"The Most Controversial Level in Ready or Not"

[The Programic Knight]

With so many people already harping on the AI issues, I figured the devs needed a break downing shots and wanted I to hear people’s thoughts on The Elephant in the room.
To make sure what I say isn’t going to be misinterpreted, the point I want to make is The Elephant undercuts the seriousness of Active Shooter situations by making the situation run of the mill. I can already see the argument being drafted that this might be the point. The Elephant is just as mundane as every other situation in Ready or Not. Its mundane-iness is a profound commentary on the reality of American policing and mental health…

The issue I take with this argument is I don’t think I WANT to talk about The Elephant. I don’t WANT to know the name is a reference to some film about Columbine. This level should not be the poster child for the game and the community of youtubers holding it on a pedestal with the tag line title above. This level should have been the black sheep, relegated to the corner and discussed in hushed uncomfortable tones, prefaced with difficult subject matter warnings. I think Neon Tomb is much better in this regard.

Speaking of Neon Tomb…the average age of someone that goes clubbing is about 25. Ok, yes I quickly googled that. Not going to act like this statistic came from years of research, but this is a fair number. Do you know the average age of a community college attendant? Its also, about 25- usually a little younger. Maybe you can start to see the problem with this concept.
If you don’t, let me outline your average scenario in Ready or Not involving an uncooperative civilian. You shout at them to put their hands up, they don’t.
“I’m scared”
“They’re still out there”
“Go get them not me”
“Please don’t leave me here”
So you bash them in the face. You tase them. You bean bag them. You pepper spray them. Hell, maybe you throw a stinger at their feet. They do what you say, you probably say “finally” and move on with more important things. Does this change at all for The Elephant? Of course not. Its still 6 foot grown adults acting like toddlers in the face of a juggernaut telling them to get down on the ground. Maybe this distinction is so important to me because I’m in the age bracket for this mission, so its effectiveness of “they’re killing kids man!” is lost.

Now please, re-imagine this scenario with the level I think a lot of people imagined when they saw those stereotypical high school lockers and desks in the teaser trailer. You breach the room, there’s a high school kid obviously shorter than you standing there. You shout at them to put their hands up, they don’t.
“I’m scared”
“They’re still out there”
“Go get them not me”
“Please don’t leave me here”
…I’m well aware there will always be people just “playing a game”. That after a few run throughs of the mission, you won’t even think about firing a beanbag at an actual kid. But writing this out, I don’t think I could do anything drastic other than continuing to beg them to listen on my first play-through. That’s the level I wanted. I wanted something difficult to problem solve, something that didn’t make me feel great playing. Something I didn’t say “Now to run that again and get a better score” right after accidentally shooting a civilian in a cross fire.
The Hotel map was good at this for me back when the game had it. I remember having a very serious talk with some friends on the nature of the work we were currently pretending to do, and how just horrible it felt hearing the blood-soaked carpet squish under my boot. I was really hoping The Elephant and even levels like 23 Megabytes would be better at starting dialogues about the subject matter and scenarios police work in. Instead, I got The Elephant.

“Entry Team, negotiations have failed with the suspect” when there were never any negotiations. There is no police presence outside, no ambulances, no frantic crowd. Not even active shooting. Just silence. The chilling fear of roaming a deserted school with AR fire echoing down the vacant halls isn’t there. Instead, this situation is just like any other. Suspects intermixed with civilians with the same behaviors as any other mission. If anything, its frustrating when they do shoot a civilian because of how rare they do it.
Despite the shooters being students as shown in the evidence lockers back at the station, no 911 call alludes to it being a friend or someone they passed in the halls (even if it’s the WRONG person, no one even makes assumptions). Despite having CCTV cameras, we don’t know how many shooters there are or what they look like. (This is an issue with many other missions by the way). The 911 operators don’t even inform callers (when there would be many) they already know about the situation and help is coming. No dispatch call from either of the on sight officers as well.

Oh, don’t forget about the bomb. The bomb sends me and is the main culprit of undercutting the seriousness of it all. If there was ever an active shooter who has done this please let me know, but to me it sounds absolutely wild that a fed up on life active shooter would waste time learning and building a bomb when they already know they will be shooting everyone with a gun they have easy access to. I was very annoyed when first running the level and suddenly TOC mentions a timer almost being up. No mention it at the start of the level, in any 911 call, or the brief. Just surprise bomb threat that you’ll only know is there if you decided to check your phone game during an active shooter situation. (Again, I would imagine this would have been spotted on CCTV). I wasn’t horrified, I wasn’t pausing to ready myself for the level’s horrors, I was just annoyed.

I wanted this level to be difficult to talk about. I wanted VOID to make situations in Ready or Not like that of their initial teaser trailer, officers finding a lifeless child they couldn’t save or breaching into the worst known situation imaginable and having to fight their own emotions to get the job done. I WANTED to feel those emotions and struggles with this game. As I conclude and say that this level is incredibly Milk toast, doesn’t actually say much artistically about the situation its portraying, and lacks the vitriol I would expect from this scenario…I mean this from someone that wanted “the most controversial level in Ready or Not” to be that. Controversial. I wanted dialogues. I wanted to see more discussions about all the situations Ready or Not portrays and less conversations about the broken AI. I'm not looking for distasteful edge, which I'd argue The Elephant currently achieves. With the games title, I was genuinely hoping to Not be Ready for certain subject matters.

