An unnamed terrorist group has gone directly for the beating heart of the city: its government. Of course, it’s up to you and your capable team of operatives to take them down, ensuring the safety of everyone caught up in their plans. Expect some tense tactical gameplay across three new missions, which you can take on in style courtesy of some new cosmetics. The trailer’s as intense as anything you’ve seen in the base game, and you’re probably going to want to brace yourself before you dive in.

A detail about the DLC worth mentioning is that you’re not entirely locked out if you can’t purchase it right away, as you could find yourself in the lobby of a player who owns it and take on one of the new missions before you buy it. That’s an inclusive approach, and is most welcome in a title that we found very impressive last year.

Of course, we can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t pick up the DLC if you were a fan of the base game. Check out our review of the former here for more details.

The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

The latter is significant because last April, Ready or Not was announced to have sold over nine million copies on PC. Based on the current figure, it seems to have obtained an additional one million sales on the platform, which makes sense given the launch of Los Sueños Stories, a free update that added two new maps and weapons.

The latest patch went live last month, offering numerous fixes for crashes, texture issues, suspects spawning without weapons, and more across various missions. Check out the full notes here.

For more information on Ready or Not for consoles, check out our review. Void Interactive has yet to announce future DLC for the tactical squad-based shooter, but stay tuned for more updates.

“Ready or Not has recently announced 2 million copies sold on console platforms, and we’re blown away by the response so far,” wrote the studio. “For those in the US looking to play on physical, we need a bit of extra time to get it to you, and it will be coming on September 26th. For audiences in the European Union, Ready or Not will be available on physical for August 8th.”

The studio had confirmed earlier this week that Ready or Not had sold 2 million copies on consoles in just a couple of weeks after release. The milestone was crossed pretty quickly after the studio had announced 1 million copies sold on consoles in the game’s first four days of release.

Ready or Not is a tactical shooter that puts players in the shoes of Commander David “Judge” Beaumont. In charge of D Platoon of the Los Sueños Police Department, players must take on various missions that demand tactical assessment and finesse, with objectives ranging from busting drug dealers to rescuing hostages. The title can be played in single-player mode with AI squad mates, or through online co-op.

For more details about Ready or Not, check out our review of its PS5 version. Also check out our thoughts on why millions of players have found themselves addicted to Ready or Not.

To put this further into perspective, Ready or Not sold over nine million copies as of this past April on PC alone. It amassed this total after first entering Steam Enter Access in December 2021. It achieved roughly 20 percent of its PC lifetime sales on consoles alone in a fraction of that time, bringing the total to about 11 million sales. One could argue that word of mouth helped set the console versions up for success, which was already evident pre-launch, given the strong pre-orders.

However, it’s the strong word of mouth that has kept the sales momentum going. I believe that it’s more than that, though. We’ve discussed Ready or Not extensively over the past several weeks. From our review praising its attention to detail, presentation and gameplay to the solo Commander mode; from examining what makes it so terrifying (spoiler: SWAT life can be quite scary) to deconstructing its appeal over something like Call of Duty. That last bit is interesting to me because even if Activision’s flagship franchise/microtransaction platform has wider appeal, the success of Ready or Not showcases that there’s a market for realistic tactical shooters.

My reasoning, in short? It’s just a really well-made video game, whether you’re playing it on consoles or PC. The long version? It’s a really well-made video game that isn’t exorbitantly priced (at least by today’s standards), demanding about $49.99. The golden price of the contemporary age of gaming.

Look back on this year of gaming thus far, and you’ll see similar success stories. Clair Obscur: Expedition, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered…even Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, despite its PC performance troubles. This isn’t to say that there aren’t compelling titles in the range of $60 to $70 or even in the $30 to $40 range, but $50 is quickly becoming a sweet spot for some of the better games released this year.

You would think that Ready or Not, as a tactical shooter with a finite campaign (18 missions), would struggle to justify its price. After all, there’s no grinding per se – all of the equipment and firearms are available from the outset. The only real unlocks are cosmetics for your squad, which are obtained by scoring top marks in missions. There is paid DLC, neatly packaged in a $70 Deluxe Edition alongside the base game, and while they include new cosmetics, weapons are added for free over time. So, no microtransactions or a battle pass to unlock content that you already paid for.

