Ready or Not Review: Immersive and Impressive

Ready or Not has finally made its way to consoles, but how well does the immersive SWAT sim translate to a controller? For those who are unfamiliar, Ready or Not is one of the most popular hardcore shooters out there, as its focus is on realism and tension. Players fill the shoes of a SWAT agent tasked with clearing houses, compounds, and apartments to take down drug dealers, sex traffickers, and other criminals. The goal isn’t to just run into a room guns blazing, though. You have a wide variety of tools to complete your mission both lethally and non-lethally. It’s up to you to come prepared with the right loadout and assemble a strong team of either real players or AI allies.

Ready or Not has a bunch of missions where you’re assigned a variety of objectives, but the main one is to secure the area from hostiles. You constantly feel a tightness in your stomach as you round a corner or open a door, not able to fully know what’s on the other side. Even with tools that let you peek under doors, there could still be someone hiding out of sight, ready to shoot you or charge you with a knife. Not only that, but even after someone seems to have surrendered, they can jump up and attack you at the last second. You can never really fully let your guard down. I’ve made the mistake of doing so even after subduing all the enemies, only to open a door that was rigged with a bomb, immediately killing me and one of my friends.

Ready or Not is highly replayable as enemy positions change every single time. They can take hostages, hide under beds or in closets, scatter into dark underground tunnels that require flashlights or night-vision goggles, and more. If you die, you don’t come back until the mission is over or restarted. During one mission that took place in two rundown houses, my friends and I had cleared the first house and were moving through the second one. I had walked off on my own to check a room, only to suddenly hear rapid footsteps behind me. By the time I had turned around, I was getting stabbed and was dead. From then on out, we all agreed to have someone watching our backs at all times so no one could get the jump on us. You are constantly learning from your mistakes in this game.

The actual combat in Ready or Not is very thrilling, too. Bullets can shred apart doors, rooms can be breached with explosive charges, and the impact of violence is felt. Not only can you take down an enemy in one or two well-placed shots, but you see the effect of it as well. The gore in the game can be graphic and detailed, meaning if you shoot someone in the head, their face will be close to unrecognizable. All of this also helps to make you understand the danger, too. It doesn’t take much to take you down, which leads to that palpable tension throughout the entire game.

Although Ready or Not is arguably the most fun when you’re in a really intense shootout due to the thunderous gunshots rattling in your headset and the disorientation that comes with a sudden firefight, you will get the most out of the game with its non-lethal approach. This is the only way to get an S-rank on a mission and requires an absolutely perfect run. You need perfect teamwork and communication as no one can die, including you, the enemies, and civilians. Everyone must use a non-lethal weapon, whether it be a pepperball gun, a taser, or a beanbag shotgun. There aren’t that many games out there that can really simulate that amount of coordination and team synergy. Everyone has to be on the same page or it can all fall apart pretty quickly. 

One of my biggest concerns going into Ready or Not was how well it would translate to a controller. It’s a game with a lot of controls due to all of the gadgets, commands, and nuances to gameplay. It’s easier to map all of that onto a big keyboard, but not so easy when putting it on a controller with limited buttons. Generally speaking, it controls well for moment-to-moment gameplay, but I found myself forgetting key controls and was unable to figure them out by just pressing different buttons. Some controls require you to use multiple buttons at the same time or hold a button instead of pressing it.

For instance, I completely forgot how to put a light down on the floor, which indicates to other players and yourself that a room has been cleared. I also found some things, like the commands, to be clunky. It requires you to navigate multiple UI wheels that require you to push the analog stick multiple times to access. It’s not very intuitive, but if you’re playing in co-op with people you know, this likely won’t be much of an issue.

Ready or Not is also a bit buggy. Part of the game’s scoring system requires you to pick up weapons off the ground as evidence. However, these weapons can disappear or become completely inaccessible, hurting your overall score. The mission only ends once you’ve collected every piece of evidence. You can end it yourself once you have completed the main objectives, but there were a few times where my friends and I walked around a map for 15 minutes trying to find the last gun we needed to secure, only for it to seemingly not exist.

Another cumbersome bug revolves around the aforementioned breaching charges. If you use one and someone is on the other side of the door, it is supposed to kill them or neutralize them. However, there were a few times where the person’s body completely disappeared, and just moments later, they essentially respawned and shot me in the back. Obviously, this can be pretty frustrating, and hopefully, it will be fixed.

Despite some flaws, Ready or Not is one of the most intense and shellshocking shooters I have ever played. It’s highly replayable, dreadfully suspenseful, and painstakingly detailed in the name of creating some well-earned immersion. While there are some rough edges, it’s a really impressive experience that will keep me coming back for more. Whether you’re seeking raw and unfiltered combat or highly coordinated and precisely executed raids, Ready or Not is a varied shooter with a strong hook.

Rating: 4 out of 5

An Xbox Series X|S code was provided by the publisher for this review.