Ready or Not (Ready_or_Not) - SWAT Type First-Person Shooter

[jztemple2]

Since the old Sierra SWAT days I've been a sucker for these first person police tactical games. I've been following the progress of Ready or Not for awhile now and it seems to be getting a lot of good reviews. It hits full 1.0 release this Wednesday the 13th and I was going to wait and pick it up then, but I've seen it mentioned that the price is going up to $50 at that time. Since Green Man Gaming has it on sale right now I decided to pick it up now before the possible price jump so that I can take the bullet for other folks by kicking the tires and checking out the game. I was going to try to hold off playing till the expected 1.0 release on Wednesday, but I'm weak and I'll probably give it a look tonight after I download the game.

[jztemple2]

In my never ending quest to bring folks impressions of games they probably will never play, I now give some impressions of Ready or Not after a couple hours of gameplay. The game is still in pre-release which is expected to bring a single player campaign and loads of improvements, but I wanted to get a feel for the game which has Very Positive reviews on Steam.

UPDATE: For those starting at the top of the thread (first of all, thanks! ), please don't take too much notice of the some of the impressions in the next few posts as these were gathered while playing an older pre-release version. Skip further down to where I've noted that I am now playing the full release version.

There is pretty much zero on-boarding right now, which was what I expected since that's something that supposed to come in 1.0, but if you've played these kinds of games before, it's pretty easy to figure out. There's a room where you change your loadout and a room where you pick your missions. I went on my first playthrough with the default loadout and picked a map which looked to be a fairly straightforward location. It turned out to be anything but that.



I'm now presented with the mission type I'd like to play. You can read from the image the different mission types.



I went with the easiest Barricaded Suspects mission. I've actually in my two hours of gameplay done this mission several times as it isn't easy. On the first couple of tries I went without night vision googles (NVG) but then switched to them as there are some very dark places on the map.



I'm not posting any in-mission images right now as I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone who played the map. It is amazingly well decorated with props to be very immersive.

Even without any tutorial I figured out the control system pretty quickly. You have four team mates, split into two sections red a blue. Your main control is the middle mouse button; the game is not playable with a controller, nor would you want to. Click the MMB and rotate it to get menus for giving orders to the red section or the blue section or both (yellow). You then press the 1, 2, 3 or 4 key on the keyboard to either go to a submenu or to actually issue orders. The order system works very well and pretty much covered any situation I ran into.

The gameplay isn't the cleanest as sometimes NPCs do overlap a bit, but that's pretty minor and doesn't distract. And the physics are a little wonky at times with objects bouncing a bit when you run into them, but again pretty minor stuff. The order menus are context sensitive, depending on what you are pointing at when you press the MMB which is a nice touch and keeps things fairly clean.

Overall the AI squadmate system works very well and by my second playthrough I was very comfortable issuing orders. My only gripe is that I have trouble remembering which pair of guys are the blue team and which are the reds, but that's more on me as the NPC models are different.

I'd say the game compared very well with the (limited) memories I have of Sierra's SWAT series and I'm pleased with the game even in its pre-1.0 state. I'll be happy to answer questions and post more info and images and expect a fuller report after the 1.0 release in a couple of days.

[hepcat]

I have had this on my wish list for ages as I was under the impression it included a planning phase like the original SWAT and Rainbow Six games had. Is this not the case?

[Daehawk]

Ive not played a decent swat game since SWAT 4.

[Punisher]

I have had this on my wish list for ages as I was under the impression it included a planning phase like the original SWAT and Rainbow Six games had. Is this not the case?

IIRC, it's limited to a map and i think you can decide entry location.

[hepcat]

Ah shoot. I used to love poring over the maps in the early SWAT and Rainbow Six games, figuring out delays and timing for breaches. I could spend hours on that alone...and usually did.

[jztemple2]

I have had this on my wish list for ages as I was under the impression it included a planning phase like the original SWAT and Rainbow Six games had. Is this not the case?

