TL;DR
Ready or Not is a tactical shooter that swaps run-and-gun for meticulous planning and teamwork, putting you in the boots of a SWAT officer. While the gameplay emphasizes realistic, slow-burn operations and shines in co-op, its graphics are a bit dated and it's clearly designed with PC in mind. The console version offers performance or quality modes, but neither fully captures the PC experience. If you crave strategic depth and realistic police simulation, this might be for you, but be prepared for a learning curve. Dive into the full review to see if this intense tactical experience is worth your deployment.
Ready or Not is a tactical first-person shooter that places players in the role of an elite American police force (SWAT) member. The game focuses on realistic operations against criminal threats in urban environments, ranging from hostage situations to drug raids. Unlike typical run-and-gun shooters, success hinges on meticulous planning, effective team communication, and methodical execution. Caution, strategic foresight, and close cooperation are paramount for mission success.
Gameplay Experience and Strategy
Ready or Not distinguishes itself as much for its strategic depth as for its shooting mechanics. Mission success is intricately tied to considering the well-being of colleagues, hostages, and other non-combatants. The game offers a robust single-player experience, where AI-controlled bots complement the player’s team, eliminating the necessity of online play.
However, the online multiplayer mode is where the game truly excels. Here, players can engage in real-time cooperation, coordinating assaults and developing complex strategies with other human players. This significantly enhances the game’s tactical depth and replayability. Each operation can range from a few minutes to several hours.
Graphics and Technical Performance
Testing Ready or Not on Xbox Series X revealed no significant technical issues. While functional, the graphics are not particularly impressive. Environments frequently appear dark and monotonous, characterized by simplistic textures and limited detail. Character models and animations often exhibit stiffness, lending the title a visual quality more akin to an indie production than an AAA game. Nonetheless, certain lighting effects and the sound design are notably well-executed, elevating the overall presentation.
Graphics Settings and Platform Comparison
On console platforms, only two graphics settings are available: Performance Mode and Quality Mode. Performance Mode prioritizes frame rate, targeting 60 FPS (with occasional dips to 56–58 FPS during intense action), offering a smoother gameplay experience at the cost of slightly reduced resolution and detail. Quality Mode delivers enhanced graphical fidelity with superior lighting and textures, but is capped at 30 FPS, which can negatively affect responsiveness during critical gameplay moments.
From a gameplay perspective, prioritizing frame rate over subtle visual enhancements, such as a finer background detail, is often beneficial. The PC version provides a broader range of graphics settings, mod support, and scalable performance contingent on hardware specifications. Furthermore, the PC version benefits from fewer censorship restrictions, a factor that has drawn criticism regarding the console version’s comparatively sanitized content.
Control Scheme and Learning Curve
Acclimating to the extensive command set and optimizing controller usage requires a significant learning period. The game’s design clearly favors keyboard input, providing a comprehensive array of available commands that are challenging to fully replicate on a controller. Initial complexity can be daunting, but with practice, the control scheme becomes intuitive. It is likely, however, that the learning curve is less steep and more forgiving on the PC platform.
In summary, Ready or Not may not appeal to all players. It primarily targets those who appreciate strategic depth and complex problem-solving. As previously noted, this deviates significantly from a typical run-and-gun shooter. Nonetheless, Ready or Not warrants a recommendation, precisely for its realistic portrayal of the challenges faced by SWAT officers in the USA. A regrettable aspect is that the graphics do not quite match the overall quality of the gameplay, and its clear PC-centric development means the console version experiences some limitations.
VOID Interactive provided a review code for this test. The provider of the material has no editorial influence on our reviews.
