Ready or Not Review – Terrifyingly Tense Tactical Action

I have spent countless hours non-lethally subduing armed suspects losing my patience with noncompliant civilians in Ready or Not. And I loved (almost) every minute. VOID Interactive has resurrected the lost art of games like SWAT 4 and pre-live service Rainbow Six with its tactical shooter. After a few years in the Early Access oven and a 1.0 launch on PC at the tail end of 2023, the hardcore squad FPS has continued refining itself in the lead up to its console launch. As many console players are well aware, tactical shooter sims are an underserved genre on consoles. In fact, Insurgency: Sandstorm sits as one of the only that immediately comes to mind. This longstanding gap has given Ready or Not a massive opportunity to capitalize in a space that is dying for this type of slow burn action. And despite a few setbacks from its prior PC form, it manages to successfully bring a highly immersive, high stakes FPS to console players.

Ready or Not brings a host of bleak, gritty scenarios that are in desperate need of fine-tuned operators. These fictional, yet realistic, missions toss squads into truly harrowing situations, where death is almost always lurking around the next corner. The neon and blood-drenched nightclub sits as a strong example. The hallways of the once lively club are now littered with the lifeless corpses of those who’s only crime was seeking a night of letting loose. Gone is the electric energy that used to fill the social venue with a crowded dance floor, overlapping conversations, and clinking glasses. Now the business lies motionless and cold, with naught but the sound of frantic calls to the deceased’s phones echoing off the walls. That and the armed criminals still stalking the halls.

Put the “Raid” in “Afraid”

That’s but one of the many missions that carry the same oppressive tone. Over their career, the squad will deploy to a towering hotel, a blood-soaked medical center, a college campus overrun by active shooters, a streamer’s techy condo and a whole lot more. Each level is carefully crafted to evoke a certain mood, and ensure the tension is palpable throughout. Ready or Not has among the best world building and environmental storytelling of any game out there. The slumped bodies, smeared gore and general wreckage tell the tale of the chaos that ensued before law enforcement hit the scene. Often I found my eyes scanning the corners of the room for more pieces of the puzzle to understand what had taken place and how it played out. And sometimes looking for bits of narrative meant I wasn’t paying attention to the criminal that crawled out from under a nearby bed and bum-rushed me with a knife.

Those moments are heart-pounding. The squad may be loaded up with various configurations of body armor, firearms and gadgets, but none ever make the fight feel tilted in their favor. A well-placed round or two can put down a suspect the same way it can to any member of the responding team. And when those guns go off, it’s a deafening cacophony of bass-heavy blasts that can quickly disorient our digital professionals. That pervading sense of vulnerability, coupled with the oozing aura of violence that stains every square inch of each locale, is what makes Ready or Not a white-knuckle experience like little else.

The entire package is primarily divided into two different, albeit similar, forms of gameplay. The Commander mode wraps up these missions in a single player campaign structure, allowing the player to control AI squadmates. These companions can be ordered to stack up on doors, flashbang rooms, secure suspects, and all manner of tactical directives. But most importantly, they can die. There’s more incentive to keeping them alive than simply not having their character model swapped out; squad members who consistently survive gain perks (and often trauma), making them more capable combatants. Managing the crew is a delight in terms of the depth of commands, but it’s cumbersome in its execution. The command wheel hosts multiple levels to navigate through, requiring multiple flicks of the analog stick. Having spent much time with the PC version, the console’s solution for controllers is effective yet clunky.

This grievance goes out the window when cooperative play is selected. Coordinating with friends in Ready or Not provides one of the most satisfying, stressful and sidesplitting experiences on the market. One moment anxiety is at an all-time high as the team struggles to locate a highly dangerous suspect and the next uncontrollable laughter cuts through the tension as a friend blows up after overconfidently booting in a booby-trapped door. These tonal opposites coexist in VOID’s tactical shooter. It’s an incredible feat to have both moments live in harmony, especially when one never erodes away at the other. The second that laughter dies back down, that dread returns to the pit of your stomach. Even with friends, that sense of fatal exposure persists. Suspects may mock surrender, pulling up their gun or a knife in the seconds preceding restraint; they may hide in closets and under beds; they may set traps ; or they might go out with a bang, courtesy of a bomb vest. All of these factors are reconfigured each run, ensuring no two attempts are the same.

Obviously, the goal is to bring order to chaos through suspect detainment and hostage rescue (as well as occasional optional side objectives). The only way to earn that coveted “S” tier ranking is to non-lethally subdue all suspects and keep the civilians alive. That means taking non-lethal gear, such as the taser and beanbag shotgun. Of course, loading up with punchy shotguns and assault rifles made settling for an “A” more than worth it. The wide array of options to fill one’s loadout is impressive, and promotes experimentation with weapon types, attachments, armor material, and so on. I never felt like I was being pushed towards a limited meta in order to succeed; there are multiple ways to win in Ready or Not, and it largely depends on the needs of the mission environment.

Almost Ready

Now I’ve been near-exclusively praising Ready or Not, but it does have negatives worth noting beyond the action wheel. On PC, the game was in fine form prior to its console debut. It looked stunning, it played wonderfully, and it possessed some of the most wince-inducing carnage seen in a video game. The transition to consoles brought light censorship. Given how much I applauded the environmental storytelling, any concessions made to these dark visions have at least some impact. For example, the new release removes a convulsing woman from a mission, leaving her lying still instead. The convulsions in the previous iteration painted a grim picture and fed into a sense of urgency, as a helpless victim is in dire need of medical attention while the team steadily sweeps the premises.

Honestly, the censorship is a minor gripe compared to the downgraded visuals and buggier performance. While the visuals are still strong in their aesthetic, they’re worse for wear on consoles. It’s compounded by the backstep in bugginess. I’ve had suspects and evidence disappear, characters become inaccessible after clipping through the environment and other minor oddities. Given the pedigree achieved by Ready or Not on PC, I can’t help but note the downgrades. That said, first-time players will not have known that pre-existing form, making what’s on offer the best they’ve ever known. Although there’s plenty that could be improved, it still sits as a one-of-its-kind first-person shooter in the console ecosystem with virtually no competitors.

Ready or Not Review Verdict

[Editor’s Note: Ready or Not was reviewed on Xbox Series X, and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.]