Ready or Notis, 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-dormantSWATfranchise. Like the games that it was inspired by,Ready or Notputs 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 Notis 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 Notfinally made its way to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/Son May 23, 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 ofReady or Notin 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’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 Nothad 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 toReady 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 ofReady 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 ofReady or Notis not that different from its older counterparts.VOID Interactive revealed in a post on Steamthat 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 ofcensorship inReady or Notlargely 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 inReady 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 toReady or Notdo 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.” DespiteVOID Interactive’s attempts to explainReady 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 Notmay 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.