Instead, Void Interactive justifies its asking price in two ways: Nuanced gameplay and replayable missions. Both aspects have been covered to death by now, but it bears repeating – the tactical gameplay loop of systematically clearing rooms, taking down armed suspects, rescuing hostages, issuing commands to your squad, and realistic gunplay is incredibly solid. Even the decisions made before a mission, from the squad perks to the different armor types and choice of non-lethals, will have a big impact on your success.

It channels the likes of SWAT in the best ways possible while leaving plenty of room for its own unique mechanics. The fact that missions go beyond simply eliminating all hostiles and the scoring system prioritizes rescuing civilians ensures that multiple approaches are viable. The missions themselves are also incredibly well made, offering a wide range of objectives and intriguing scenarios (despite the horrifying subject matter of some). They’re also dynamic with hostiles and traps changing positions with each playthrough, ensuring that no two runs are the same. You never know when a routine run could suddenly erupt into chaos, and as frustrating as that can sometimes be, changing your strategy on the fly and surviving feels great.

Couple this with all the other systems, like managing squadmates’ stress and ensuring they don’t go off the deep end, and the overall aspect of mastery, and Ready or Not has plenty to offer for the solo player. In some ways, it carries the appeal of an immersive sim, as you discover various ways to complete a mission with a top score, including fully non-lethal, solo with a silenced pistol, quick and lethal, or even a mix of all these.

The fact that some of the toughest challenges are achievable despite the scenarios and challenging AI, which becomes outright unforgiving at higher difficulty levels, only adds to the appeal. This is all without considering co-op, and given how vastly different the dynamic can be, offering a whole new experience in its own right, that’s saying something.

Beyond all of this, I think Ready or Not fills a niche that console players have wanted for a long time, especially from the likes of Call of Duty. No bombastic campaign that holds your hand, occasionally asking you to participate in its grand set pieces, and then ultimately moving on when it’s all said and done, but something with substance, where you’re an active participant that’s driving (or dragging) the mission down.

The finite nature also feeds into something that more and more players are demanding from games nowadays: A complete experience. Sure, the Mission Pass offers more content, but the threads connecting the base game’s missions are contained entirely within it. The narrative isn’t something that could really be “finished” after completing all the main missions, which mirrors the real-life nature of crime and police work more than anything. But by the time you’ve finished Ready or Not’s campaign, regardless of whether you embark on higher difficulties or not, you’ll have gotten your money’s worth. Best of all, none of the missions feel like filler. Each brings something notable to the table, adding to the experience while gradually upping the challenge.

On consoles, Void Interactive deserves credit for tuning the experience to accommodate controllers, especially when issuing commands. The sheer amount of settings for deadzone, look acceleration, sensitivity, and so on is also surprisingly robust. On top of all this, the development team continues to support all versions with free updates. Los Sueños Stories added four new weapons and two remastered maps alongside tons of fixes and improvements across the board at launch. It has since received smaller patches to address other issues, with another set to debut next week.

Where it could go after this is ultimately unknown – another DLC pack will launch in 2026, but long-term plans for the franchise as a whole remain to be revealed. And yet, I find some solace in that. Being able to pick up a complete experience, enjoy everything on offer and ultimately move on is something to be treasured in this era of live-service games or titles that demand a hundred hours of your time (especially when it gets to the fun faster). And while there’s certainly plenty of room for a massive role-playing game or open world experience, the fact that experiences like this exist for a reasonable price is something worth playing.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Following its early access launch in December 2023, Ready or Not’s sales crossed nine million this past April for PC. This current milestone would put its overall lifetime sales at over 11 million, which is very impressive.

Set in the fictional Los Sueños, Ready or Not follows D Platoon, the LSPD’s tactical unit that responds to major crises. You’re the leader, David Beaumont aka “Judge,” who must lead the squad through hostage situations, drug busts, and even seedier operations. The realistic nature of the gunplay, its attention to detail, and AI have earned significant acclaim for the title.

