Ready or Not has proven to be a divisive game and it’s easy to see why.
In the years that have followed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, police-related media has faced increased scrutiny. Yet, Ready or Not – a SWAT simulator – has disappointingly little to say on the subject of police brutality.
Police brutality has always been a problem, especially in the United States, but the true scale of the issue is only now being widely understood. As such, a game that allows you, as a police officer, to commit these acts was never going to have an easy ride in a world that blames video games for just about everything. Nevertheless, Ready or Not‘s commitment to tactical simulation makes it a fun and engrossing, if problematic, experience.
Ready or Not review
Ready or Not puts you in the boots of David “Judge” Beaumont, the commander of the Los Sueños Police Department’s SWAT unit. Judge and his squad undertake tactical missions involving active shooters and armed gangs – their job is to arrest or kill suspects and rescue civilians.
The game emphasises the use of tactical planning to simulate real-life SWAT operations. This is necessitated by the exceptionally quick time-to-kill when compared to other first-person shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield. This, coupled with Ready or Not‘s effectively crafted gritty atmosphere and dour view of the criminal underworld, makes for a brutally realistic take on the genre that is unique in the modern gaming landscape.
Often, though, this hard realism verges on a kind of police fantasy in which unmitigated brutality is justified so long as the job gets done. Such oscillation would be fine if the game had more to say on the subject – but it doesn’t.
Sure, it takes points from your final score if you accidentally (or purposely) kill civilians or too many suspects. But the lack of a story that’s even partially impacted by your actions makes your choices weightless and inconsequential, removing any opportunity for further examination or introspection of Ready or Not‘s complex subject matter.
With that being said, Ready or Not is a game. And that means its primary function is to provide a fun and engaging experience that leaves you wanting more. Despite a significant lack of polish, unintuitive controls and tutorials, and its fair share of bugs, the core gameplay loop is highly satisfying and incredibly addictive.
You start each mission as a squad of five: yourself (Judge) and four other armed police responders. Your four colleagues are split into two teams of two and you can control them as a unit or individually as you aim to complete your set mission objectives.
Tactical commands include stacking up on a door, breaching a locked room with plastic explosive, searching and securing areas, taking cover and much more. As you’d expect, the more you play the more in tune you become with the plethora of tactical options and extensive range of tools on offer. Even still, Ready or Not has a brutal learning curve that is not helped by the abysmally unintuitive tutorial level.
When mastered, though, Ready or Not can provide some awesome moments that would be difficult to replicate in any other game. Perfectly orchestrating a two-pronged infiltration and swiftly taking out bad guys is just as satisfying as you’d imagine, if not more so. And that’s what makes Ready or Not so addictive.
While there’s no story pulling you forward, the missions that Judge and his fellow Los Sueños police officers undertake are enough to hold you for the duration of the game’s single player mode. In total, there are 18 missions to play through and each one comes with its own mini-backstory and setting. The police station serves as the hub between missions where you can customise your loadout (with a CoD style gunsmith system), appearance, and squad.
The levels of Ready or Not are meticulously designed. Each one feels authentic and purposefully delineated – and all of them are suitably grim. GTA-esque knock-off brands like “Yoga Master” (Jaegermeister), Los Sueños’s atmospheric similarity to Manhunt‘s Carcer City, as well as the patchy graphics, clunky controls and spotty voice acting, give the game the feel of a noughties Rockstar title – and I actually kind of like that.
The Ready or Not multiplayer experience will depend on if you’re playing in a public or private game.
The former has a serious communication problem and tends to descend into players going into business for themselves. This strips away the one thing that makes Ready or Not unique: the tactical teamwork and methodical pacing.
Conversely, I can see how playing with friends and other like-minded players could yield the exact opposite effect: a tactical experience that’s pretty much unmatched. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to check out the latter, so I found myself predominantly playing Ready or Not‘s single player offering.
Ready or Not review – Verdict
Despite two years in early access, Ready or Not is still far from perfect. Yet, as an indie title, it’s clear to see that VOID Interactive has produced something pretty special in Ready or Not. It’s a unique and often engrossing experience that’s incomparable in the modern world of battle royales and looter-shooters.
That doesn’t change the fact that Ready or Not is seriously lacking any sort of thematic examination of its subject matter, though. As mentioned, this is almost entirely down to the absence of a narrative that carries you through the game. Instead, the game takes you from one mission to the next without consequence or weight. It’s a space walk through police procedure.
In the end, this makes Ready or Not a remarkable yet hollow achievement that should have aspired to be more than it ended up being: fun and flawed in equal measure.
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
Version played: PC
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