It’s no secret that Ready or Not is among our all-time favorite FPS titles. It has managed to deliver an experience that makes us wonder why there aren’t more games that emulate its grounded, gritty take on the genre. It’s a title where every mission builds tension and anticipation via a gameplay loop that is as challenging as it is rewarding. And it simply blows away its competition because of it.
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.