History VideoGame / ReadyOrNot

* ArmorIsUseless: In a previous public build, armor did little to nothing when it comes to negating damage. You were just as easily killed by some punk shooting at you with a machine pistol when wearing heavy armor as you were when wearing no armor. An exception to this, however, is the ballistic shield, which still stops bullets to an impressive degree. In gameplay proper, the various armor types and levels effectively give you extra chances if you're hit in the torso, but they're still far from ideal from facing perpetrators head-on, especially if their spraying manages to land a stray bullet to your head or limbs. All the more reason to stick to cover and check your rooms carefully to avoid a swift death.
** Almost entirely averted now. While the game is still a tactical shooter and you are usually considered lucky to survive more than a handful of shots from any weapon, (especially if that weapon shoots 7.62) armor can make a night-or-day difference between dying the second anything hits you, to practically ignoring smaller calibers if they hit center-mass.[[note]]To be specific, there are 3 types of material you can insert into your armor, (Kevlar, Steel, and Ceramic) and furthermore you can choose between light or heavy armor made of these materials; Kevlar is light but ineffective against nearly anything higher than a pistol round, Steel is the heaviest and can shrug off all but the heaviest rounds you will encounter, (though it can spall, doing minor damage to you over time) and Ceramic is the middle-ground and about as effective as steel, however, unlike the other types, it can shatter after taking enough damage, in which case it protects against nothing.[[/note]]

** While it still has it's quirks as mentioned below, the enemy AI can be surprisingly dynamic and has lots of tricks up it's sleeves. Enemies can blind-fire, duck, take hostages, squeeze under beds and into closets to surprise you, fake surrender/incapacitation, and can even use their own breaching equipment. On top of this, going against crackheads vs. militia isn't a simple difference of equipment; More skilled enemies are much more alert, more unlikely to surrender, and are far more able and willing to move around to try and flank your team. The easiest levels of the game will have you up against small group of gangbangers that quickly submit when surprised and panic frequently, while the harder levels will be against fanatic militia or terrorist groups that are better equipped than you are, will cover each other appropriately, and will rarely, if ever, give up willingly.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: In a step away from the other missions, "Valley of the Dolls" has you fighting private security guards rather than terrorists or gang members. That's because your main target is a wealthy millionaire named Amos Voll, who pays his guards handsomely to keep all unwanted guests away, even SWAT teams, as well as [[{{Foreshadowing}} not ask about what's going on in the basement]].

''Ready or Not'' (or ''[=RoN=]'' for short) is a CoOpMultiplayer TacticalShooter FirstPersonShooter by VOID Interactive. The players control a SWAT team doing typical crackdowns on crime, as a SpiritualSuccessor to the ''VideoGame/{{SWAT}}'' series, most notably the fourth installment.

** The game takes place in the fictional city of Los Suenos, which is a pretty obvious {{Expy}} of Los Angeles. It's in-game geographical location however matches that of San Diego, right down to its proximity to the Mexican border.

* DeadlyPrank: "23 Megabytes Per Second", a new mission added in the 1.0 release that serves as the single-player campaign's second mission, has SWAT going in to neutralize an online video game streamer who reportedly has killed his mother and taken his brother hostage. However, when you bust into their apartments, the supposedly dead mother is perfectly fine, the brother is just hanging around, and the so-called active shooter is playing video games; clearly, you've been duped and this is a "[=SWATing=]". Unfortunately, he and his ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' group who are also present are carrying weapons and will open fire on the heavily armed stormtroopers busting into their home, which will most likely lead to at least some of their deaths.

* CIAEvilFBIGood: Played with. The BlandNameProduct counterpart of the CIA, the USIA, isn't depicted in the best light, with two former agents featuring as prime suspects in their missions and both are mentally unhinged. FISA, the not-FBI, seemingly acts within the law but at the same time the undercover agent in "Greased Palms" opens fire on you like any other criminal and there's the hint of something shady going on when the FISA controller countermands TOC during "Hide and Seek".

* CrapsackWorld: US society has grown more cancerous than ever, so there's plenty for you to clean up. The voiceover in the gameplay trailer says it's "a unique, detailed and twisted facsimile of a modern United States. Ready or Not's vision of America is downtrodden, cruel, and corrupt."

** Enemies wearing plate carriers are also noticeably tougher to take down than those who are not, ''especially'' if you made the mistake of only taking JHP rounds over AP. Some of the tougher enemies can take an entire magazine from low-caliber pistols center-mass and still continue to fight. Even AP rounds from SMGs can take a worrying amount of ammo to down a single opponent if you don't hit a headshot or their unprotected limbs.

* ArtificialBrilliance: As opposed to the entry below, the friendly SWAT AI has been ''massively'' improved in the 1.0 release, to the point where with the right orders, you can realistically have them clear the entire mission without you having to fire a single shot yourself.

It is [[SimilarlyNamedWorks unrelated to]] the film ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019'', the sequel to the young adult novel ''Literature/AllAmericanGirlMegCabot'', or the Canadian [[Series/ReadyOrNot TV series]] from the 1990s.