Not right now, but I'll be sure to look for and post about it when 1.0 is released on Wednesday.

[jztemple2]

Ah shoot. I used to love poring over the maps in the early SWAT and Rainbow Six games, figuring out delays and timing for breaches. I could spend hours on that alone...and usually did.

Just as an afterthought, if you like this kind of planning you'll find it in Doorkickers and Doorkickers 2. Also take a look at No Plan B, which has you plan breaching locations, timing delays and actual routes through the location. Then let your troops loose and they will proceed to execute your plan automatically.

[hepcat]

You sold me on the Doorkicker series ages ago.

And I’ll definitely look at the other one you mentioned. Thanks!

[Blackhawk]

It's been a while - did SWAT 3/4 actually have a full planning stage? I thought you specified entry location for your stacks and initial ROE, then managed the tactics on the fly.

[hepcat]

I could be wrong about the Swat series. I thought they had a planning phase. But I still look at the early Rainbow Six planning stages as my favorite stuff in a game.

[jztemple2]

I couldn't resist trying that same location in the game, but this time in the Raid mode:



Holy crap, things were different. Turns out that for the Barricaded Suspects mode, I was dealing with one house and an unattached garage. In the Raid mode, at the same location, I started off in a different starting point because there were now more than one house to raid, all of which were interconnected with crossovers. I tried coming in stealthily, was able to grab one suspect and ended up shooting another, then once inside the house I managed to get myself killed .

[jztemple2]

Thought folks might enjoy this, it was posted on their Discord about three months ago, it is a look at some of their motion capture filming sessions.

Climbing up to an overwatch position.



Riding in a vehicle



Knife attacks

[Punisher]

then once inside the house I managed to get myself killed .

It's been a while since I played but from what I remember this is NOT a kind or easy game.
Doesn't take much to go down.
As hard as this is, I prefer it over bullet sponge games.
If they release a campaign on wed, I'll dip back in.

[jztemple2]

I just realized something this morning. The Steam store page for the game shows that the latest depot update was back in February, but I know that the devs have been putting out updates regularly. Those updates, I now realize, are being released on the private beta channel which is only available if you purchased the Supporters edition, which I didn't.

So the impressions I've been posting are for a version that's ten months old. Therefore, ignore any of the negatives above and just wait till I get my hands on the 1.0 version tomorrow.

[jztemple2]

As I said, my impressions of the game so far were on a ten month old version of the game. Things are looking a lot better for the 1.0 release, check out the video below with a look at the new SWAT AI; they have fixed a lot of the small issues I saw yesterday in the February version. For those interested, the release of the 1.0 version is scheduled for tomorrow, December 13th at 10am PST, 1pm EST.

[Blackhawk]

I'm impressed with how they handle movement and positioning. I'm curious if they maintain positioning and fire lanes within a room.

I'd also like to see how they handle approaching and navigating a T-intersection of hallways (something that very few games or shows get right - they usually have everyone focusing ahead or on their own side of the hall instead of the opposite side.)

[Holman]

I bought this one in pre-release waaaay back out of nostalgia for the SWAT and early Rainbow Six games. At the time it seemed a little janky, so I shelved it.

I'm very happy to see that it seems to have lived up to its potential. I'll reinstall tomorrow after 1.0 is released.

[jztemple2]

I'm impressed with how they handle movement and positioning. I'm curious if they maintain positioning and fire lanes within a room.

I'd also like to see how they handle approaching and navigating a T-intersection of hallways (something that very few games or shows get right - they usually have everyone focusing ahead or on their own side of the hall instead of the opposite side.)

I'll try to capture some video when I starting playing tomorrow. I'm hoping that the game will include some kind of replay feature that will allow spectating a played mission. If all else fails, as you could see in the above video, you can always start shooting other officers or hostages, get killed by one of your own team, then spectate the rest of the mission!

[Punisher]

If anyone is available during the day and wants to try multiplayer let me know.

