I don’t often review DLCs on their own, particularly now as most of them are quite short, don’t add very much, and I’m old enough to remember when these things were part of a larger expansion pack. Ready or Not’s “Home Invasion” DLC is very much that: Three missions, a couple of weapons you’ll hardly ever use, and a couple of cosmetics. For half the year, I had wondered why so many were quick to dismiss this lot of DLC. Then I remembered, there are people who bemoan that the base game isn’t finished because you can’t smell Judge’s farts.

Truth is, I think the “Home Invasion” DLC is fine. It is a bit anti-climactic when it comes to the whole review thing, but I’ll try to explain that by talking more about the maps and the general additions. Gameplay-wise, there isn’t anything new: You play as the Los Sueños Police Department SWAT unit, particularly SWAT D team leader David ‘Judge’ Beaumont, and you are called out to increasingly disturbing or horrifying scenes. Similar to SWAT 4 with its dark undertones, or in that one level, overtones. Since the main plot of Ready or Not, the city of Los Sueños (stand-in for L,A) has been hit with a devastating hurricane and an upcoming election.

The first mission of the “Home Invasion” DLC is “Dorms,” and it is not pleasant. Similar to the real Los Angeles early this year with the fires, the city of poverty and riches saw the poor become poorer, losing what little they had and seeking shelter in an abandoned dorm-like housing structure. Awkward phrasing aside, the place is just a big rectangle somewhere in the city with two floors, large central hallways, and a large number of rooms as offshoots. The place has also been condemned, meaning as much as it might be fine for now, having a building fall on some homeless folks and junkies trying to sling weed isn’t a great idea.

Sent in with the team, you are tasked with clearing rooms and taking down those who pose an imminent threat. As a level, it is fine, but it is similar to the base game’s “Twisted Nerve” but smaller like ”A Lethal Obsession:” You are clearing one structure, it isn’t very complicated beyond the mentally ill, and it can mostly be done by three team members, while two hold the stairs on the upper floor. However, unlike those levels, there isn’t much complexity to the story. Its heart is in the right place, but the depth isn’t so much there.

What follows that, however, is “Narcos;” an allusion to the Hispanic-cartel suspects of this mission. As it turns out, undercover officer Mike Esperanza has been placed on a case to take down the Los Locos… I hear they kick your face and your balls into outer space. I don’t care if that was on purpose or not; I love Short Circuit 2, and we need more movies like that again. Anyway, turns out Mike’s been made, putting him atop the Los Locos’ hit-list, meaning ‘El Verdugo’ is about to strip him down, cut him a thousand times, then probably kick Mike’s balls into outer space.

Set in the likes of Walnut Park or Nevin, “Narcos” takes place around 213 Park, a neighborhood that is already poor and is now heavily damaged by the storms. This one is a bit more complicated, as you aren’t just clearing one structure; these are 6-8 single-story structures where Esperanza was living and was dragged through by the gang, naked, tortured, and beaten. You have single mothers, you have lots of civilians, and even more men with guns. Interconnected up the wazoo, sprawling, and much more story-heavy, I sort of like this one more.

That said, the difficulty of “Narcos” does increase (without AI behavior mods). With gameplay not changing, the fact that every house and outlying structure surrounding it is connected through an alleyway or piece of non-existent fence (thanks, storm), you need to be on top of what has and hasn’t been cleared. With NPCs, this can be difficult to block off if you don’t know the map well, but I assume with people, it is much easier. I bet with that mod that lets you have up to 15 SWAT officers, it is a breeze; I played single-player with AI.

However, if we’re talking about upping the difficulty, we need to talk about “Lawmaker.” Set in the hills, Sven Andersen-Lincoln has caught the ire of the more extremist section of Just Stop Oil, Sven being a millionaire and oil lobbyist – he, his family, and the staff of his mansion have been taken hostage or are hiding in a panic room from the United Planet Front. A group that has taken control of the house, vandalized it, and, in an act I find more egregious than trying to kill this guy’s kids, booby-trapped a bunch of doors. Thanks for the lack of intel on that.

With three floors of whores to disarm and arrest, many rooms to clear, and possibly even a bit of work finding the panic rooms, “Lawmaker” is quite interesting. In one instance, I was coming up the stairs to the third floor and glimpsed someone running into a room, who eventually took a hostage. Multiple doors, two rooms connecting, and this hallway being an odd Y shape with a set of stairs feeding into it, so about as complex as you can get with assaulting a breach (door/opening).

Taking only a second to decide, I threw in CS to the second room, hoping it went far enough to get to the connecting door. I waited a further second for it to go off, and flowed straight into the room. I knew there was a hostage. Being the first one in the room, the only one with the shot, and hugging the wall, it was a bullet straight through the hostage taker’s head. Leaving two to secure the room, the three remaining (including me) flowed into the next room, taking out the other UPF assailant and securing the rest of the hostages in that section of the building.

It is moments like that which make Ready or Not so much “fun.” Or stressful. Those organic and dynamic moments that could go several different ways based on a split-second decision. Clearing the house is fairly simple, but those moments are only really there in “Lawmaker.” You have hostages in “Narcos” too, but because of the simpler layouts of buildings, it makes the way you breach those doors and flow into the room a bit easier and less complicated. For each mission of the DLC, each added level does something of its own, but of the three, “Lawmaker” feels the most impactful.

For what little change new guns are to gameplay, the “509” is just a play on the FN 509 polymer semi-automatic pistol that fires 9×19 Parabellum. It is also the new standard-issue weapon for the LAPD, and thus the LSPD too. With the horror show that is the Sig Sauer P320 in a dress, and referred to as the “Raider x P320.” As ugly as sin and under the submachine gun category, despite just being a semi-automatic, I don’t know who this one is for. The Call of Duty people, maybe? I honestly can’t tell; it fires like a semi-auto and walks like one, too. It is the worst of both worlds.

At most, the 509 might replace your Five-seveN (as it is stylized by FN), though it has a slightly smaller mag size at only 18 rounds vs the 20 from the Five-seveN (“57 USG” in-game). While the “DM4PDW,” a Daniel Defense M4 PDW, is heavy on the recoil and not very useful, as far as I’ve found. Much like the actual cosmetics, I think the overall decision just comes down to preference rather than performance. None of which on that side is much worth talking about either.

As a DLC on its own, the “Home Invasion” release isn’t going to make anyone happier with the game than they were, but it’s not the worst DLC ever. Ready or Not’s “Home Invasion” DLC is probably best picked up in a sale alongside “Dark Waters” and any future DLC. To a degree, it showcases a more focused, shorter story being told by VOID Interactive, but on its own, the story doesn’t add too much, nor does it expand on the world or the threats you’ve faced/will face. It is detached but not too dissimilar to the base game of Ready or Not that it becomes a refreshing experience.

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Ready or Not: Home Invasion

$9.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• An interesting selection of levels that offer something very different.
• "Lawmaker" is probably the best level of the DLC.
• Still the same dynamic gameplay.

Cons

• The story feels limited in scope.