Ready or Not is a 2023 tactical first-person shooter video game developed and published by Ireland-based VOID Interactive and released for Microsoft Windows. Ready or Not follows the operations of a police SWAT team in the fictional American city of Los Sueños in the midst of a violent crime wave.
Ready or Not | |
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Developer(s) | VOID Interactive |
Publisher(s) | VOID Interactive |
Engine | Unreal Engine 5[1] |
Platform(s) | |
Release |
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Genre(s) | First-person shooter, tactical shooter |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Ready or Not was released through Steam early access on December 17, 2021, before it was officially released on December 13, 2023.[2] The game was well-received for its atmosphere and gameplay and has been considered a spiritual successor to the similar SWAT series by Sierra Entertainment.
Gameplay
editIn Ready or Not, the player takes the role of an American police tactical unit leader within the Los Sueños Police Department (LSPD)[3] pitted against criminals. As a tactical shooter, realism is a central pillar of gameplay, with both players and enemies being killed in only a few shots; therefore, tactical strategies and careful planning are emphasized.
The player is given a wide selection of rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, and handguns to choose from, with extensive customization options for sights, rail attachments, suppressors, and other attachments. Equipment such as stun grenades, stinger grenades, fiberscopes, ballistic shields, and breaching devices are key items available for the player and their team to equip and use.[4] As the player is part of a police unit, apprehending suspects alive is greatly encouraged; therefore, a variety of less-lethal weapons such as tasers, riot guns, and pepper spray are available as alternatives to lethal force, and players are awarded more points for arresting suspects instead of killing them. However, unlike SWAT 3 and SWAT 4, less-lethal weapons such as beanbag shotguns and pepperball guns have the chance of either incapacitating or killing suspects and civilians alike.
Players are also encouraged to handcuff downed suspects as they can either be incapacitated or will fake their death in order to ambush the player. Ready Or Not recommends players to fire at the suspect's center of mass when using lethal force.[5]
Fire discipline becomes especially essential to completing missions, as players who shoot restrained suspects, civilians, or AI team members will be engaged by police as punishment for violating those rules and ethics within the universe of the game.[6]
Modes
editMissions are played in singleplayer with AI teammates, or cooperatively with up to 5 players through online multiplayer. A competitive player versus player mode is planned for sometime after the 1.0 release.
Four single player modes are available at the start, those being the Commander mode, Quick Play mode, Ironman, and Training. Training is a tutorial that takes place in the firing range of the LSPD station that teaches players the basics of the game, such as leaning, firing, aiming, and how to use basic equipment. Commander mode is the main single player offering, the player manages a SWAT team, dealing with factors such as stress which changes based on how the mission goes. Ironman is the same as Commander mode, however a single death will wipe your progress.[7] Quick Play mode removes the management, but is otherwise the same.[8]
Home Invasion DLC
editThis section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2024) |
After news of delays, Home Invasion released on July 23, 2024. The release also upgraded Ready Or Not to Unreal Engine 5.[9] [1]
Development
editDevelopment began in June 2016 and a reveal trailer was released on YouTube on May 3, 2017.[10] An alpha version [3] of the game was made available on August 19, 2019[11] for owners of the Supporter Edition under a non-disclosure agreement. Supporters and select YouTubers were invited to a PvP test in April 2020 and were allowed to publish footage.[12][13] The game was released on Steam Early Access on December 17, 2021.[14]
At The Game Awards 2023, VOID Interactive announced that the 1.0 version was released on December 13, 2023.[2] The full release includes a mission dealing with swatting and illegal crypto mining.[15] The 1.0 release also addresses overhauls to the effectiveness of less-lethal equipment, mental health in law enforcement, inter-agency cooperation, and officer personality traits.[16][3] Similar to SWAT 3, Ready Or Not 's 1.0 release will include sophisticated AI that performs actions such as restraining suspects and taking cover autonomously rather than relying on player input.[17] [18]
VOID Interactive planned to release two DLCs by Spring and Summer 2024, respectively; the former having the title of Home Invasion. [19]
Publishing issues
editA partnership with Team17 to publish the game under their label was announced on March 22, 2021.[20] On December 20, 2021, VOID Interactive announced that their partnership with Team17 had ended and that they would no longer be publishing the game. Speculation suggested that this was due to the developers teasing a school shooting level on Reddit one day prior,[21] although this was denied by VOID.[22]
On June 16, 2022, Ready or Not was delisted from Steam after a takedown request was issued against the game for trademark infringement relating to a level set in a nightclub.[23][24] Though media reports suggested it was connected to the level's release date—June 12, the anniversary of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting[25] (VOID did not comment on why this date was chosen)—it was noted that the name of the in-game nightclub, "Pryzm", was also the name of a British nightclub chain owned by Rekom UK.[23][24][26] The game returned to Steam on June 18 with the infringing elements removed.[23][24][26]
Reception
editReady or Not currently has a score of 79 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[27] It was the best selling game on Steam in the week after its release, and has been favorably described as a spiritual successor to the SWAT series and early Rainbow Six games.[28][29]
Ethan Gach, writing an early review for Kotaku, called Ready or Not a "tactical horror game" and "an unsettling SWAT fantasy", praising its atmosphere but also criticizing it as tasteless due to insensitivity towards police brutality and jarring tonal shifts between crude humor and dark drama. Gach also highlighted apparent references to alt-right memes such as redpill and the use of "Jogger" as a racist euphemism (in reference to Ahmaud Arbery). VOID responded to Gach's review, denying any connection to extremism, saying that the alleged dog whistles were coincidental, and stating they would remove the references in question.[30]
In its review of the Home Invasion DLC, PC Gamer praised the gameplay and weapon additions while criticizing alleged class bias surrounding the Dorms level (where both the suspects and civilians are homeless individuals).[31]
References
edit- ^ a b Home Invasion Release Changelog. July 23, 2024. VOID Interactive. Published on Steam
- ^ a b Macgregor, Jody (December 8, 2023). "Controversial SWAT team FPS Ready or Not announces a December release date, promising 'an intense gaming experience, that challenges you on the world you know'". PC Gamer. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ a b c "Vol.63 - Ready or Not Development Briefing- Commander Mode and Narrative". Steam. VOID Interactive. November 3, 2023. Archived from the original on November 3, 2023.