For more details on the console version, check out our review. We gave it an eight out of ten for its gameplay, presentation and atmosphere.

Take the Call of Duty series, for example. We thought it would be a good idea to dive back into series to try comparing and contrasting the two games and came away with the impression that VOID Interactive has managed to breathe new life into FPS games by eschewing the more mainstream approach that other studios have chosen.

While Call of Duty titles rely on grand set-pieces and protagonists that can soak up an inhuman amount of bullets as they go into missions all guns blazing, Ready or Not encourages a more restrained approach. It is rooted in accountability and strategy, with VOID Interactive’s emphasis on realism baked into the very DNA of the game.

By doing so, Ready or Not is everything Call of Duty is not. It takes everything that doesn’t work in its more popular counterpart, and cleverly riffs on each issue to produce an experience that is a lot more satisfying thanks to its innovative approach.

Building an Authentic Aesthetic

As usual in Call of Duty games, its protagonists find that a simple extraction mission turns into an encounter with a rogue group of operatives. The associated cutscenes and the firefight that ensues as a result of those events are full of fancy graphical touches that are visually pleasing, but are simply there to present cinematic flair. Taking enemies down brings other gimmicks like kill cams and victory dances.

The same goes for the area in which the firefight ensues. The potential for massive explosions is always there, with arenas littered with flammable items that you can shoot to take out bunches of enemies, while your protagonists could very well be invulnerable to gunfire on easier difficulties.

It’s almost like the grim circumstances that have forced such encounters are simply there to allow for a fireworks display that is frankly unrealistic and more than a little tone deaf when compared to Ready or Not’s approach.

VOID Interactive’s choice to do away with all of the fancy fluff stands as a clever way to undercut its biggest competitor in the genre. Each of its levels holds real danger for its protagonists, their team, suspects, and hostages. Anything could go wrong at any point, and your decisions in the field actually matter in a way that Call of Duty and similar titles have not managed to emulate.

You control real people, in very realistic environments in which a victory dance would be a frivolous display considering how everybody around you is clearly in fight or flight mode. No individual is bulletproof, including you. And that means that the people you encounter as you go about your objectives are actual people, and not props on the set of a movie shoot.

Ready or Not proves that realism is a boon and not a bane in the FPS genre. But that’s just one of the ways in which it flips the script on its competition.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

VOID interactive clearly took Uncle Ben’s words to heart when it designed Ready or Not’s gameplay loop. They underline its design philosophy in which Judge is quite a skilled SWAT officer but is as vulnerable to catching a stray bullet as the suspects he is trying to apprehend.

Call of Duty lays an emphasis on its protagonists being a one man army, firing away at hordes of enemies with reckless abandon with the only consequence of death being a quick respawn. Moreover, it encourages players to kill as many enemies as they can manage.

Your kill counts are a metric that measure your success in Call of Duty. Death is just a commodity, and a rather cheap one at that. For a game that features trained military operatives in very dangerous situations, it is unrealistic that they move from one deadly encounter to another with nary a comment on how taking lives has left a burden on their bodies and minds.

It’s a good thing that VOID Interactive went in exactly the opposite direction. You and your team are officers operating within the bounds of the law, and are expected to preserve life rather than simply snuff it out. That extends to your suspects as much as it does to their hostages, with the game actively discouraging needless slaughter and providing narrative context to its emphasis on a tactical, cautious approach.

Killing an enemy or causing the death of a hostage comes with real consequences, with teammates requiring therapy to deal with the emotional trauma that comes with taking a life however noble their intentions may have been. Trigger discipline is the name of the game, just as it should have been in Call of Duty, and perhaps especially more so considering its protagonists are trained military personnel.

It’s a distinction that brings a very immersive facet to Ready or Not, and elevates it in comparison to Call of Duty where mindless killing can quickly become a part of the experience. It also serves to expose another subtle difference between two distinctly different gameplay loops.

Substance Over Style

Our time with Call of Duty in the wake of many an hour lost in the gritty realism of Ready or Not brought that distinction to the fore quite quickly. The former’s mission design relied on flashy cutscenes and unrealistic stakes meant to justify its over-the-top action that ultimately ceased to matter owing to the spectacle on offer.