[jztemple2]

The 1.0 update is now available for download. It is about 48GB but thankfully Spectrum picked this day to boost my download speed by 4X, now doing 45 MB/s

The change list is in this article and is very extensive, and the devs also note that the list doesn't mention all the bugfixes, as they were too numerous to list there.

UPDATE: I've added the Gameplay changes in the spoiler tags below as they are lengthy:

Spoiler:

Gameplay

• Commander mode: “Commander mode” is our immersive Ready or Not single player experience. The mode acts to tie together all elements of the game’s existing design, as well as introducing new features centered around progression and replayability. We will be heavily monitoring feedback surrounding this mode.

• o Ironman Mode: A permadeath-style option for hardcore players. Once you’re dead, your save is deleted. There are cosmetic rewards for completing this mode.
• o Exfiltration Mechanic: In order to quit a mission early without accruing as much stress to their officers, players must exfil from their spawn point, being sure to first backtrack safely.
• o Save Slots: 3 save slots have been added that will allow players to experiment with different runs, or for multiple users on one PC.
• o Stress System: A meta-game stress system that punishes the team for acting outside of the Use of Force continuum, or otherwise putting lives in danger. Officers at high stress will have to be benched and put on therapy, or be at risk of leaving the team permanently.
• o Officer Traits: ~12 modifiers that affect your officer or team composition to benefit your select playstyle. Traits become available for each respective officer as you play missions with them.

• New SWAT AI: A remarkable next-generation AI system capable of clearing rooms in a truly lifelike fashion, built from the ground-up by working closely with our SWAT advisory team.

• o New AI and Team Commands: A number of new commands are now available for ordering AI (and now your friends) around.
•  Officers will be able to order surrendered and arrested targets to turn around, move to a marked position, or move to the officer’s location.
•  AI can be told to run to the nearest exit and flee the location. They will be automatically arrested upon arrival there.
•  Commands are now able to be used in cooperative, so players without microphones can communicate a little easier with other player teammates.
•  This system is pending some QOL improvements such as UI elements to help see what has been marked. Some commands will also default to Judge’s voice.
• o Police Trailer Units: Automated trailer units have also been added, which are police units that come in after a mission to collect arrested contacts and any relevant people or items. This will occur when “bring order to chaos” is completed.

• New Tablet System: Objectives and other elements of the UI that were previously non-diegetic have been moved to the Tablet, which is able to be opened by pressing “TAB” by default.

• o After selecting a mission, players can: Listen to a situation briefing and 911 calls
•  Receive a list of objectives relevant to the mission
•  Preview images that might provide some insight into the threat level
•  Read through a list of known suspects and civilians
•  Access whatever maps the LSPD has available on the location, with the ability to draw and make plans with your team
•  Players can also preview their team cameras and loadouts in this tablet, as well as chat with other players using a built-in screen

• New level selection screen with updated visuals and entry point selection.
o Ability to pick which mission type to play a level on has been removed due to limitations with design and testing, and to avoid narrative conflicts.

• New Evidence Locker: Collectibles in the Evidence Locker will become available as different missions are completed. Each mission has three: one for B, one for A, and one for S. The collectibles will often point to elements of the story or allude to other details.

• 15 Steam Achievements: 15 challenging achievements are available to completionist players upon release.

• Replay Viewer: Missions can be replayed using a viewer that is accessible in the main menu. This viewer allows for players to change camera aperture settings, color grading settings, focal length, spline paths, and speed. A timeline also exists which can be scrubbed back and forth.
o The selection UI for replays is currently WIP, but can be used.
o Replays are accessible from commander, cooperative, and practice mode gameplay. Will also work with mods.

[Blackhawk]

Thanks for bringing this up, by the way. I'm going to be keeping an eye on this one.

[jztemple2]

Heads up to those playing this afternoon, if you go into Training there is a bug at the point where you split the team into red and blue elements and try to breach two door simultaneously. I got through it by a lot of button mashing, but you can also just quit training at that point as you've already seen most of it.

