Today I’ll tell you about the release version of the tactical PvE shooter Ready or Not from a practical point of view – we’ll figure out what the developers did well and what not so well. We’ll also think about whether the so-called “single player campaign” is capable of attracting a fundamentally new audience to the project.
In it I have already touched on the most basic aspects of the game, so today I am speaking purely for people who already have at least a minimal understanding of the game.
Main
Let’s start with the fact that if you are already an experienced player and you are more interested in the cooperative mode with friends, then in version 1.0 you will feel at ease!
For you, by and large, all innovations can be reduced to three simple points:
1. Global rework of all maps
Four new, beautiful, amazing cards were revealed to our eyes (you can substitute any epithet to your taste).
Moreover, the developers, for some reason, formally say that there are 5 new maps – they believe that the new hotel is not a remake of the old hotel, but literally a new map. That is, watch your fingers: the old hotel has been removed, and the new hotel is the most new location. Don’t be confused!
In addition to the new cards themselves, all the old ones are either completely redesigned, or slightly powdered, or simply brought to a new plot standard.
New story standard
What kind of standard is this?? The fact is that now each level is assigned a very specific, detailed and very well-developed briefing. In many missions we even have photographs of targets that need to be eliminated!
Where there were no such goals before in principle, they have appeared, and thus give an extra reason to re-pass them. For example, in a nightclub we now have information about the approximate image of the Arab leader, and in the hospital – in fact, after his arrest, we have his photo, name, and other personal data.
And where these goals have always been – they now have a very clear personality and appearance – no more doubloons, which I focused on in the early access review.
The same applies to ordinary peaceful NPCs – according to the developers, they have added hundreds of unique models for them – and I no longer have any complaints about this. Practically.
Gameplay
Okay, in addition to the purely visual transformation, we have something to talk about from a gameplay point of view.
Now, to complete a mission perfectly, it is not enough to simply follow the steps that are highlighted in the tab – you need to really inspect the locations, because evidence is now not only the weapons of opponents, but also various plot elements. More precisely, they existed before, but now they have been expanded and added to maps where they were not there before.
So, at a gas station, for example, according to the story, we receive two calls to 911 – from the manager, who was shot in the head right during the conversation, and also from a mother who is worried about her daughter, who was lost somewhere in the depths of the gas station, and really asks us to find her – this is one of the formal tasks, and it is clearly displayed on our tablet. Just like the task of finding the body of a murdered manager.
But for an ideal passage, you must also report about the body of the killed veteran, as well as about his weapon, with which he tried to stop the robbers. At the briefing we don’t know anything about him – and this is quite logical, how can we, balin, get information about him at the briefing. Just a random person who, by an unfortunate coincidence, ended up at the scene of the incident.
It always lies in the same place, so this mechanic can, as before, cause any difficulties or interest only on the first playthrough. Then it turns into a simple point on the map, near which you need to routinely check in during each playthrough. And it’s a shame, I think! Wouldn’t it be better if these kinds of plot objects spawned in random places on the map?? Write your opinion in the comments! The guys from Void Interactive regularly visit Stopgame, and will clearly take action if they see appropriate feedback.
In general, when going through all the levels for the first time, you really need to use your head and topographic memory so as not to miss anything. And those who are lazy, or who do not strive for the highest grade, can escape early and thus delegate the responsibility of sniffing the location to the local police. But ONLY after all opponents are eliminated and all civilians are marked – these 2 points still cannot be delegated to anyone.
2. The entire interface is now in diegetic PDA
This same PDA, which you have probably seen more than once, is now our most important and loyal friend of all time, so get used to it.
Literally all the mission objectives that were previously displayed on the screen without any narrative justification are now also hidden in this device.
By the way, I wasn’t joking about the “main friend” at all! The PDA is also used to invite your friends to the lobby. It feels just like it looks – wonderful. Reading the lobby chat and monitoring your teammates’ equipment is a pleasure.
And besides this, together with your friends you can now also look at the map and sketch out your action plan on it! Out of habit, it looks somehow alien, but you quickly get used to the local functionality, and then there are no more complaints left.
Well, perhaps the MOST important function of a PDA is the ability to find out information about the operation.
Listening to the management’s briefing and recordings of people’s calls from the scene to 911, simultaneously looking at the available recordings from CCTV cameras, as well as photographs of eyewitnesses sent from the crime scene – this is literally what has been asking for this game for a very, very long time, and it almost came to us. In perfect condition!