The stakes may be high, but there is no fear of actual loss in a Call of Duty game. Its gameplay loop is designed around thrills and kills, aiming to give its players a power trip without making them actually work for the rewards they derive from their time in the game.

And don’t get us started on the amount of tools that players have at their disposal. Various weapons, perks, and other upgrades add layers of raw power to a player’s arsenal, making their tasks a whole lot easier in the process. That’s not the case in Ready or Not.

That reflects what a law enforcement officer in a similar situation would be carrying in the real world, VOID Interactive’s shooter actively creates situations where conserving your ammo and limited tools is a more sensible way to approach its missions.

There’s no spectacle on display, with the game simply giving players a cursory briefing, introducing its tension through the desperation of those they are supposed to rescue and the realistic criminal tendencies of those they must attempt to apprehend. Its power trips come from the simple expectation that as an officer trained to handle such situations, you are simply trusted to figure things out on the fly.

And that’s easier said than done, just as it should be in its missions that have situations evolving based on your actions. While it pays to antagonize your enemies in Call of Duty, doing so in Ready or Not makes you the bad guy.

The tension that VOID Interactive builds doesn’t come from unrealistic narratives or what’s on your screen – it comes from what could be waiting for you around the next corner.

Ready For a Revolution?

Ready or Not stands out from its competition in a crowded genre thanks to a barebones approach to its design, at least in terms of the scale and scope of its missions. But that doesn’t make the stakes it presents from one mission to the next any less higher.

Its core philosophies of restraint, ethics, and integrity that are reflected in how its protagonists must approach their objectives are a part of its design, and not just an afterthought to justify dishing out death in droves.

Its examination of political issues surrounding law enforcement comes from a place that’s grounded in the effects that they have on the people they influence. It’s a glaring contrast to using those issues to set up narratives that may be ambitious, but lack the insight they need to justify the heights they aim for.

Ready or Not is proof that the FPS genre doesn’t need massive budgets and production values to deliver engaging experiences. It’s relevance in the current generation of FPS titles, and perhaps shooters in general, is in its simplicity and its ability to focus on what really matters in a great game.

It is engaging in ways that Call of Duty could only wish for. It doesn’t just stand as a worthy competitor to the long-standing franchise. It is now a benchmark that exposes everything hollow about it.

An Acquired Taste

However, it must be said that Ready or Not cannot be everyone’s cup of tea. There are times when players just looking to unwind and have a bit of fun with a shooter might choose an action shooter because they want to jump into intense battles and just fire away until they are the last man standing. Perhaps they don’t want their games to demand too much from them, and that’s perfectly all right.

But for players who want to be challenged, there’s no question that Ready or Not is the one they would choose. It requires patience. It requires a careful, methodical approach to its missions. It requires tactical thinking and the ability to improvise after your plans go awry. It is designed to attract players who believe that war and violence are not fun and games, and wish there was a game that caters to those ideals.

For such players, Ready or Not is the game they have always wanted, and a truly revolutionary title whose success could hopefully inspire others to follow in its path.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

On the other hand, I’ve discussed at length how much fun co-op can be, oscillating between hilarity and sheer tension. But such is my obsession with the game that something else…let’s say, dawned upon me, rather than really striking like a bolt of realization. Like a lingering dread that finally hit the emotional surface.

Ready or Not is a terrifying experience. It’s easily one of the scariest games released this year. I say this as someone who survived the likes of Amnesia: The Bunker, Alien: Isolation, and The Outlast Trials, even though this is a fairly grounded experience by comparison.

There’s no nigh invulnerable monster pursuing you, constantly keeping you on your toes ahead of the inevitable final battle. Jump scares are somewhat present, but they’re not the source of the terror. There’s no supernatural element, no zombies, no otherworldly fog that wants me to repent for my sins (I swear – this time for sure, I’ll finish my Steam backlog). Even if there were monsters, it’s not something that my heavily armed squad and I can’t deal with.