[jztemple2]

Played the first mission in Commander mode, which is the single player campaign:


This is my team:


This is the first mission, "Thank You, Come Again"


If you open your tablet there is more information:


It's a big place, think Wawa or Racetrack


I won't give any details as these would definitely be spoilers. The SWAT AI works very well issuing orders to the team, elements or even to individuals. And they are pretty good at their jobs. At one point I ordered an entry into a large area broken up with shelving units that blocked line of sight. The officers split up and cleared each aisle in turn in both directions and then positioned themselves to watch the doors that lead to other areas. The whole mission felt very real, the voice acting being especially good.

There is a replay feature in the game, available from the main menu as soon as you have completed one mission. The replay is similar to a spectator mode except that you can have an orbit cam around an individual or a free cam which you can move at will as the mission unfolds. Using a keyboard to move the camera is a bit clunky but adequate. I ended up with a fifteen minute video which I won't show as the whole thing is just one big spoiler.

So after one mission I'm very please with the new changes I've seen and I'm about to jump into the next mission. Post any questions you have.

[Holman]

How is the weapons realism? Does an unarmored person go down with just one or two bullets? Do head shots differ from leg shots?

(I ask while reinstalling.)

[Punisher]

I'm liking the changes overall but I've run into some issues.
1. During training it tells you to turn on the attached laser. I do and I can see it but the game doesn't recognize it. I tried restarting myltiple times and the same thing happened. Gonna try rebinding the buttin to something else on next try.

2. My guys dont seem to move around each other and instead move through each other. Not a huge deal but breaks suspension.

3. It might be because I couldn't finish training but I cant get the elements to stay split.
If i tell blue to cover door a and red to cover door b, then tell blue to breach a different door, all the elements converge on that door. Might need to try training again to see what im missing.

Still liking it though. Game can be brutal and definitely isn't a bullet sponge for either PCs or NPCS.

[jztemple2]

How is the weapons realism? Does an unarmored person go down with just one or two bullets? Do head shots differ from leg shots?

(I ask while reinstalling.)

Weapons seem pretty realistic. No one (SWAT or bad guy) fires just one or two bullets, which is also pretty realistic. You shoot until the suspect goes down and the same thing happens when they shoot at you. I can't really say how head shots differ from leg shots because, again, this is a realistic shooter. You fire in the general direction of someone who is shooting at you, because you never (or at least you shouldn't) shoot at someone who isn't shooting or at least about to shoot you. At least not in the missions I've seen as yet.

[jztemple2]

I'm liking the changes overall but I've run into some issues.
1. During training it tells you to turn on the attached laser. I do and I can see it but the game doesn't recognize it. I tried restarting myltiple times and the same thing happened. Gonna try rebinding the buttin to something else on next try.

My installation defaulted to using one of the thumb buttons on my mouse, which is super handy. Very important when you have the flashlight equipped as you want to never wander around a dark building with the flashlight on all the time. Might as well hold a big neon sign saying "Here I am! Shoot at me!"

2. My guys don't seem to move around each other and instead move through each other. Not a huge deal but breaks suspension.

That's fine with me. It doesn't happen a lot, but the buildings are very realistic with narrow hallways at times and in the real world you'd kinda press up against one another.

3. It might be because I couldn't finish training but I cant get the elements to stay split.
If i tell blue to cover door a and red to cover door b, then tell blue to breach a different door, all the elements converge on that door. Might need to try training again to see what im missing.

I haven't had any issues with them staying split. Be careful about the color of your MMB menu, if you select yellow (gold) and give a command it supersedes any red/blue element orders.

[Punisher]

Yeah, I couldn't tell you if head shots make a difference because I have had to react WAY to quickly to even try for headshors. Just like IRL you are pretty much aiming for center mass all the time.
Someone better than I will need to try..