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: "23 Megabytes per Second" has the SWAT respond to an apparent murder, which is revealed to be a "swatting" incident where the suspect is technically not guilty, though the suspect, a streamer, is revealed to be an online deviant which contains evidence that leads to a sex-trafficking ring, as detailed on StoryArc below.

** "Elephant" is meant to invoke the tragedy of various school shootings in the United States, particularly the Columbine incident in the late 90's due to the use of imorovised explosives on the scene.

* ConcussionFrags: Averted. The gameplay trailer sees the player treat the concussion grenades the way they are supposed to be used; first slightly opening a door, then tossing one inside, and only then going in to point a rifle at a stunned criminal clutching his ears and easily getting him to drop his gun.

** "Lethal Obsession" has Gerard Scott, who is very clearly an allusion to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski Ted Kaczynski]], aka the Unabomber. Like Kaczynski, Scott was previously a highly intelligent individual who snapped and began committing terrorist acts, eventually withdrawing to a remote cabin in the wilderness where he was eventually tracked down by police.

''Ready Or Not'' (or ''[=RoN=]'' for short) is a CoOpMultiplayer TacticalShooter FirstPersonShooter by VOID Interactive. The players control a SWAT team doing typical crackdowns on crime, as a SpiritualSuccessor to the ''VideoGame/{{SWAT}}'' series, most notably the fourth installment.

* DeadlyGas: Downplayed, CS gas ravages the body, creating all manner of unpleasant effects like intense coughing, mucus, tear and saliva accumulation, and skin irritation among other painful effects. It’ll stop suspects and civilians alike dead in their tracks and lingers for a while so you can easily detain them or keep non-compliant suspects in place, but isn’t as instantaneous as a flashbang and is liable to also gas your squadmates if they’re not using the gas mask or you have some particularly bad throwing aim.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard:
** Enemy AI will open fire through doors and walls at the slightest noise from you and your team. It's worse when they have a direct line of sight on you. They're ''inhumanly'' quick on the draw, and can shoot with pinpoint accuracy, even in full-auto and/or at long ranges. They can wipe out an entire team in ''seconds''. Prior to the January 2022 patch, it was entirely possible to get killed the very moment you start the mission because some gangbanger killed you from 200 feet with a TEC-9, even though you are wearing full body armor.
*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yynmXp81fVs One Youtuber did some timing, and found the AI was literally reacting faster than humanly possible.]] And that's before you account for the marksmanship handicaps of your average drug addict.
** There are even instances where by you checked a small room with no corners to hide in and everything seems clear, only to get killed by what seems to be an invisible enemy the moment you step in.
** Active Shooter suspects are not affected by pepper spray and pepperball guns, despite them wearing nothing that would specifically protect them from it.

It is [[SimilarlyNamedWorks unrelated to]] the ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019'' film, the sequel to the YoungAdultNovel ''Literature/AllAmericanGirlMegCabot'', or the Canadian [[Series/ReadyOrNot TV series]] from the '90s.

* HateSink: Amos Voll, the main suspect from Valley of Dolls is the leader [[spoiler: of a network of pedophiles]], making him one of the most despicable suspects in the whole game. Although you incentivized to arrest him for his crimes, a notable number of players have admitted to executing him and his guards once they learnt about his crimes, protocol be damned.

--> ''This is war now, no one is innocent.''
--> ''We have sent the demons straight to hell.''
--> ''They died like cowards, there is no honor in any of them.''

** ''23 Megabytes Per Second'': A streamer named Michael Williams (aka "MilkyToes") is exposed as being romantically interested in underaged girls in a series of leaked chatroom images. Someone out for Williams "swats" him as a prank call, so the LSPD steps in and arrests him. During the raid on his apartment, the LSPD uncovers images depicting minors in compromising scenarios and searches the rest of William's belongings. There, they find evidence leading them to...

** Another mission is named ''Film/Elephant2003''.

* GuideDangIt: Door traps, introduced in the mission "Sullivan's Ridge", and any player would instantly dread it, as it's not explained in the tutorial, near invisible, and it's hard to see even with the optiwand. It can instantly kill any of its victims, and in Commander mode, where every loss ([[NonLethalKO except your own]]) is accounted for, it makes for a harrowing experience especially how there will be random door traps from then on.

* {{Gorn}}: It was always a rather brutal game, with a sonewhat detailed "skinning" system in place on character models, but the 1.0 release added in ''tons'' of opportunities for bloodshed. On top of the general violence being enhanced in regards to set dressing with more detailed blood and wounded/killed characters, the ability to fully dismember was also added. A well-placed shotgun round or explosive can and will blow off a limb, leaving a bloody stump with blood pouring from the wound. This also extends to the head, as a shot from most weaponry is capable of killing someone in a single shot to the head and spraying brain matter and blood onto the wall behind them, or even [[YourHeadAsplode flat-out popping it like a watermelon]].

** "Elephant" is meant to invoke the tragically common trend of mass school shootings in the United States, particularly the Columbine incident in the late 90's due to the use of imorovised explosives on the scene.