Editor’s Note: The following article mentions content not suitable for children, including (but not limited to) mentions of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised. 

Right, with that saving a millionaire’s kids from being shot down while one of the fifty-six school shootings (three mass shootings) that happened two years ago takes place out of the way, let’s get to the more recent Ready or Not DLC. VOID Interactive did one of those December, “we’re releasing this in a week” things again last year, so I’ve basically held this review for an entire year (at the time of writing). The second of the more focused DLCs, “Dark Waters,” does exactly what the Ronseal adverts of the 90s said it did: Maritime operations, mostly.

Similar to “Home Invasion,” it is three missions, a couple of guns you’ll hardly use, and a small selection of cosmetics you won’t notice because it is a first-person game, and you are focused on the targets. Sorry, am I breaking the illusion that the Qatari oligarch and rapist, the off-brand extremists of Just Stop Oil, and the drug and gun-running gangs are going to stop and think twice about messing up the stitchwork on your plate carrier? Didn’t think so. If it works and you are covered while assaulting a super yacht, oil rig, or decrepit hotel in ruin, then it is good enough.

Each has its own distinct feeling to it; the three levels are not only visually different but from a breaching standpoint can also be unique too. The first at-sea mission is “Mirage at Sea,” so it might just be in the name, as you’re fast roping onto one of the decks of The Seraglio, purchased by Sah’id bin Khalid. Khalid is one of those princes of luxury and never takes no as an answer, with the first report of a disturbance coming from an onlooker seeing young women dragged onto The Seraglio, one of them later reporting the intentions of Fahad bin Khalid’s baby boy.

Not only do you have the serial rapist to contend with, but you have a large amount of staff on the boat, as well as Khalid’s elite private security. A security detail that is willing to find and kill hostages until you take them out. Yeah, that’s a bit odd, but then again, holding people accountable for sexual assault is seemingly not realistic either, so swings and roundabouts, I guess. As a mission, I don’t hate it. I just think that in the first attempt, it can easily go wrong, especially if you’re playing with NPC AI.

Naturally, you are going to be a bit slower, you’re also learning the new mechanic of the on-looking helicopter, which tells you the location (roughly) of targets. Oh yes, a slight change to gameplay, how exciting! That said, the tight hallways of the yacht and multiple decks right down to the engine room can be rather constricting. Especially as you try to assault a room or pull rear security for the guys going in – this is going to be a theme for the “Dark Waters” DLC.

Similar to those cramped corridors and the deck of a yacht, the A-101 Oil Rig in “Leviathan” is about walking around cramped gangways, walkways, and confined rooms that are surrounded by questionable gases and liquids that I may not want to be firing around. In fact, workers on the oil rig tell you not to shoot that pipe over there, the one with a big hazardous material label all over it. Rejoined by your and Sven’s friends, the extremist eco-terrorism group United Planet Front has taken it upon themselves to decommission the A-101 by any means necessary. Even taking hostages.

Despite being from a place that depends on oil as a major resource for exports and its overall wealth, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about shutting down an oil rig. What chance do these smelly hippies have without killing someone, or worse, causing another Gulf oil spill? Securing and shutting down the livestream of the hostages is one thing, but as we know from “Lawmaker” in the “Home Invasion” DLC, these UPF people like rigging things to explode, and you need to move fast to shut down the rig.

Again, it is tight quarters, you need to move quickly, but there is a twist to it visually and gameplay-wise. Depending again on mods, you could take this down with fifteen people easier than you could with the simple five officers you get with the NPC AI. The A-101 is big, complex, and dangerous if you don’t take the right equipment with you to properly take it down. Of the three missions here, “Leviathan” is probably my favorite of the DLC thus far. I think it has competition with “Lawmaker.”

With that said, you also have the third and final mission of the “Dark Waters” DLC, “3 Letter Triad.” Set in an abandoned island resort off the coast of Los Sueños, the hotel is the home to a drug and gun-running operation that has another thing Judge’s USIA contact isn’t telling him about. With heavy weapons in hand, these are very dangerous individuals, and worse when together. As a mission, it isn’t too dissimilar to many others, and its story is more focused on the USIA connection, which I’m sure may be expanded on in further DLCs.

The “problem,” as it were, that I have with it is how disinteresting it is. The Elysian Hotel and Resort is an overgrown block of concrete with little to offer in terms of visual style. Its modern/brutalist architectural design and discarded pallets of construction equipment offer some interesting points for cover, but as a map, it does so little for me. I can’t say I’m excited about playing it multiple times. It does its job, it closes out the DLC as a whole, but does little more than that.

As for the guns, you have what the game calls the “MK17,” or more commonly known as the FN SCAR-H STD. A battle rifle that shouldn’t be used by SWAT (Cambridge PD and LAPD), and for Ready or Not has a massive amount of recoil that makes it almost entirely unusable, unless you want to kill someone upstairs. You also have the “GA51,” the in-game way of saying HK (of course,) this is basically a marriage of the MP5 and the G3, being a full rifle but looking similar to an MP5 with a Picatinny rail and running the 7.62 NATO rounds. Not a bad gun and not bad recoil either, I just can’t think of a reason to swap to this over the HK416D.

I believe it was removed at one point and finally re-added with the DLC. The “M14S-16” is an M14 – an old battle rifle that I’m surprised is still in use today beyond shooting at the Olympics. The only thing modern about it is the black paint and some rails on it, but otherwise, I can’t think of a proper use beyond sniping someone from a couple of hundred yards away, something Ready or Not isn’t really about. Finally adding it to the armory, the “MP5SD6” is the subsonic H&K MP5SD3 with a default suppressor on it, of which you can cable tie a flashlight to it.

Easily the best addition to the weapons, the recoil is minimal, and the overall feel is nice. The only problem I have with it is the lack of a laser in place of a flashlight, though maybe mods could have a go at trying to fix a laser somewhere. The final addition is the G3A3, titled in the game simply as “G3.” Another re-addition, this is the full battle rifle with all its faults: It is big, bulky, and the recoil is less than the SCAR, but still annoying, just doesn’t feel right for modern CQB/door kicking.

While cosmetics are once again just that, cosmetic. If you want to dress up in a jumpsuit because that makes you feel special, you do that, princess. I’ve got as much interest in changing up my kit there as I have in letting these UPF psychos choke a dolphin to death by spilling oil into the ocean. It is modeled well, but ultimately, you only get as much use out of it as long as you are looking at it in the customization suite.

As a DLC, I will say that “Dark Waters” feels more substantial than “Home Invasion,” possibly because it is so different from the base game of Ready or Not. It is also a bit more challenging with those ticking clocks of hostages about to be killed, forcing you into making more of those split-second decisions I was talking about before with “Home Invasion.” That said, I think getting (and playing) both DLCs at once was more enjoyable than possibly getting one at a time.

This ultimately goes back to what I said at the start of the “Home Invasion” DLC, these are very short bursts of more Ready or Not and nice snacks, but hardly enough to make a meal of. I like “Dark Waters” for what it offers, but at the end of the day, both DLCs give you just enough to make you want more out of them.

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Ready or Not: Dark Waters

$9.99

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Two very exciting new maps to replay a few times.
• The MP5SD3.

Cons

• "3 Letter Triad" is fine, just fine.
• I could do with a bit more meat on the story-based bone.