[jztemple2]

I've now done five missions in the Commander mode, two of which I had to try twice and one three times because I died. When you die you get to try the mission over again, but your AI teammates take stress over you dying and it can cause them to be taken out of the roster for therapy or they maybe even resign. Oddly, on one mission I had only three AI teammates in the roster but when I started a mission there were four. I guess I get a temporary officer.

Overall I've very pleased. The maps have been (except for one) pretty large and very tricky. Plenty of set decorations for immersion. Your selections of weapons and equipment are not locked behind a progress wall, so you can give yourself and your AI teammates whatever tickles your fancy. The command menu system has been very good except for the occasional odd doors and hallway conjunctions where I've had to do some finagling to get the AI to do exactly what I wanted.

The AI is really smart. I've gone off in one direction with a two man element and sent the other off to do some clearing and I hear shots and shouts and in a few minutes they've secured a number of connected rooms without me having to point at each one for them. Occasionally they do get wounded and sometimes killed but I wouldn't have done any better and probably just worse.

[Blackhawk]

Weapons seem pretty realistic. No one (SWAT or bad guy) fires just one or two bullets, which is also pretty realistic. You shoot until the suspect goes down and the same thing happens when they shoot at you.

To be fair, if you're facing multiple enemies, you'd fire a burst or a few rounds at each - you don't fire until they drop unless something demands it (like they're so drugged that they don't react - and then you're better off firing center of mass and trying to hit their spinal column to disrupt their CNS, which will drop them regardless.) In fact, there can be situations in real life where you fire a single shot at one target, move on to the next, then go back to the first (like if they're wearing body armor - the first shot briefly stuns the target while you hit and drop the second, then return to the first before he recovers.)

Can you shoot through walls/doors, and will enemies do so if they hear you?

And does it track magazines separately if you do tactical reloads (IE - if you fire half of a magazine and reload to a full mag, will you eventually reload a half-full magazine?)

[jztemple2]

To be fair, if you're facing multiple enemies, you'd fire a burst or a few rounds at each - you don't fire until they drop unless something demands it (like they're so drugged that they don't react - and then you're better off firing center of mass and trying to hit their spinal column to disrupt their CNS, which will drop them regardless.) In fact, there can be situations in real life where you fire a single shot at one target, move on to the next, then go back to the first (like if they're wearing body armor - the first shot briefly stuns the target while you hit and drop the second, then return to the first before he recovers.)

Well, good luck with getting those multiple enemies to avoid killing you while you plug each with a few rounds.

Can you shoot through walls/doors, and will enemies do so if they hear you?

Yes and yes

And does it track magazines separately if you do tactical reloads (IE - if you fire half of a magazine and reload to a full mag, will you eventually reload a half-full magazine?)

Yes

[Blackhawk]

To be fair, if you're facing multiple enemies, you'd fire a burst or a few rounds at each - you don't fire until they drop unless something demands it (like they're so drugged that they don't react - and then you're better off firing center of mass and trying to hit their spinal column to disrupt their CNS, which will drop them regardless.) In fact, there can be situations in real life where you fire a single shot at one target, move on to the next, then go back to the first (like if they're wearing body armor - the first shot briefly stuns the target while you hit and drop the second, then return to the first before he recovers.)

Well, good luck with getting those multiple enemies to avoid killing you while you plug each with a few rounds.

Many on one is never a good proposition, but it's still a better chance than unloading on one while the others fire on you. Similar to this:

Spoiler:

[jztemple2]

So last night I reached ten hours played and had completed six missions. That last mission took all evening and about eight tries . One of those was due to, perhaps, a somewhat buggy situation with a suspect showing up unexpectedly, however that might just be on me. Anyway most of the losses were due to a combination of bad guys, unlucky actions by my SWAT AI, and me setting off a lot of trip mines

This was the first level where I had some issues with frame rate. The game defaulted to a general graphics setting of "Epic" so I rolled that back a bit and it helped. It's not stutter, which some folks have reported. I think instead it is due to the construction of the level putting a lot of demand on the video card at times. Anyway, nothing I couldn't adjust and fix. I'm rocking a nice steady 60 fps now.

