Existential Ethics and Tactical Realism: Sartrean Moral Frameworks in Ready or Not

Abstract

This article examines Ready or Not as a tactical shooter that operationalizes existentialist ethics through procedural, visual, and relational design. Moving beyond traditional moral frameworks, the study adopts a Sartrean perspective— emphasizing situated freedom and accountability—to analyze how the game’s first- person realism, implicit choice, irreversible outcomes, and procedural randomness create a structure of finitude and moral ambiguity. Ready or Not innovates in its representation of intersubjective ethics by embedding moral tension within multiplayer cooperation. Finally, the article argues that the game’s frequent adaptation of real-world crises produces a distinctive moral proximity that heightens existential reflection. The analysis thus contributes to the developing field of existentialist game studies by demonstrating how realistic tactical shooters, often dismissed as procedurally conservative, can in fact function as sophisticated laboratories for ethical inquiry and self-knowledge.