I am incredibly happy for all the lore experts of this game (of which, I hope, there are a little more thanks to my previous article – there I said that if you delve into Ready or Not headlong, then some outlines of a complete story could be found even earlier!). But what we have now is already deadly serious.
Now even the most extreme hypocrite like me will not be able to say: “Somehow I can’t believe in the reality of what’s happening! Didn’t load for some reason!"
And speaking of the briefing itself, the most interesting thing, of course, happens when upon arrival at the place it turns out that the information that we had at headquarters was. Slightly incomplete. Or even fake.
Conventionally: an eyewitness who called the police to a gas station mentions that he saw three bandits with weapons. In fact, there may be 4 of them! And God knows how many more! The number of enemies on the maps is randomized within a small range – this is cool and logical! An eyewitness is not obliged to report to you perfectly accurate information – he is just talking about what he saw himself.
And here’s another convention: on one of the new maps, where you need to detain a popular streamer on a counter-strike, we, as players, understand that this is a prank from one of his viewers.
And we, as players, understand that the mission will be nowhere simpler! Go in and neutralize the poor harmless kid. Hah!
But by a fortunate coincidence, in the hostel where he lives, some wild mafia group, a crazy gang of CRYPTO FARMERS and God knows what other demonic offspring are operating! And the streamer himself turns out to be not a fluffy sheep, but a FIERCE anime addict – a drug addict who, in addition to gorgeous figurines with naked comic book characters, keeps a shotgun under his bed and some suspicious photographs of a little girl in his nightstand.
The only problem with all this https://pink-riches.co.uk/mobile-app/ is that, as before, the game breaks the rules of the metagame and blatantly tells you at what point you have killed all the enemies on the map. Although as an operative, obviously, you cannot know this. And I shouldn’t! Imagine how cool it would be if the game didn’t poke its finger at you the moment you completed all the activities on the map, and you had to reach the evacuation point at your own risk, no idea whether you should be wary of someone or not? Eh, sweet fantasies.
Returning to the PDA, the only thing that raises questions about it specifically is the newly introduced function of spying on partners. Since the game is so committed to diegetics, why is this window in the upper right corner and not on the computer screen?? My operative doesn’t seem to be wearing any cyber glasses from the movie "Spy Kids", so it’s not clear.
Or rather, from a practical point of view – naturally, it is clear that this was done exactly so that you can effectively stream snipe without leaving the state of combat readiness. And this is an incredibly cool, convenient and well-made mechanic. And due to the fact that you don’t even need to keep your PDA open to use it, everyone will use this function without shame! So thank God that we have exactly this window in the upper right corner, and not something else. I’m sure it will bring a lot of smiles to everyone who plays.
So, the third and last point, which will certainly catch the eye of any old-timer:
3. Detainees have become more pliable
Detainees now know how to crawl on their knees and listen to our orders. Damn, this is how we used to be able to play without this feature? Yeah, I don’t envy us from the past.
You can ask them to turn around, and even move to the point you specify. At the moment, this mechanic is only problematic in situations where you are several flights of doors away from your target. Because the game is still more likely to think that you want to order your partners to storm the room, and not order the detainee to crawl to you.
But in the vast majority of cases, this whole thing works like a clock, and once again causes sincere delight – the animation is simply stunning, and the functional benefits are also excellent! Let’s not forget that bandits still love to rouse unattended hostages to their feet and use them as human shields – and this is not very pleasant! Hit the poor guy once with a paper ball, and goodbye S rank!
These were the most important moments! Now let’s go through the details, and finally, let’s look at the single player campaign!
Little things
Public lobbies
It is still not possible to view the list of public lobbies – there is only auto search. And this entertainment, frankly speaking, is not for everyone. It’s funny, of course, but most often it’s just too much . \
Illumination of material evidence
The suspects’ weapons jump out of their hands funny, but unfortunately still fall through the floor, so the new feature to highlight them is an absolutely mandatory thing, don’t forget to turn it on in the settings. No matter how much you want to knock yourself out of the immersion – otherwise you simply will not be able to complete the task for S rank.
Optional Modes
ANXIETY! The developers have removed the game mode selection for some maps! Because of this, many people on the Internet are creating drama and squeezing out sad tirades on Steam, saying that the developers cut out more than they added, etc.
So yes, this position, perhaps, really does exist – and if you want to join the protesters, boycott the entire game because of this inconvenient fact, as many Internet users are calling for – the flag is in your hands, do not play. Wait until the developers come to their senses and return to some maps the optional mode with a bomb and a maniac shooting hostages.