And yet, every time I venture forth on a mission, which is familiar and yet still eerily fresh, it’s a terrifying ordeal.

Maybe it’s because the overarching threat is grounded in reality. Ever-pervading, like a heavy atmosphere that you can’t shake. Ready or Not’s horror isn’t simply in survival but in powerlessness. Again, not something you’d think when looking at D Platoon, but still inherently valid as you delve deeper into the experience.

It all really starts with the subject matter. There’s no nice way to put this – the world of Ready or Not is pretty messed up. You’re starting out rescuing hostages and talking down armed suspects. Sure, some of the 911 calls sound way too lifelike, but no big deal if the rest of the game is like this, right? Spoiler: It gets so much worse.

Missions veer into genuinely disturbing terrain, exposing the seedy underbelly of Los Suenos. There’s no shock and awe, no attempt to douse your screen in gore – just events, as they are, presented with unrelenting brutality. For all the censorship that Void Interactive has done to prepare for the console versions, that the experience can still be this unnerving really says something.

And it’s sad because we know that such…incidents are fairly commonplace in the world, happening in seemingly developed and civilized cities. Video games can offer escapist fantasy, but they can also bring our worst nightmares to life. As it turns out, reality is often stranger – and at times, more terrifying – than fiction. Even if you complete a mission, even if you save the civilians, detain the suspects, don’t get blown up by door traps, etc., the deaths and trauma are set in stone, just like real life, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

But what about the things that are in your power? After all, you have full control over your squad, commanding them where to go and what to do. However, they will sometimes act on their own, responding to threats in gruesome ways (unless you equip them with non-lethals only). If anyone dies – be it their squadmates or civilians – they gain stress. Too much stress and eventually they’ll want to leave, as you probably already know. You could prevent it, though, with the right decision-making and tactics. It’s required to get the highest score after all.

Yet the sheer unpredictability of Ready or Not will keep you on edge. Every door can feel like a gateway into something more diabolic (or, more simply, a dice roll between life and death). Every hallway might contain some kind of threat, never mind the disturbing sights. You never know when a suspect could suddenly open fire on you or your teammates, or rush down a corridor, knife in hand, failing to comply. Maybe they’re hiding under the beds. Maybe they’re in the walls. Fine, they’re not in the walls, but they will flank from behind and potentially kill everyone.

A suspect with a hostage is just as likely to comply with your request as they are to shoot the civilian. Quietly opening a door, only to encounter a suspect right behind it and summarily disposing of them in the middle of a gun fight, can be humorous. Suddenly rounding a corner into a hostage situation and watching an execution simply because I got too close? Not so much. Don’t even get me started on seemingly dead suspects suddenly rising and going on a killing spree because we didn’t restrain them. That it happens so rarely is little reprieve.

Again, there are ways to deal with all this, but for all the different ammo types, the perks, the peeking and quiet door opening, the gas, the flashbangs – the doors and hallways can never be underestimated. The fact that threats are randomly arranged in levels also doesn’t help. A dark attic could be just that – safe – and yet, it may not be, especially on your next go around. It will never cease to be unnerving.

If things go wrong and you’re left dealing with the fallout, the dread permeates. After all, your squadmates will die or drop out, but you’re left carrying the burden forward. Despite not remembering any of my squadmates’ names, their actions ultimately put them over with me. You could call it the XCOM effect, except I’m as much on the ground as they are. Perhaps it’s that camaraderie that makes ensuring their safety such a terrifying ordeal. To save others and ensure the mission is a success is just additional stress.

Of course, the obvious question would be: Why play when it’s so stressful, scary and downright depressing? Because, as I’ve noted several times before, there are very few games like it. You could find brutally realistic military shooters, but nothing quite like this, where prioritizing civilian safety is often more important than ensuring your squadmates’ survival, at least in terms of the final mission score.

The gameplay itself is enjoyable, as are the visuals and attention to detail. However, like any good horror game, it really does boil down to that feeling of powerlessness and trying to overcome it. Which, conveniently enough, ties into Ready or Not’s sense of mastery. You can’t change the events that have already happened – the crimes committed and the terrible trauma – but you can try to save any survivors and, as the game often says, “bring order to the chaos.”

