Ready or Not is, without a doubt, one of the most popular tactical FPS games on PC. The game, which was developed by Ireland-based studio VOID Interactive, is a spiritual successor of sorts to Sierra's now-dormant SWAT franchise. Like the games that it was inspired by, Ready or Not puts players into the shoes of SWAT police officers who have to deal with moral conundrums as they try to defuse dangerous crime scenarios. Since it emphasizes realism and isn't afraid to explore disturbing topics, Ready or Not is probably one of the darkest non-horror video games out there. Frankly, in the modern gaming landscape, there isn't really anything else quite like it.
After being exclusive to PC for several years, Ready or Not finally made its way to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on July 15, 2025. Although early reviews of these console ports suggest that they are fairly high-quality, the excitement surrounding their release has been dampened due to a major controversy regarding the recent censorship of the game. VOID Interactive revealed in late June that it had censored some parts of Ready or Not in order to make it easier for the game to come to home consoles. Although no massive changes have been made to the game, player reactions to this decision have not been positive in the slightest.
Ready or Not Releases Major Update for July 2025
Ready or Not releases a major update for the PC edition, introducing several notable features amid the ongoing censorship controversy.
Ready or Not's Recent Censorship Has Been Met With a Lot of Backlash
Ready or Not Has Been Review Bombed on Steam Due to the Censorship Controversy
Not too long ago, Ready or Not had very positive reviews on Steam, but in the last couple of weeks, the user ratings for the game have taken a nosedive. Currently, the game has just a 79% mostly positive score on Valve's PC storefront, in part because only 23% of its new reviews are positive. Most of the recent Steam user reviews are highly critical of the censorship changes that have been made to Ready or Not, not only because they supposedly compromise its creative vision, but also because they were retroactively added to the game's PC port, even though the censorship was intended specifically for the game’s console versions.
VOID Interactive explained that it decided to censor the PC version of Ready or Not, alongside the launch of the game's console ports, because it wanted to have full parity across all platforms.
VOID Interactive Has Censored Six Things in the New Version of Ready or Not
Despite all the commotion about censorship, the current version of Ready or Not is not that different from its older counterparts. VOID Interactive revealed in a post on Steam that it has made only six visual changes to the game. One of these changes, for example, can be seen in the Twisted Nerve mission, in which a young girl who was previously depicted as convulsing is now shown to be sleeping. In another mission called 23 Megabytes a Second, meanwhile, a "Photo of Minors" objective model has been altered so that, in VOID Interactive's words, it can "better connect narratively with the later Sinuous Trail mission."
Unlike the two above-mentioned examples, the other four instances of censorship in Ready or Not largely relate to nudity and violence. In three of the game's missions (A Lethal Obsession, Hide and Seek, and Narcos), nudity involving some hostages and suspects has now been censored. Additionally, throughout the game, players are no longer able to dismember dead bodies. Although dismemberment does still exist in Ready or Not, it can only be done on living enemies, not corpses.
Despite VOID Interactive's Attempts to Clarify the Reasoning for the Censorship, Players Are Still Not Happy
VOID Interactive has insisted that the changes it made to Ready or Not do not impact the realistic tone or the overall quality of the game. Although the company has said that it's still committed to maintaining its creative freedom, it made the difficult decision to censor portions of the game to comply with platform holders and age-rating bodies, but "only to the letter of the regulations — no further." Despite VOID Interactive's attempts to explain Ready or Not's situation, many gamers are still unhappy with the company's actions, with some expressing a refusal to tolerate any level of censorship, no matter what. Ready or Not may still be a great game at its core, but it seems the discussions about this controversy won't be coming to an end anytime soon.
Ready or Not
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 82 /100 Critics Rec: 82%
- Released
- December 13, 2023
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Void Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Void Interactive
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- Genre(s)
- Tactical, FPS
