- Tested on PC using a code provided by developers.
- Test configuration: RTX 4090 + i9-9900K.
- This is not a final opinion, as the game is still in early access and has to improve.
- Translator in the « real life »I am now considering converting myself into an agent of the S.W.A.T.
- Prominent fact: play to Ready or Not Makes you want to yell at passers-by in the street to lie down on the floor or put their hands on the head.
- I'm tasing. You're tasing. He/she tashes; We tasing; You're tasing. They're tasting.
Let's start with a confession! I've never played in the series SWAT or Tom Clancys Rainbow Six, I watched the whole of 24 and The Shield and, every time Jack Bauer, my hero with Tom Cruise, yells at a terrorist of « PUT YOUR GUN DOWN, NOW! », I shiver by swallowing my saliva, trembling with excitement, imagining in its place (Jack, not the terrorist !). In other words, when launching early access to Ready or Not, Tactical FPS both solo and multiplayer in which one embodies a unit of intervention of the S.W.A.T., I was feverish.
Special Weapons And Tactics
Redy or Not So is a tactico-S.W.A.T.ico-realistic FPS: what does that mean, will you ask me? If you, too, like to play your life in multiplayer FPS and bite your fingers for having completed your third professional internship at a veterinarian rather than in the elite RAID brigade, as your guidance advisor had recommended, then Ready or Not Could become your bedside game.
The title of VOID Interactive excels in its ability to give the impression that death awaits us at every turn, at the detour of the least corridor. You will soon have become obsessed with enemy firing lines, and God knows that they are numerous and devious.
Equipped with an AI still largely perfectable, but for an hour rather fit, your opponents will not hesitate to hide, flee to bypass you, take civilians hostage or pretend to surrender to better plant yourself when you approach to handcuff them. Then don't hesitate to tass the bullies. « in case ».
Since the location of the damage is realistic, your allies and your enemies can move from life to life in one to two bullets, which will give you a chance to start the mission again. If this may seem too punitive for some (in which case so much not to turn to tactical SPF), this vulnerability will serve as a catalyst for immersion for others (as is the case in Hunt, for example, which offers memorable shootings with a lot of skin).
We find ourselves constantly monitoring our backs and sliding our camera under the doors (if we have chosen to equip the appropriate accessory and when possible). Does the room look deserted? On the way, bad troop. On the other hand, if you see a criminal, strategies are multiple depending on the context... Is he holding a civilian hostage? Is he back at the door? Can he be executed or captured alive for interrogation? So many questions that will govern your approach.
To name only a few, you might as well pull through the door (if the material allows) to cut down the pest; Make a hole in the wing, then throw a gas grenade into it to force it out; blow the door off of C2, then throw a flash grenade from your cover and take advantage of the confusion to taser it; or do diversion and then bypass it by separating your team.
S.W.A.T. beautiful and shut up
If in multiplayer we organize logically speaking through our microphone, it is quite possible to enjoy the solo experience, as was the case for this preview. I was surprised by the simplicity of access to the order system when I was afraid of running my group alone. Suffice it to press the wheel of his mouse to make appear a menu of injunctions to his squad that appear in coherent order and can be instinctively set in queue.
Early access since December 2021, the title enjoys an active community and encourages the use of mods, with a dedicated section for this purpose in the main menu. It also benefits from a good follow-up of the development team, with already no less than 14 cards available, the majority of which are very successful.
There is no doubt that the immersion of Ready or Not rests in immense part on the visual richness and atmosphere of its decors: house trapped by survivalist way True Detective, car dealership which serves as a front for money laundering, petrol station in the grip of hostage taking, nightclub in which just occurred an automatic weapon massacre, paedophile network hidden behind a pastry shop, abandoned houses in a rotten neighborhood haunted by methheads (we immediately think of the terrifying Condemned of Monolith Productions), the atmospheres follow each other and are not alike.
Civilian killed = penalty
The title also proposes different game modes with each their objectives and priorities: Suspect barricaded (save civilians and arrest suspects, if possible alive); Raid (covered on shootings with enemies who come more into contact) Active shooter (one or more people slaughter civilians in a given location and the shooter must be neutralized before his massacre game grows); Bomb alert (defusing explosives in a limited time, saving civilians and arresting criminals) and finally Taking hostages, the most difficult mode.
There is something to worry about even if, at this stage of development, the Barricade Suspect and Raid modes are too similar and the Active Shooter mode is less interesting, because it is less strategic and more expeditious than others. Note that the range of weapons available is already quite impressive and that it is possible to modify them all.
This brings us to the element of gameplay which greatly enhances the interest of the game, namely the score system. Yes, if as KillerS7ven or Gail of the Dino Crisis, you are the kind to shoot in the pile before thinking, you may have to start spinning your finger seven times in the trigger before pressing it.
Depending on the mode of play chosen, you will be assessed according to several criteria such as the number of civilians rescued (or killed), suspects arrested, evidence gathered, etc. This evaluation strongly encourages better replay of missions to achieve the perfect score. It is then surprising to prefer non-lethal weapons, which tend to limit blunders.
For having already, on a misunderstanding, shot down from a chevrotin an unhappy junkie who was running towards me to thank me for saving her, it is useless to say that I now systematically favor these weapons. To aim for the best ranking, but also in an approach a little bit roleplay, this same perspective which made me execute a paedophile still handcuffed during one of my parts, after I discovered what was going on in the rest of the house.
Ready or not?
At the radius of the defects that I hope will be corrected for the exit of 1.0, one can deplore those cases where we have neutralized all the threats on the map, but that there is still a dead civilian hidden in a corner. Then we must find him to complete the mission. Since the levels are often quite large, it is rather frustrating, because it breaks the previously tense pace of intervention.
Also, if the game has a mastered artistic direction, graphic artifacts still occur here and there. Moreover, the advance access does not yet record all our progress or our mission balance sheets, so I preferred to reserve myself for the release of 1.0. Finally, some funny bugs are sometimes present, like those dead terrorists who resurrect once handcuffed, a peak!
In any case, early access to Ready or Not is advanced enough to be able to crack safely and have fun for 15 hours solo (the 1.0 will also offer a Campaign mode) and much longer in multiplayer. Clearly a case to follow!
Bennj, KillerSeven, I hope you'll be on the way to 1.0!
Sure!
It makes you want to play it (but in multi). I am the game with interest since his announcement. I really want him to come out in quotation marks.