When Judge finally reaches that point, be it in an Iron Man run or through clearing the hardest difficulty without anyone dying, maybe all the sacrifices will have been worth it. Perhaps, by that point, you aren’t desensitized to all the death that’s happened and look back on what it took to reach that point with some form of compassion. I can’t say that I’ve fully conquered my fears as commander, but it’s something to strive for in a world gone mad.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

However, VOID Interactive’s Ready or Not does just that, adding a layer to every mission that works well with its level design and an intense gameplay loop. It creates a sort of tension that could have players checking behind doorways long after they power down their gaming systems.

In lieu of a more traditional approach to tactical FPS titles, Ready or Not takes a bold approach to its many mission types, creating a gameplay loop that is both challenging and rewarding depending on how its players tailor their approach to achieve the best possible outcomes when they are out in the field.

The result is a game that replicates the tension that an officer of the law is likely to experience when they hunt down dangerous criminals, often accompanied by equally trigger happy teammates and the desperate cries of bystanders caught in the crossfire who must be rescued in the process.

Ready or Not is unforgiving, punishing mistakes with mechanics that actively discourage an all guns blazing approach that has been present in many other FPS titles. Instead, its encouragement of a more careful, almost painstaking approach to your mission objectives is something that we simply cannot get enough of even as we find ourselves with spiked adrenaline levels when chasing down suspects who seem to pop out of nowhere on many occasions.

It’s a tension that can be quite hard to put into words but we’re going to give it a fair shot and take a look at how VOID Interactive has managed to get its players wondering what’s waiting around each corner, bed, or window sill.

The Anticipation of Danger

It’s quite surprising to realize you spent only half an hour on a mission in Ready or Not. Even on the shorter missions, every moment feels like an eternity as you carefully navigate apartments, stores, schools, and even tunnels, with terrorists, criminals, or cultists seemingly lying in wait to ambush you.

It doesn’t help that as the Commander of an elite SWAT unit looking to manage a crime wave in an alternate universe version of Los Angeles, you’re on the right side of the law and as such, must act within its confines. It’s here that the tension begins to build, helped along by VOID Interactive’s excellent presentation of each mission and what is expected of you and your team.

We would argue that these briefings are a crucial part of the experience. You are given information about the situation you and your teammates, either real players or AI-powered, are about to dive into. Your loadouts are more of less in line with what a SWAT officer in the real world would take to such encounters. You are briefed about the suspects, their backgrounds, civilians who need rescuing, and about potential points of entry that you could take.

While all of this sounds pretty standard on paper, listening to the 911 calls made by civilians stranded on the scene and hearing their terror and fear begins to feed the tension that VOID Interactive is aiming for long before you step into your van to make your way to the danger zone. Each suspect also gets fleshed out, their motivations making it likely that things could go south if you were to antagonize them in the field.

They might be high on dangerous intoxicants. Or perhaps they subscribe to a higher cause than themselves. They could also just be plain evil, choosing violence just because it suits their motivations and is easier than taking a more reasonable approach. In the real-world, SWAT officers would undergo rigorous training and a lot of prep before they take on such high-stakes missions and face such dangerous individuals.

As a player, you will have to rely on the efficient use of your loadout to come out on top. It’s a clever way of putting players in the shoes of an officer, providing them with the physical tools they need to get the job done but not emotional safeguards against the violence they are about to witness – and perhaps commit.

It’s an important part of an intense gameplay loop that works very well alongside its other elements.

A New Kind of Fear

The knowledge that your suspects could be hiding anywhere, just waiting to sink a few bullets into you or one of your teammates honestly wears you down as you begin to carefully explore the mission area and attempt to incapacitate any troublemakers.

That gritty realism is helped by levels that are designed to effectively bring those dangers to life, giving each new doorway or corner a layer of unpredictability that you are expected to manage. The knowledge that even the slightest mistake could mean the imminent death of one of your teammates or a helpless civilian constantly preys on you.