Personally, I am quite far from such a thought, because I never found much interest in these modes – they seemed to me too similar to each other and clearly made in a very hasty manner.
If we go into the comparison area of ADDED/CUT content, I would undoubtedly prefer 18 completely redesigned maps to these pathetic modes.
Believe it or not, a good HALF of the negative reviews are related to this! The second half is with optimization.
Optimization
Despite the fact that, in fact, the optimization in Ready or Not has become much better – on many missions, my game used to run at about 40 FPS, regardless of graphics settings and hardware load – and it was this problem that was successfully solved! Bravo!
However, for many people, on the contrary, the problems have worsened – obviously, now it’s all about the load on the system. If earlier on some maps it was bad for literally everyone, now only for owners of budget builds. But at the same time it became especially painful for them – apparently, the system requirements for the game have increased significantly, so keep in mind.
Moreover, it’s funny that on the contrary, it began to take up almost half as much disk space! That’s how it happens! Optimized, optimized, but didn’t optimize!
The only real bug that suddenly popped up is the additional loading of locations after you are given control of the character. This is most clearly noticeable in the new police station – when entering it for the first time, the game actually farts, but only for a couple of seconds – then everything is fully loaded, and without interruptions it runs like clockwork.
I don’t remember, to be honest, whether the same problem existed before – I admit that it really only appeared at release. But that’s not certain.
Single player
Police station
There is no trace left of the old site. Moreover, in online mode it is for some reason much larger – many purely cosmetic premises are open in it. In all of them there is literally nothing to interact with except. Yes, it was worth all those strange non-interactive rooms that for some reason are available to visit.
Why so? The fact is that in our long-awaited single-player campaign, the rooms of the site are opening gradually and. It’s not so clear with them.
Because I wondered what a person first encountering Ready or Not would think when going through Commander mode.
If I were such a person, I would probably expect a more specific and clear purpose for which all these rooms are gradually opening. That they have some kind of gameplay function, for example.
I would expect that when you walk into the police chief’s newly opened office, he would talk to you like in some L.A. Noire, I would summarize your results on missions, I would praise you if everything is in order with them. It would be really cool if the boss also condemned us for, say, wandering around the women’s restrooms during the work shift. But that would be too cool – nowadays people don’t really like to work on this kind of thing in games anymore.
In general, anything! This cute guy has a gorgeous mustache, a stunning portrait of a ROOSTER on the wall, and even a fish from "The Sopranos"! IN TWO COPIES! I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS MAN! I WANT TO HEAR HIS VOICE AND CHARACTER! But for now, as you can see, I want too much.
In practice, the grandfather is silent and performs a purely decorative function.
However, to be fair, there are some really cool elements of the site. Plot evidence from operations is stored in a special warehouse – and you can always go down and analyze it. Although this figurine is all covered with someone’s DNA, and it’s better not to touch it without gloves. So what kind of nostalgia am I talking about – the devil only knows.
And also, the criminals themselves can be found in the monkey barn! Here are the homeless people from the mission in park 213, here are the blacks from the mission at the gas station, and even a streamer himself from the new mission in San Uriel. It’s very nice that you can walk like this, serenely think about something of your own.
And such elements will definitely work on old people who could easily play single player mode without all this – they will certainly get a very positive vibe from such micro cool details for their.
But is there something in all this that can interest people who would never voluntarily play Ready or Not alone?? Let’s take a look at what Commander Mode is to answer this question.
After completing each mission, an iconic character appears in the monkey barn, symbolizing the completed operation
Commander mode
We take out the legendary PDA! All matters, as usual, are still resolved in it!
On the main screen we monitor the status of our employees.
Make no mistake – this is not remotely hardcore management, and not even some conventional This is the Police. Maximum, the tongue turns to call it. Cozy management, some kind. So cozy, dear, you know?
What do we essentially have??
We have a pool of 12 police officers. Yes, many of them have the same portraits – but these are different people, have no doubt. They all have their own names and even biographies in their dossiers.
However, these are, so to speak, artistic elements. In fact, all these people differ only in their ability. Each of them has a small feature that somehow slightly strengthens the entire squad: someone slightly increases the amount of health for all operatives; someone increases the chance that the screaming will cause the enemy to kneel without resistance; someone increases the duration of stun from flash grenades and other actions that incapacitate opponents.
In general, these are micro bonuses that you can easily live without, and even having such a boost available, it is FAR from the fact that you will really notice its positive impact on your efficiency in completing missions.
