Recent reviews by Dyni Crippler

Ouch. I don't normally write reviews on Steam, especially negative ones, but I'm writing this one specifically as feedback to the devs in hopes of seeing further improvements. I played the game a decent bit in early access and thought it was really, really good, but 1.0 changed things in ways I honestly don't fully understand, mostly for the worse. But I'll start with the good: I really like how the allied AI operates now - they're fairly thorough in dealing with rooms and take care of a lot of the "busywork" part, which is great for pacing and makes playing the game solo much more enjoyable than, say, SWAT4 (which, like I assume most people who bought Ready or Not, I'm a big fan of).

I also need to point out that some of the level re-designs are really good. From removing unnecessary parts to completely remaking levels in more interesting ways, I'd say Ready or Not doesn't really have any "weak" levels in the 1.0 release. That's great, but this ties in with the first issue: as a lot of early access reviews have pointed out, a lot of the early access levels have been straight up removed from the game. While I understand that not all of them were particularly interesting (like the hospital variations), a lot of them were really good levels (like the original hotel, which is apparently not in the final release in any shape or form). I understand that they might not fit what they wanted from the campaign, but why remove them altogether instead of simply leaving them available in the "Practice" mode? I love the new Port Hoken level, but I also liked the old ones a lot. I don't know why they decided to be so drastic.

And of course, the suspects. From what I understand, the suspects have, in theory, a lot of complex subsystems that range from fighting interactions like flinching from pain to morale decisions - I remember a dev diary suggesting that when morale is particularly low, they might even attempt suicide. I've never seen this happen in any version of the game, and in general in every version of the game I've played the suspects have been incredibly stubborn, more than willing to bet it all on their 9mm handgun against a team of fully steel plated SWAT members. This is, by itself, a bit weird and not really rewarding - I remember in SWAT4 enemies would react in ways that'd fit the situation, like being more likely to surrender if caught from behind or trying to run away if an exit is nearby. In RoN every suspect's reaction seems to be to open fire. Even accepting this, in 1.0 specifically their reactions to bullets seems to be inconsistent at best. I can hit an unarmored suspect with three AP 7.62x51 bullets and they'll keep firing. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug, but sadly that doesn't go both ways, because when your character gets shot the visual flinch and recoil will make it very likely that you'll end up dying unless you manage to get a lucky burst in. The end result is very frustrating to fight against, and that's without mentioning the buggy situations where sometimes the AI will just be able to shoot you through doors without you being able to see them. While some of these problems were also present in the last early access version, I feel like the 1.0 release brought them to an extreme instead of fixing them.

The Commander mode also makes very little sense to me, since soldiers' morale worsens every time you lose but benched/incapacitated soldiers don't recover, which leads into a loop of losing officers the more you have to play a mission. This makes it hard to get attached to anyone or even just to be able to benefit from the perks, because the officers that unlocked the perk has been benched for the last 6 attempts at completing the mission.

There are things I love about Ready or Not. The level design is great, getting into a gunfight is incredibly tense and, in general, it covers that tactical shooter niche that has been left unfilled since SWAT4. But as of 1.0 it's really hard to recommend the game to anyone that isn't a diehard fan of SWAT4. I really, really hope to see massive AI improvements and hopefully the return of some of the early access missions, because there's a lot of good in this game and I'd love to say it's the SWAT5 we all wanted. Right now it's just not there yet (no, I'm not gonna make the "not ready" pun).