I tend to play online co-op games with fellow GFer Transvaal, and our usual approach of ‘shoot, shoot, shoot’ sometimes hits a wall when playing games frolicking on the more tactical side of life, such as here with VOID Interactive’s Ready or Not, a game playable in both single and multiplayer modes that casts you in the role of a SWAT team commander in the fictional Los Suenos Police Department (LSPD) as you make your way through a surprisingly generous amount of missions, in the hope of arresting the guilty whilst protecting the innocent. Each mission leading on from the last – although you wouldn’t necessarily know this until you get a high enough ranking in completion of said missions, which adds key context to your actions, filling out the narrative background.In an unusual yet quite cool move, all weapons are unlocked to you at the start of the game, meaning that you can gear up however you please, with the only unlockables being cosmetic. I quite liked this approach, and found that the missions vary quite well, you don’t feel like you are wandering through ‘assety’ sets, instead, each mission location holds a lot of variety, ranging from silly fun through to some seriously dark moments, and even some that touch upon horror elements, all very intriguing and satisfying to play through. Kudos also has to go to Zack Bower and Dan Liston for their dynamic soundtrack that really adds to the tension and atmosphere in Ready or Not – awesome stuff.
It'll take a couple of missions to fully click with Ready or Not, as the game is pretty serious with the variety of how you approach each mission, for instance, the initial raid on a gas station requires quiet precision due to the amount of innocent citizens caught in the crossfire, whereas other stages will have you swapping out your gas grenades and flashbangs for door rams, explosive charges and the like, meaning that you’ll spend a fair amount of time getting the balance just right for each section of the game, it’s a sign of good game balancing when you don’t just settle on one setup and plough through each location – we often found ourselves switching things up and having in-depth tactical discussions when our setup clearly resulted in a failed mission, the foreboding, gritty atmosphere adding to the sense of immersion. There’s also a fair amount of effing and jeffing, let me tell you.Whilst I could harp on about the positive aspects of the game, such as the smooth gameplay, satisfying combat and more realistic aspects such as not having a HUD listing your ammo count etc. – all decisions made really suit the style of Ready or Not – and how each civilian / enemy has their own motive and characteristics – some will pull guns, some pretend to be dead and jump you, some refuse to cooperate, some act as if they are dropping their weapon before rushing you with a knife – there is currently a pretty major issue with the game that appears to be ongoing for a while based on what we’ve read online – the in-game voice chat.
We had an absolute nightmare getting voice chat set up, requiring multiple restarts and it eventually only worked when Transvaal hosted the game. Eventually, when we did get it to work, it was echoey, noisy and unclear – issues that don’t exist in other game that we play. We had to create a workaround by which we had a phone call via WhatsApp in one ear, and the headset for the game on the other ear, this really wasn’t ideal. The voice chat issues for this game, really need to be sorted asap – issues that appear to be exacerbated in cross play (in our case, XSX to PS5)SUMMARY
Voice chat issues aside, Ready or Not really captured our imagination, and even when you get taken down in a mission, the spectator mode is almost as thrilling due to the tension in-game, as you will your team mates to make it through.
There’s a grittiness to Ready or Not that bleeds through all aspects of the game and make it a serious contender in the world of online co-op tactical action titles, with the narrative thread also making it a recommendation if you intend on playing in single player mode, and if you are really keen on it – there is already a load of DLC to devour. Good!
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