Still happy with the game, although there are a couple of caveats. One is that with the release of 1.0 the devs have dropped the idea that maps can have multiple mode options, like barricaded suspect, raid, etc. In the update notes the devs have stated that the multiple modes have been dropped because it made it too difficult to create credible narratives for a map. I accept that and while disappointed, I feel like it is a design decision. Meanwhile of course there are the usual Steam reviewers who are ranting about it . The other caveat is that occasionally a character will clip through a wall or door (is clipping the right term?) and so I'll know someone is hiding on the other side. It doesn't happen very often and will probably be addressed soon, so I'm OK.

There is also a funny in the roster system in the Commander mode (single-player campaign). At one point I had lost so many officers to dead, resignation or just being sent off to therapy that I couldn't form a full team, yet when I started the next mission I still had four guys. Apparently the roster system is that a named officer will have some unique ability (like being able to kick open a door on first try) and eventually might develop other abilities, but if you don't have enough roster officers you'll still be able to do missions. I'm fine with that approach since I don't want to have to quit my campaign due to lack of officers. Some folks might like that option, but I wouldn't.

So this afternoon I'm playing another mission and I'll see how many times it takes to beat it

[jztemple2]

For those playing the game, it did not occur to me till today to use the replay system to understand what happened when suddenly everything went south and I died. I just checked the replay on a map where I just unexpected died and I figured out it wasn't a bug, it was me

Also, for those who have played the old Sierra SWAT series, door wedges are your friends

[jztemple2]

BSOD:


Regarding the question, will bullets travel through walls? Oh yes, they will. I peeked around a doorframe, bad guys saw me, I pulled back out of sight, bullets went through wall and killed me

[jztemple2]

A really, really bad mission:

[jztemple2]

An annoying bug, saved team loadout configurations are not really saved . It's already been noted as a bug. I keep having to give everyone extra door wedges over and over

Meanwhile, I finally after several tries beat that seventh mission, Sinuous Trail. It took just over 41 minutes but I managed to keep everyone on my team alive!


Looking at the replay of one of the failed tries on this mission, I can confirm that not only does the bad guy AI not apparently cheat, but it is damn clever too. I won't give away how I know, but I know now that I really need to check my six and wedge those doors! Damn, I wish Doorkickers 2 had door wedges

[jztemple2]

This is it, Greased Palms, aka the post office mission. Really the postal facility mission, because it's a damn facility:



When things go wrong on this mission they really, really go wrong fast. That's three dead officers there and I'm bleeding pretty badly.



Something else has been driving me crazy, the frame rate. It seemed alright for the first few missions and then it seemed to tank at times. So I started fiddling with things and looking at Steam guides and just generally going down a rabbit hole . Right now I've stepped down from a graphics setting of Epic down to High, lowered my resolution from 2560x1440 to 1980x1080 and am running in DX11 mode. I've also tweaked a couple of other things and now at least my fps is pretty stable at 60. Still, I'd be really happy if I didn't have to do so much tweaking and could run at my desktop resolution.

Other than that I'm still enjoying the game. The mission before the postal facility was surprisingly easy, although I didn't know that and was waiting for something horrible to happen. And it was a nice breather. Now I've gone to the post office twice and died and still don't have a good feeling about how to approach it. I'm just going to have to think out of the box, like CS gas and shields.

[jztemple2]

Again, for those playing the game, I'm back at 2560x1440 with the help of this video. Damn, I never knew there could be so many settings. Anyway, I've got the graphics on High, 2560x1440 res and a rock solid 60 fps. Of course I had to go into the Nvidia control panel, set Steam launch options and fiddle with the Task Manager , but it really is running nice now. I'm getting a little tearing when I pan the view quickly, but that's very minor compared with how nice it is otherwise.