I love Ready or Not. I have played it in early access almost since the very beginning and have seen it grow and improve in a lot of ways. It is a tactical game that allows you to do more than focus on killing an enemy, and rewards slow, methodical play. This, combined with genuinely terrifying and wonderful environmental design each map tells a story, and has layers upon layers if you look hard enough that will really make you feel like the bad guy for doing the right thing. Valley of the Dolls is the perfect example of this. The guns all are very satisfying to use, and the music kicks in just right in dynamic situations. But the biggest, most critical flaw of this game: the AI.
The game wants you to experiment. Wants you to go into the game with the idea that you are supposed to play non-lethally, only resorting to lethal when there is no other option. But the AI doesn't let you play like this. If you walk up behind a subject with a gun, get the drop with five SWAT members telling them to comply and drop the weapon, their response shouldn't be to immediately 180 in a single second and start shooting with zero hesitation. But that is the case here. A scared teenager in a robbery gone wrong shouldn't be using automatic weapons. A terrorist ready to die for his beliefs shouldn't have the same chance of giving up as a drug dealer with a pistol. The AI is just not dynamic enough for what they want. It makes these unique locations with unique backstories feel the same gameplay wise, and it makes non-lethal feel like the wrong answer, when it should be the opposite. You can't really have emergent interactions with them. If you shoot a subject in the leg, it won't make them more likely to give up. If you have multiple people with you, it won't change anything. If you get the drop on a suspect and yell for compliance from behind, they won't even hesitate before they shoot at you. And if you go lethally and just headshot every suspect you see, you don't really have a penalty. It doesn't make his buddies more aggressive, it doesn't change anything. Using the pepper ball will partially blind you, so no it isn't great, there is no non-lethal siderarm you can utilize, and trying to do NVGs doesn't really help because enemies can see through the dark and don't care about a flashlight, so it is just better to do that. The sad thing is, a lot of mods are out there specifically designed to make the AI better and address some of these criticisms I have made, so I know for a fact it is possible that the developers do better. But, for whatever reason, they aren't emulating some of the most important things from SWAT 4, and it makes this game feel closer to what it is trying to avoid than what it is trying to be. It feels like you're just going in, guns blazing at a slower pace.
Another tiny thing, but should be mentioned: the amount of AI art they have is pretty insulting. Posters are obviously AI generated, faces are generated using AI which is creepy since a lot of it is to imply illegal substances are associated with them, even the graffiti spraypaint is AI generated. I see it as lazy and cutting corners for a small thing, and it really makes me nervous that the developers are putting such little effort into small, easy things. I'm glad they got to release, but for me to stay a long-term fan they will need to address these issues and show that they are putting effort into making this a swat game, not a tactical shooter.
The game wants you to experiment. Wants you to go into the game with the idea that you are supposed to play non-lethally, only resorting to lethal when there is no other option. But the AI doesn't let you play like this. If you walk up behind a subject with a gun, get the drop with five SWAT members telling them to comply and drop the weapon, their response shouldn't be to immediately 180 in a single second and start shooting with zero hesitation. But that is the case here. A scared teenager in a robbery gone wrong shouldn't be using automatic weapons. A terrorist ready to die for his beliefs shouldn't have the same chance of giving up as a drug dealer with a pistol. The AI is just not dynamic enough for what they want. It makes these unique locations with unique backstories feel the same gameplay wise, and it makes non-lethal feel like the wrong answer, when it should be the opposite. You can't really have emergent interactions with them. If you shoot a subject in the leg, it won't make them more likely to give up. If you have multiple people with you, it won't change anything. If you get the drop on a suspect and yell for compliance from behind, they won't even hesitate before they shoot at you. And if you go lethally and just headshot every suspect you see, you don't really have a penalty. It doesn't make his buddies more aggressive, it doesn't change anything. Using the pepper ball will partially blind you, so no it isn't great, there is no non-lethal siderarm you can utilize, and trying to do NVGs doesn't really help because enemies can see through the dark and don't care about a flashlight, so it is just better to do that. The sad thing is, a lot of mods are out there specifically designed to make the AI better and address some of these criticisms I have made, so I know for a fact it is possible that the developers do better. But, for whatever reason, they aren't emulating some of the most important things from SWAT 4, and it makes this game feel closer to what it is trying to avoid than what it is trying to be. It feels like you're just going in, guns blazing at a slower pace.
Another tiny thing, but should be mentioned: the amount of AI art they have is pretty insulting. Posters are obviously AI generated, faces are generated using AI which is creepy since a lot of it is to imply illegal substances are associated with them, even the graffiti spraypaint is AI generated. I see it as lazy and cutting corners for a small thing, and it really makes me nervous that the developers are putting such little effort into small, easy things. I'm glad they got to release, but for me to stay a long-term fan they will need to address these issues and show that they are putting effort into making this a swat game, not a tactical shooter.