Ready, Steady, Ship! Review (Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch & PC)

It was sometime between the development of the global pandemic and the aftermath of its gradual demise that I caught wind of a clip—a short reel that illustrated the total anarchy that was taking place in one of Amazon’s many, many fulfillment centers, at which point I began to wonder what it might’ve looked like on a quiet day. Apparently, though, it was always like that, which led me to realize something: I didn’t ever want to work in one; it wasn’t an atmosphere that I wanted to subject myself to, let alone work in. In my mind, the closest I’d ever come to being there would be through the lens of an alternate reality—a world in which the pandemonium would remain, but the stress of having to fulfill orders on time wouldn’t impose. To that extent, I’d settle for Ready, Steady, Ship! Go figure.

Ready, Steady, Ship! doesn’t fall all that far from the same spectrum as Moving Out; its primary objective is to bundle a few like-minded friends together, and have them thrash it out over a series of quick-fire rounds whilst simultaneously compiling building blocks and other breakable set pieces to help keep some form of stability in the workplace. However, rather than having its players hurl fish tanks out of bedroom windows, Ready, Steady, Ship! instead asks that you assemble a line of conveyor belts in a factory—a job that, while technically possible, is made all the more difficult due to an enormous array of broken parts and environmental hazards — like floating pools of acid, of all things.

Suffice it to say that, if you are looking to wreak a little havoc in a virtual workplace, then you ought to stick around as we unbox this unruly little number.

Conveying a Message

When I first heard about Ready, Steady, Ship, I immediately believed that it wouldn’t be anything more than a knock-off version of Overcooked; it sported all the same bells and whistles, and it took the beating heart of traditional couch co-op platforming game to manifest its own emulation. Or at least, that’s what I initially thought, anyway. I was wrong, as it turned out, as I quickly came to realize that, similar gameplay mechanics cast aside, the process of building conveyor belts over boiling acid was a lot different from preparing salads over crumbling tiles.

Ready, Steady, Ship! instructs you to create reliable and structurally accurate pathways for the sake of allowing packages and other breakable goods to flow from one distribution point to the next. It sounds all rather straightforward on paper, for sure — and it is, so long as you don’t mind breaking a few eggs to make an omelette, so to speak. But, in other cases, such a simple task can, and often will require a bit of extra team effort. In this world, things go wrong, and it takes a whole lot of pivoting and strategical thinking to ensure that the integrity of the system doesn’t blow itself into smithereens. That’s the hard part.

As far as goals and long-term objectives go, there really aren’t all that many things to fret about. Like Lemmings, for example, the idea is to work together to create a functioning world that doesn’t fall apart at the first sign of trouble, or ultimately leave you with a few fallen minions and an entire breadcrumb trail of unfulfilled orders. Again, it sounds easy — but it isn’t, though I can safely blame the lack of support from my factory colleagues for that.

Keep ‘Em Coming

As much as I would’ve liked to have only needed one or two leftover blocks to resemble the conveyor belts — that wasn’t always in the cards. Again, as it’s a game that practically thrives under anarchic rules and conventions, rounds are made to be mentally taxing—a sensation that any avid Overcooked fan will no doubt be familiar with. In a similar vein as its peers, each bout sees you completing a set amount of objectives over a short period of time; the more you accomplish, the higher the reward, and the less you get out of the door via one of your poorly constructed conveyer belts, the lower your chance of accruing a heftier amount of bonuses. It’s an easy progression system that doesn’t require a specific skill to crack, other than, perhaps, a lot of patience.

Thankfully, the game doesn’t conjure all that much of a learning curve, but rather, a series of stepping stones, with each one offering some form of valuable lesson. To begin, the tasks don’t deviate all that far from the original setup: you move certain set pieces around, and snap them into place in order to safely transfer cargo across the factory floor. But that general rule of thumb only applies in the first few chapters of its rather bulky campaign; its later levels also include items such as springboards, forklifts, and even the odd crane, too. Needless to say that, when it comes to raising the stakes, it certainly capitalizes on  a crescendo — and that’s fine, provided that you have a partner to share it with.

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Like a lot of couch co-op games of its kind, Ready, Steady, Ship! is an ideal choice for those who’d soon rather cause trouble as a duo than as a solo home wrecker of sorts. Don’t get me wrong, the story can be entertaining enough, but it isn’t quite as compelling as, say, a good old-fashioned split-screen co-op mode—of which the game intentionally fashions to bring out the best of its strengths. Sure enough, it truly comes into its own with the visual appeal of a traditional multiplayer game, as a lot of its greatest moments are, unsurprisingly, often tied to the camaraderie that you share with your peers as you run amok in a desperate attempt to clean the board.

In the dozens or more games that I romped through in Ready, Steady, Ship, I didn’t have to resort to a training manual or the undying aid of my friends; in fact, it was pretty clear from the get-go what I had to accomplish in order to reap the benefits of my labor. The only real issue I had along the way, however, was the lack of support from the obstacles, in general. In a tricky situation, of which there were many, I’d have to strategically move one box in order to create a path for another, but also carefully consider whether or not the path would leave me trapped and incapable of completing the task at hand. Granted, this didn’t happen often, but then, I’d also be lying if I said that every round that I played went according to plan.

Verdict

Ready, Steady, Ship! takes the basic outline of a classic couch co-op premise and single-handedly embellishes it with its own form of identity, thus creating something of a weirdly wholesome experience that’s not only suitable for fledgling partners in crime, but anyone with a heart for reckless thinking. It’s certainly an easy one to recommend, I’ll say that much, as it’s both mechanically sound, and consistently entertaining for all the right reasons. Sure, it could do with a bit of fine tuning and DLC — but that’s merely me nitpicking at this point.

So, to answer the initial question of whether or not you should give Ready, Steady, Ship a whirl — yes, you most definitely should, more so if you’re a sucker for high stakes and even higher risks. Aside from it being a relatively easy game to learn on the go, it does generate quite the spool of obstacles for you to overcome, most of which are easily solved with just the right amount of practice and teamwork. On that note, it is worth pointing out that Ready, Steady, Ship is, more or less, a multiplayer game at heart, and is therefore best experienced alongside other players. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a solid single-player game, too — but nothing quite as good as its couch co-op counterpart.

If you can wrangle a team together to see you through the copious amounts of storms that the campaign serves out, then you may just fulfill enough orders to keep ahold of your job. A word of advice for global distribution centers, though: don’t ever use this as a promotional tool; if you want fresh-faced applicants, you’d better stick with a PowerPoint presentation.