VOID Interactive’s emphasis on gritty realism means that you and your fellow officers are not the bullet sponges found in other FPS games, and neither are your enemies. It’s a fair fight and one that you need to bring your best trigger finger to, every single time. That’s exacerbated by the fact that a criminal could try faking their surrender only to pull a gun on you. Or perhaps an uncooperative civilian disregards your orders and reaches into their pocket for their phone to click a picture.

That could easily result in either you or a teammate immediately shooting that innocent individual to death when all they wanted was to capture a morbidly unforgettable moment. It’s a mistake that anyone could make but with costly consequences for everyone involved.

The teammate in question could be impacted by that error, the trauma from the incident resulting in them being less effective in the field just as VOID intended. As their Commander, you will have to order them to seek professional help after you’re back at the office. However, you are then left without access to their unique perks for a few missions thereafter.

In a game where you need to bring along any advantage you can get, that choice can be a hard one, but absolutely necessary considering that managing your teammates’ emotional states is a part of the experience. It’s another layer of realism that feeds the intensity of each mission, as the knowledge that not all of you may make it back to HQ the way you left it is another factor that weighed on us as we went about our tasks.

Ready or Not thrives on fear. It’s your own fears reflected in the eyes of hapless civilians, or in the eyes of dangerous criminals who are looking to find a way out of a tough situation, one way or another. It’s a sense of hopelessness that pervades every level you take on, and stays long after you complete it.

One Step At a Time

VOID Interactive’s choice to forego a sweeping, inspirational musical score to accompany the action is a very clever choice in this regard. For the most part, the only sounds we could hear were the mutterings of our suspects or their cruel threats to hostages, while the ones we were intent on rescuing fuelled the fire with their pleas to be released from their plight.

Our own commands to our teammates, issued in a gravelly voice, were also tinged with a sense of urgency with Judge maintaining a carefully noncommittal tone that belied the strain of leading his unit through a situation that screamed of uncertainty and danger. While the voice actors involved deserve a lot of credit for the way they performed their lines, we couldn’t help but wish that they could have perhaps toned it down a little. And we mean that as a compliment, believe it or not.

When you couple all of the above with the fact that you are expected to at least try and bring in suspects alive, with lethal force only authorized if your fellow officers or a civilian are in imminent danger, it acts as the final piece of the puzzle. It presents a clear picture of how Ready or Not builds tension right from each mission’s briefing, and brings it all to a head from when you take your first step out into the field.

Alongside limited ammo, unpredictable enemy and civilian AI, and the possibility of a single mistake ruining what could have been a perfectly executed mission, VOID Interactive has crafted one of the most immersive and  harrowing experiences we have had with a tactical first-person shooter in recent times. And for that, we gladly give them credit.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

While reviewing Ready or Not, co-op play was entertaining in its own right. It was enjoyable to hang out in the police station lobby with my teammates before proceeding to clear out hallways while calling out hostiles, or suddenly being taken down by a single suspect (or, as I would learn the hard way, a door trap). In a sense, it felt like this was what made the experience so endearingly tense and chaotic. Granted, it also depends on your teammates, so your mileage will vary, but it’s still something I could recommend.

However, this doesn’t mean solo play is lacking. It’s a different beast entirely.

The main attraction is Commander Mode, a story campaign where you command D Platoon and take up to five AI squad members on a mission. You’re also in charge of managing their stress levels – if a single civilian dies or other officers fall, they have to go to therapy, making them unavailable. This means recruiting other squadmates to fill those slots, if only to have more eyes to watch your back and bodies to block off any potential threats. After all, once a teammate garners enough experience, they can unlock powerful perks, which are shared across the squad. More health, easier surrenders by suspects – not only will they make upcoming missions easier, but also allow for greater margins of error (which is invaluable in a game like this where every decision is critical).

However, there are other benefits to not taking experienced officers with you. Let’s say you’re running through the story blind and doing relatively well in the first few missions. Sooner or later, you hit that one mission – the restaurant is but one example – where teammates die. If you survive and complete the mission, the campaign continues, and new officers must be recruited. It’s frustrating, especially since you couldn’t have possibly predicted some threats or more dangerous suspects (never mind losing officers with worthwhile perks). But if you take a recruit or two from the start, you’re effectively saving the more experienced officers from potential death. Right?

