SWAT 4 spiritual successor Ready or Not will fully release on December 13

The release date for VOID Interactive’s tactical first-person shooter, Ready or Not, has been revealed during The Game Awards, and fans don’t have long to wait. 

To be exact, the 1.0 version of Ready or Not will be released on PC on December 12, almost two full years after it entered Early Access. During those two years, plenty of new content has been steadily added to the game, including new weapons, maps, and more, not to mention quality-of-life tweaks and general improvements. In theory, Ready or Not 1.0 will be the best that the FPS has ever been, which is bound to be exciting for existing fans and prospective players. 

For those unfamiliar with the game, Ready or Not sees players take on the role of the leader of a SWAT unit, tasked with defusing “hostile and confronting situations” in a “modern-day world.” The developers have aimed to capture realism, with weapons made to reflect those which real-life SWAT officers use, with accurate sounds to boot. Players can squad up with their friends or take on missions with customizable AI teammates.

This aim for realism has also caused controversy for VOID Interactive in the past. In December 2021, it was criticized for teasing a level that appeared to depict a school shooting scenario. At the time, the studio released a statement in which it said it “has a clear commitment to deliver high quality, impactful content that other mainstream software developers may shy away from due to cultural conventions and norms.”

It continued, stating that “at its core, the game honors the work of dedicated law enforcement officers across the world and in no way intends to glorify cowardly criminal acts. We are dedicated to promoting a level of authenticity and realism in our video game, Ready or Not, that carries with it difficult subject matter. […] Rest assured, our aim is to handle all of Ready or Not’s content with the level of weight and respect that it warrants.”

While a Ready or Not community manager stated in March 2023 that “School is still very much on the roadmap” and “will be in the game unless something catastrophic happens internally,” it has not been confirmed by the developers at the time of writing if the level will be included in the 1.0 release.

For more games like Ready or Not, be sure to check out our recommendations for the best FPS games, as well as the best multiplayer PC games.