The status indicated under the avatar is not health, but specifically mentality. Employee morale – it decreases if you lose or complete missions in a lethal manner. And vice versa – it increases after successful operations, and even more so – after successful non-lethal operations it soars to the skies.
How does it affect the gameplay – you need to write to the developer support service, because even in the changelog I didn’t find anything. In practice, I didn’t notice any glaring differences between a stressed and a happy partner at all.
Obviously, the whole point of this mentality is that if a partner is very, very immoral, he will quit. This is supposedly “bad”, because he will have to be replaced by a newcomer, who will definitely not have any abilities unlocked – they are activated only by experienced guys who have already successfully completed at least a couple of operations with you.
In addition, an employee who is killed during a mission or quits due to immorality does not affect the gameplay in any way. Newcomers are hired endlessly, free of charge and without any nuances – elements of hardcore management, as I already said, are not yet available in Ready or Not.
However, this system also does not cause hemorrhoids – the equipment of employees is configured in another place, and is transferred from the deceased guy to the newcomer – in this regard it is convenient.
As a result, the ENTIRE essence of the commander mode is only to help the player get a little more into his robotic partners on. On an emotional level – after all, each of them is now an individual!
And one could say that he somehow copes with his task, but. Damn, seriously? Well, there aren’t so many people here that we can’t draw more unique portraits for them! You’ve added hundreds of new NPC models, tens of thousands of unique replicas for them, and at the same time you have five unique images for eight operatives? Understand.
I feel very sorry for the people who have been closely following the developers’ devlogs for a whole year and were expecting something interesting from the commander mode.
However, my personal luck is that I approach this feature without any expectations. I didn’t ask for it, I didn’t expect it – so I don’t have any requirements for it. Doesn’t get in the way – and God bless her.
But if you consider that the developers unironically invested energy in this pseudo-mechanics of squad management – it’s a shame, by God. Absolute zero. I’m not even specifically talking about the fact that those who are stressed can be “sent to a session with the doctor,” which is not even played out in any way – it’s just that the employee becomes unavailable for three days, and with zero emotion you hire any other free newcomer to replace him, not noticing any impact at all on the efficiency of your team. Because the perks, remember, are very minor here and do not affect your gameplay in any way.
But it would seem that they presented this doctor so epically in the trailer, as if it were really something important! But in reality.
And also these “Messages” from the dock between missions with a bright yellow alarm icon. At first, they cause outright misunderstanding – as if, why focus such close attention on this if the mentality of the employees is of no interest in gameplay?? In fact, these strange messages between missions are also a purely decorative idea, like the entire commander mode in principle. For some ephemeral "atmosphere", so to speak.
Doctor, I’m weak and have snot!
Sanchez Mateo
You are a weakling and a brat, Officer Sanchez Mateo
Doctor
For the same atmosphere, apparently, the developers decided to remove the ability to restart the level in commander mode – after each loss, you need to load the section, and then hobble for 15 seconds to the table with sending, and then directly re-send for 10 seconds. Brilliant solution. People who like to reconfigure their equipment after each attempt will say “thank you,” but I think the rest will say “no thank you.”.
Results
That’s it, that’s it, gentlemen! The so-called “Campaign” of the release version of Ready or Not turned out to be completely uninteresting, and if you, like me, hate playing with robotic partners, the feeling of complete security and the understanding that in your squad there are 4 super cool, smart, cute and useful gigaches who can easily clear the entire level even without your participation – be so kind as to just give them orders, then you have nothing to do in the single player.
I’m focusing on the personal traits of the robo-partners because the developers, no joke, did an amazing job on them! From the point of view of purely male love, I always liked them before, but now they are just darlings! I am ready to listen for hours to how they comment on what is happening, how they change places with each other during the formation, how they, with the deepest respect and patience, ask me to PLEASE move a little, because I am preventing them from passing.
But playing with them is no, it’s too easy, in my opinion. Everyone else in the world spends years building social connections and training friends for months to effectively play Ready or Not. And out of the blue, spawning four smart, obedient and skilled friends is, excuse me, a cheat. And I don’t like cheating that much.
But I’ll still play in the single – where can I go without an achievement for completing the mod for one life?? I already said that commander mode can be configured so that all saves are deleted upon death, and thus you need to ideally complete 18 missions in a row? Well, now I said. This is a solid test for a game where at any moment a stray bullet can fly into your head from somewhere behind the wall, you’ll agree .
Oh yes, and customization! Well, how could I forget that now you can wear a short-sleeved shirt and have an anime tattoo on your forearm?! This is what I love!