Callous as it sounds, Ready or Not accounts for this. Stress can accumulate in a myriad of ways, and squadmates will either need a timeout or therapy to bring them down, especially if they have worthwhile perks that you want to unlock. However, the number of therapy slots is limited. While you could take other recruits along for the ride at any point, it’s encouraged to build up a proper roster (by, say, running earlier missions) so that you can cycle out officers periodically rather than waiting for them to crash and potentially quit.

Of course, if you want to attempt a mid to late game mission with rookies, consequences be damned, you can do that as well. You might even be able to take a stressed-out officer on a mission and complete it successfully. After all, you can save time and effectively finish the story faster, but it’s always a high-risk endeavor, especially with veterans potentially quitting afterwards, even if things go well. It’s a XCOM style system of sorts, which adds an extra layer of unpredictability and strategy missing in co-op.

And similar to XCOM, much of your success will depend on your strategy. You can issue commands, like stacking and opening a door, with a dedicated wheel, but it’s possible to mash R1 in different contextual situations. For example, you can direct a squadmate to restrain a suspect while you check those corners for flankers. It’s especially worthwhile when dealing with fake surrenders, or in later missions when almost every suspect has a holdout weapon to pull if you don’t restrain them.

However, you need to maintain awareness at all times, even when proceeding as methodically as possible. Clearing out rooms and covering your squadmates is only the beginning – it’s also important to block doors with wedges to prevent any potential flanks and practice breaching tactics to ensure surrenders. While firefights can be frantic and enjoyable, the risk of losing squadmates or even civilians increases dramatically.

Perhaps the best part about Ready or Not’s solo play is that success isn’t outright guaranteed. You can hone your skills, but there will always be some level of unpredictability, whether it’s in the suspect placements or how they act when ordering compliance. An element of chaos that you can’t always bring order to.

The behavior of AI squadmates is no exception – it’s not difficult for them to shoot a surrendering civilian because they took too long to take out a phone or to take out a suspect that must survive. You can shift the odds in your favor by modifying their loadouts accordingly, ensuring they don’t swap to lethal sidearms when you’re trying to take a non-lethal approach. They also don’t suffer from bleeding and will match your speed. While it’s not full control – you can’t just suddenly tell them to stop firing when a situation goes wrong – understanding all these nuances provides an edge. If that wasn’t enough, even if you die, they can still complete the mission, though it heavily depends on the objectives.

It’s worth noting all of this because the true long-term appeal of Ready or Not isn’t in completing the story once and moving on (even if that can provide more than your money’s worth). It’s perfecting the fundamentals across various situations, which change at a moment’s notice, and improving your score. Once done, you can attempt missions at a higher difficulty to truly test yourself. And if you really feel like putting your skills, understanding of what each mission demands, and roster management to the test, embark on an Iron Man run, where a single death from your side will end the campaign.

Maybe this won’t appeal to many players, but it’s nice to have that kind of mastery aspect in the experience, since the game provides several tools and methods to ensure success. In the same vein, its challenges aren’t easily conquerable, which makes it even more worthwhile when you ultimately prevail. It’s a subtle balance in many ways, and the fact that these options are available for an array of players, whether you want a brutally realistic SWAT-like experience or something far less tense yet enthralling, is great. And for those who are truly insane, you can try to clear all missions as a lone wolf.

At this point, I’m interested to see where Ready or Not goes, and whether more DLC is on the menu or Void Interactive will release a much more extensive expansion, perhaps even a sequel. If it’s proven anything with its 2023 release on PC and its 2025 launch on consoles, it’s that we sorely need more squad-based tactical shooters that encourage tactics over mindless shooting. And with the stories it tells, as indirect as they may be if you’re not paying attention to the briefings, it would be interesting to see what a sequel set in another city would look like.

Regardless of what’s next, if you’re enjoying Ready or Not in co-op and debating whether to dip your toes into solo play, go ahead and take the plunge. You’ll discover a fresh, fun, and brutal experience.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.