Elephant broke me. I was on my S-ranking streak until I reached Elephant. Ffs, I S-ranked Greased Palms on my third try. Even Brisa Cove was a walk in the fucking park compared to this. I've been trying for hours and all I've gotten is an A . There's just too much, too fast, too soon. There are several problems here.

First, you gotta rush through the level because it's the best example of the active shooter(s) situation. Cool, that's the kind of immersion I like. But the problem is, I'm more of a methodical tactician than a run-n-gun adlibbing guy. Maybe that's why I never found Brisa Cove or Greased Palms a challenge; maybe it all comes down to subjective strengths and approaches? I can do Brisa and Greased no problem. But I'm really out of my element with Elephant because how it requires you to rush in blind.

Second, bombs are set to explode way too quick. I feel like it'd be better if they activate upon being discovered (at least that's how I remember the bombs in SWAT 4, someone correct me if I'm wrong). Due to point no. 1 being a thing, I usually split teams and send them flashing through rooms while I breach a third room. And for that reason, I'd REALLY appreciate a comment from a team member about discovering the bomb. I swear I've died about twice because my team found the bomb in a room and didn't even bother to inform me about it. I mean, if you don't know how to defuse it, fine, but at least tell me you found the damn thing. But then again, everytime it goes off, it's mine and the civilians' asses, these fuckers, along with the suspects get to stay alive so why do they give a shit if a bomb goes off.

Third, the suspects are too tanky in this level for some reason. I swear I've had more prolonged gunfights with these guys than the dudes in Brisa Cove despite the latter being Army Vets. Why are these asocial psychos so determined and motivated?? A school shooter should be more likely to commit suicide than risk getting into a gunfight with a whole ass SWAT team. And why do they have bombs? Focus on plural.

Fourth, even if I get the bombs, the suspects start killing off the civvies while I'm disarming the bombs. Starting to feel like those briefings should become reality where they actually send in three teams into the science wing because I can NOT find and defuse the bombs AND neutralize the suspects while keeping the hostages safe fast enough.

Fifth, someone correct me if I'm wrong but can hostages who I've told to run to the perimeter be shot and killed by roaming shooters? I swear I tried this on my first run, heard some gunshots in the direction where the civvies ran, I circled back around to that place and found some bodies of similar looking civvies and my heart sank. There was no sign of the shooter but it was also very guilt-inducing that I sent those scared people to their certain deaths by sending them alone :(

I've given up on S-ranking Elephant for now. It's too hard for me.