Most of you are probably aware of a game in development that claims to be the spiritual successor to Swat 4 called "Ready or Not". I have been extremely sceptical of this game because it is being made by a couple of mod makers that have never developed a game on their own before. In my humble opinion the developers have always appeared to be too focused on building hype by releasing photos and pre-rendered videos to help raise money. The alarm bells in my head keep ringing. It all seems like an impossible dream since Swat 3 for example was made by dozens of professionals with several millions of dollars. What chance do a few guys working from home with no money have? Of course times have changed and we have fully fleshed out game engines for developers to use but it still would take a massive amount of effort and resources.
Recent sad news have made it appear the dream is a little further away than I thought.
One of the well known developers has recently left the team. eezstreet is famous in the Swat 4 community for making the excellent SWAT: Elite Force mod but he has gone back to working on his mod and has released a new version (it was delayed for two years while he worked on Ready or Not).
It appears that Eezstreet has deleted a long detailed thread that explained his falling out with the developers and has replaced it with this apology thread.
An interesting quote still remains:
These guys are obsessed with quality to the point that it might have done harm to the project in the public eye, like silence to the public in lieu of working on the project.
— eezstreet (@_eezstreet_) May 7, 2020
Perhaps I am just reading into this but eezstreet re-Tweeted the following quote at the end of May on Twitter:
A dream is not the same as a plan. A wishlist is not the same as a roadmap.
— Aras Pranckevičius 🇺🇦🇱🇹 (@aras_p) May 23, 2020
Some people in the community feel like the game has changed it's focus and is now trying to be a Rainbow Six Siege competitor. The Reddit user TheBountyHunterIX comment on the state of the game:
The developers are completely silent on social media by order of upper management (eezstreet wasn't allowed to talk on Reddit or Discord), with vague development details only being told in newsletters that release every 3 months. eezstreet (the developer who gave people faith in the project) left Void, meaning the studio is now entirely comprised of unfamiliar faces. Though he was a competent developer going above and beyond his role as a contractor for Void he was never brought on as a director (which they absolutely should have done) and he was relegated to doing UI work. Their biggest blunder however was letting big streamers show off an upcoming NDA-free PvP build (the PvP is an utter joke unlike the PvE which has insane potential) to the public before those who paid $120 for alpha access could even playtest it and give feedback, which was a huge slap in the face.
One positive thing I have to say about this video is that the graphics are pretty damned impressive. As someone who has stopped following news about this game long ago I was impressed by the video on a purely graphic level. I am still hoping that the developers can pull a rabbit out of the hat and are focused on the cooperative experience. I am still very guarded about my expectations on completion. I am worried about the publisher having a negative affect on the direction of the game. Eventually they will demand a return on their investment.
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