. In that way, it's a genuinely brilliant action experience. Let me explain further.
The SWAT games by Sierra were once some of my favourite titles. Being forced to plan, think through every move, every advance, every door you step through and together with a group of friends sneak into a pitch-black hostage situation and before the situation escalates, relegate the kidnappers to the realm of the dead and ensure the release of the civilians without gunshot wounds was for me, many years ago, a strangely enough relaxing experience. As we all know, Irrational Games with Bioshock visionary Ken Levine at the helm developed SWAT 4 and I probably still consider that to be the finest moment of the subgenre, which I also think the developers behind Ready or Not do. Because this reminds a lot of SWAT 4. Very much.
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You take on the role of police officer David "Judge" Beaumont who, along with four colleagues, is assigned a series of missions in the fictional town of Los Sueños (which looks like South Central, Inglewood, Compton and Lawndale combined). Hostages must be rescued, situations must be handled and villains of various ranks must either be shot dead or captured on the floor with their hands tied behind their backs. Ready or Not can be played alone with four cops at your side controlled by Void's upgraded AI system, or with four friends in co-op. It's tactical, difficult, slow paced and very realistic. You can't take a bunch of bullets in the body, retreat behind a wall and wait for your health to regenerate itself and then jump-slide into the room with the trigger pressed to the max. None of that works. Here, instead, you have to think again, think away from everything called Call of Duty, Rainbow Six and Battlefield.
Over the course of the past two years, the developers behind Ready or Not have been in an early access phase, polishing and honing their game with the help of fans. As I said, I haven't had time for very many game sessions in 2023 and thus haven't been able to see with any kind of detail what and which aspects are being improved in what pace and order but a lot has happened here since February, the gods know that.
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The biggest improvement I notice now versus the February version is definitely the helpers AI which was lame then but is brilliant right now. You can give all four colleagues various orders or you can let them fend for themselves, which in many games of this type tends to generate maximum irritation/frustration, but not here. They move smartly and tactically, they move if you draw your weapon, they cover the right parts of the rooms, they react to enemies most of the time before you have time to do the same, and they make smart decisions when the heat is on.
Like all good tactical shooters, this is about patience and being careful, restrained, tight and disciplined. Some games within this subgenre fail to create the right conditions or perhaps rather atmosphere regarding this, which not infrequently made me go too hard, too aggressively, which is not the case here. Ready or Not does a phenomenal job of lulling me into the seriousness of every situation and I virtually never again fail to take proper safety precautions and make sure all my sidekicks are in the right place with loaded, unsecured guns every time we step into a room, and there is an insanely wonderful sense of absolute reward when it flaps, as I said. Covering a room and putting a couple of 5.56 bullets in the chest of a psychotic kidnapper inside a neon-drenched nightclub, is a gaming experience that, for example, Rainbow Six once offered but has long since abandoned. According to me.
There are parts of the actual management bit of how I have to manage my sidekicks between missions that I don't really like. I understand that the therapy bit after gunshot wounds and all that is intended to create a realistic atmosphere and that it should give depth but I have mostly felt in my hours that it feels a little forced and forced to create a width between the firefights, which does not is needed. There's also some catching up to do on the graphics side, although Ready or Not, being Unreal Engine 4-based, is by no means ugly. It looks a little too clean, too generic and streamlined which I hope Void works away. If they intend to achieve a more realistic design and "look" to their game world with more dirt, particles, debris and mess and a more faded "bodycam" feel in terms of image filters. At least that's what I'd prefer.
Ready or Not is of course the kind of game that is constantly being developed, replenished, refined and improved, which also happened during the early access period. Lacking a meaningful and true-to-life Rainbow Six adventure as well as SWAT 5, this is of course a truly brilliant experience steeped in challenge and gameplay depth. If, like me, you've been thirsting for more SWAT, it's really time to get this and with tactics, strategy and patience set off on Los Sueño's worst criminals.