How your team conducts itself in a mission and the scenarios they encounter can lead to a psychological effect on your officers that is critical to address to ensure proper effectiveness in the field. Your officers will receive check-ins with a Mental Health Unit attached to your team who relays the outcomes in their respective files. If an officer's mental status becomes unbearable it may even lead them to quit, or worse.
- ^ Vernon, Ross (December 4, 2022). "READY OR NOT First Impression: Unprecedented SWAT Tactics". GameTyrant. Archived from the original on March 29, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
- ^ Ready or Not - Blood and Gore Improvements (Adam Update) (Archive)
- ^ Ready or Not Update 1.0 Dev Vlog. December 11, 2023. VOID Interactive. Game Rant. YouTube
- ^ Ganguly, Sharmila (January 1, 2024). "How to enable Ironman mode in Ready or Not". Dot Esports. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
- ^ Home Invasion Patch 2 Changelog. August 2, 2024. Steam. VOID Interactive
- ^ Ready or Not: Home Invasion - Official Gameplay Trailer
- ^ Burns, Ben (May 5, 2017). "Tactical FPS Ready Or Not announced via gritty teaser trailer". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on November 16, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
- ^ VOID Interactive (August 19, 2019). "READY OR NOT SUPPORTER ALPHA AVAILABLE NOW TO PLAY. ALPHA IS LIVE UNTIL JUST BEFORE OUR BETA IN 2020". Twitter. Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
- ^ Rogue-9 (April 29, 2020). "Ready or Not (Alpha) Loadout Options". Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ All Guns and Equipment! - Ready Or Not Alpha (Archive)
- ^ Chris J, Capel (December 18, 2021). "Rainbow Six and SWAT heir Ready or Not is out now in early access". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
- ^ READY OR NOT: Streamer. VOID Interactive. June 29, 2023. Archived from the original on June 29, 2023. Retrieved June 29, 2023 – via YouTube.
Introducing Streamer, our ambitious upcoming map that will be available with the arrival of the 1.0 release.
- ^ "Vol.61 - Ready or Not Development Briefing: Police Trailer Units, Less Lethal QOL Overhauls, Blocking Volumes, Farm Level Overhaul, and VFX improvements". Steam. VOID Interactive. October 6, 2023.
[Internal gameplay] found that pepper spray was sometimes too powerful for use against armed suspects in combat contexts. Now, instead of a full stun, suspects who are affected with pepper spray will cover their eyes, experience an accuracy reduction, and have a morale drop. In this blinded state they are still capable of shooting the player up close.
- ^ "Vol.64 - Ready or Not Development Briefing- SWAT AI Overhaul". Steam. VOID Interactive. November 17, 2023. Archived from the original on November 18, 2023.
[Y]ou have over almost every tactical facet of your SWAT AI officers, you should also know that they are tactical professionals, effectively fully functional on an autonomous level as well. They don't require constant commands or handholding. They will make callouts, move, prioritize contacts in a room in accordance with your orders, lean around corners, stay alert to openings, make arrests, check hiding places, and more based on their own astute tactical awareness.
- ^ Tal Blevins (November 30, 1999). "SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle". IGN.
- ^ Volume 68 - Ready or Not Development Briefing: 2024 Roadmap Steam. February 16, 2024
- ^ Nelva, Giuseppe (March 22, 2021). "Squad-Based Tactical Shooter Ready or Not Will Launch Under Team17's Label". Twinfinite. Archived from the original on November 16, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
- ^ Jeremy, Winslow (December 22, 2021). "Game Loses Publisher Days After Devs Remind Fans About Apparent School Shooting Level". Kotaku. Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
- ^ Chalk, Andy (December 24, 2021). "Ready or Not studio says planned 'school shooting' level did not cause split with publisher". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on April 27, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
- ^ a b c Bankhurst, Adam (June 19, 2022). "Ready or Not Back on Steam Following a Takedown Request Concerning Trademark Infringement". IGN. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
- ^ a b c Smith, Graham (June 18, 2022). "Ready Or Not is back on Steam after being removed for alleged trademark infringement, devs say". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
- ^ "Ready or Not pulled from Steam after adding nightclub shooting level". GamesIndustry.biz. June 20, 2022. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
- ^ a b "'Ready Or Not' Was Not Pulled Due To Nightclub Shooting Map, Says Developers". GAMINGbible. June 18, 2022. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
- ^ "Ready or Not". Metacritic. Fandom. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
- ^ Bailey, Dustin (December 27, 2021). "The best-selling game of the Steam Winter Sale isn't on sale". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on March 23, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
- ^ Schwarz, Christian (January 21, 2022). "Ready or Not im Test: Der Taktik-Shooter ist SWAT (noch) nicht würdig" [Ready or Not in the test: The tactical shooter is not (yet) worthy of the big SWAT]. GameStar (in German). Archived from the original on March 17, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
- ^ Gach, Ethan (January 6, 2022). "Controversial Steam Best Seller Ready Or Not Is An Unsettling SWAT Fantasy". Kotaku. Archived from the original on April 27, 2023. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
- ^ Ready or Not's new expansion takes the tense shooter action to new heights, but the politics hit rock bottom. July 25, 2024. Jake Tucker.