The team behind Ready or Not has shared an update as well as a number of before and after images in a bid to alleviate any concern from its community regarding visual changes made to the violent shooter.
As Vikki reported at the weekend, developer Void Interactive announced changes including but not limited to”explicit representations of violence” had been made to Ready or Not in order to secure a console release. At this time, it was said some adjustments would also be applied to the PC version of the game.
This ignited a certain amount of backlash from the game’s community, with some leaving negative Steam reviews citing “content censorship”. Void Interactive has now moved to quell these concerns, stating it had seen “misconceptions and misinformation circulating around the scope of these changes”.
In a post shared on Steam, Void Interactive stated Ready or Not’s “tone, atmosphere, and graphical impact remain intact”, and the effects of gore and violence “have not been toned down”. The developer said these effects are an instrumental part of the game’s immersive realism. It added missions including Elephant, Neon Tomb, and the “infamous” Valley of the Dolls remain “unchanged”.
The studio has “always believed in creative freedom and the right to build experiences that push boundaries in the service of immersion and realism”, it said, assuring the Ready or Not community this “will not change”. However, Void Interactive stated it “[operates] in a global ecosystem of platform standards, age rating boards, and local legal restrictions”, so while it may “disagree with how some content is treated”, it has “only made changes where absolutely required, and only to the letter of the regulations”.
The developer continued: “As a hyper-realistic tactical FPS, Ready or Not faces different scrutiny than more stylised or fictional games. That’s a reality of the world we publish in – not a change in our creative vision or values.”
Void Interactive added it had targeted six visual changes to the PC version of Ready or Not, which are as follows:
- Twisted Nerve: The girl is now depicted as sleeping instead of convulsing.
- A Lethal Obsession: Nudity involving the ghillie suit suspect has been adjusted
- Hide and Seek: Female hostages now wear underwear
- Narcos: Police informant hostage now wears underwear
- 23 Megabytes a Second: ‘Photo of Minors’ objective model was revised, also to better connect narratively with the later ‘Sinuous Trail’ mission.
- Post-mortem dismemberment has been disabled (note: dismemberment for living characters remains unchanged, and can be seen in the latest Vol. 87 dev briefing
It went on to share a number of before and after images, to highlight the changes that had been made to the game. The images can be seen on the original Steam post linked above.
Ready or Not is due to release on consoles later this month, on 15th July. The game was initially released in early access back in 2021, and soon after this Void Interactive said it had parted ways with publisher Team17.