Protect and Serve off the coast of Los Suenos in Ready or Not’s Dark Waters DLC

Ready or Not’s unique blend of high-stakes gunplay and tactical decision-making already made it one of the most well-received Tactical FPS’s of 2023. Now, the latest DLC ‘Dark Waters’ blows the proverbial doors off once again, this time with a decidedly maritime theme.

For those unfamiliar with the base game, Ready or Not puts players into the boots of a SWAT Team Leader in the fictional city of Los Sueños. Leading a crack squad into increasingly dangerous situations, you’ll have to navigate hostage takers, gunmen, and labyrinthine locations to come out alive and with your objectives complete.

In a saturated tactical shooter genre, Ready or Not does an excellent job of bringing the grit and tone of beloved television series like The Shield and The Wire. As televisual experiences go, those shows are some of the best in the history of the medium, and the fact that the developer has been able to unerringly create that vibe here is genuinely impressive.

As well as delivering on the core FPS experience that seasoned genre players would expect, the game also leans heavily into its tactical elements for an entirely new level of depth.

Though your squad will follow your every move, they are much better utilized when you give them specific orders. Breach a door, clear a room, subdue a suspect, they can do it all, and losing one in the heat of a siege is a genuinely tough experience. Sure, you can log-on to your PDA and hire someone else, but will they ever be able to replace a member of your tried and trusted team?

All of that brilliant gameplay aside, the setting of Los Sueños is a good one, but why be limited by designing missions for players on land alone? That’s where this latest DLC comes in, and it does a spectacular job of delivering a fresh and exciting experience without abandoning what makes Ready or Not so great in the first place.

Sink or Swim?

Dark Waters brings with it three entirely new scenarios to conquer and it’s safe to say that the locations are on an entirely different level to anything we’ve seen previously. The first is The Seraglio, an upsettingly gaudy and well-guarded superyacht that serves as the nautical retreat for the head of an international crime syndicate.

The second is the Heavywell A-101 oil rig, which has been taken over by “eco-terrorists” in a bid to force the platform to cease operations. It’s one of the biggest and most complex levels in any portion of the game, with the oppressively heavy rain only serving to make it more difficult to differentiate friend from foe.

The final mission takes this sense of scale to a whole new level. Set in The Elysian, a sprawling island hotel abandoned during construction, the site has been taken over by a violent gang, and it’s up to you and your squad to do something about it.

The point here isn’t that this DLC tacks on a few levels to lengthen the game and add replayability. Instead, it transforms the experience entirely, bringing a new aesthetic to a world that previously stuck to more rigid confines. The yacht is reminiscent of any of Don Simpson’s extensive action catalogue, while the rig brings the vibe of a big 90s disaster movie to the fore.

Into the line of fire

When a game is already as foundationally solid as Ready or Not, the next logical step is to dial up the design and the thrills. Dark Waters does exactly that, and you’ll find yourself wanting to jump in again and again once you get a taste for the chaos.

One of the game’s greatest strengths is its ability to make you want to do better, be more efficient and play out the fantasy of being the first cop through the door. The first time through any mission, you’re going to get shot. It might be the leg or the arm, but it’s going to happen.

That said, even for an averagely skilled FPS player, with careful practice it won’t be too long before you become an operator, flowing through levels and detaining targets before hostiles can react.