I get it. VOID is here to make money. We are here to play games. Seeing what the level is now? I should have known we never would have gotten anything more than a cool tagline to generate clicks. We were never going to get this game: https://youtu.be/Gd139Nin33M?t=36

If you disagree with my little write up on the levels effectiveness please, say so. Maybe I’m being too harsh, or my view on the matter is warped. If you feel this level is genuinely shocking or difficult to stomach, then let’s have some of that dialogue, even if its just debating its effectiveness and not its seriousness.

Cheers

[Yamm Timee]

i do agree about the name being cliche af and even ONE OF THE SHOOTERS is based of one in the movie (the guy in all black and the hat backwards),

but understanding that many wanted a lvl like this for yrs and they got it, (i mean it was gonna happen anyways due to mods so why not just make it),

of course its controversial as all lvls in the game like tomb and brisa cove to name, the lvl is under whelming for sure as the suspects just walk and stand around waiting for you, so it doesnt feel like your being pressured into rushing, but thats what you would have to do in real life, look at Nashville, they rushed as fast as they could to the shooter and took them down, but you dont need to do that here

cuz the suspects are not even targeting civs 80% of the time, and you have time to stop it cuz they yell before shooting them, that just wouldn't happen in real life,

cuz if i was doing i wouldn't yell at the guy for 20 secs, i would just do it and move to the next person, so it obv not making u feel that rush, not at all,

the AI is trash for a lvl like this cuz the shooters have no hearing protection so how tf can they hear me walk up behind them? but thats digging deep,

but anyways... the rush is not there so the seriousness is not there and it makes the lvl lack

[Saint Pablo]

Yeah, this is a pretty thought out analysis of the level, and I agree with it. The out of place 'calm' nature of the level caught me off guard. I was expecting it to be much more intense. It felt pretty standard compared to previous missions at that point of the story. The level itself doesn't feel natural. The very event itself feels like an afterthought, like a hastily done effort to include a school setting. It felt really silly seeing the suspects simply walk around lazily, sometimes straight up ignoring civilians. They wouldn't start directly targeting the civilians unless I took forever to clear the place. Even then, there wasn't any urgency. I don't think I'm wrong to think "wait, that's it?" after finishing the level. Hell, what's with the bombs stupidly placed out in the open? Wouldn't it make sense to have the bombs in a secluded area of the school/highly defended by the suspects? Shouldn't the suspects be actively searching for more victims? Why are they just idly standing by while we can clearly hear civilians in an adjacent room? The design of the level itself is underwhelming, as well. Missions such as Greased Palms featured much more claustrophobic areas.
I've noticed this 'disconnect' in tone between earlier builds vs post-Adam update; the game was straying further away from the tone set in the initial trailer, and the 1.0 update really solidifies that. I felt like Neon Tomb conveyed tension much more coherently than Elephant ever did: constant flashing lights, blaring music, multiple angles to get flanked, long corridors that your team can get ambushed in, etc etc.

[Green]

Originally posted by The Programic Knight:

With so many people already harping on the AI issues, I figured the devs needed a break downing shots and wanted I to hear people’s thoughts on The Elephant in the room.
To make sure what I say isn’t going to be misinterpreted, the point I want to make is The Elephant undercuts the seriousness of Active Shooter situations by making the situation run of the mill. I can already see the argument being drafted that this might be the point. The Elephant is just as mundane as every other situation in Ready or Not. Its mundane-iness is a profound commentary on the reality of American policing and mental health…

The issue I take with this argument is I don’t think I WANT to talk about The Elephant. I don’t WANT to know the name is a reference to some film about Columbine. This level should not be the poster child for the game and the community of youtubers holding it on a pedestal with the tag line title above. This level should have been the black sheep, relegated to the corner and discussed in hushed uncomfortable tones, prefaced with difficult subject matter warnings. I think Neon Tomb is much better in this regard.

Speaking of Neon Tomb…the average age of someone that goes clubbing is about 25. Ok, yes I quickly googled that. Not going to act like this statistic came from years of research, but this is a fair number. Do you know the average age of a community college attendant? Its also, about 25- usually a little younger. Maybe you can start to see the problem with this concept.
If you don’t, let me outline your average scenario in Ready or Not involving an uncooperative civilian. You shout at them to put their hands up, they don’t.
“I’m scared”
“They’re still out there”
“Go get them not me”
“Please don’t leave me here”
So you bash them in the face. You tase them. You bean bag them. You pepper spray them. Hell, maybe you throw a stinger at their feet. They do what you say, you probably say “finally” and move on with more important things. Does this change at all for The Elephant? Of course not. Its still 6 foot grown adults acting like toddlers in the face of a juggernaut telling them to get down on the ground. Maybe this distinction is so important to me because I’m in the age bracket for this mission, so its effectiveness of “they’re killing kids man!” is lost.

Now please, re-imagine this scenario with the level I think a lot of people imagined when they saw those stereotypical high school lockers and desks in the teaser trailer. You breach the room, there’s a high school kid obviously shorter than you standing there. You shout at them to put their hands up, they don’t.
“I’m scared”
“They’re still out there”
“Go get them not me”
“Please don’t leave me here”
…I’m well aware there will always be people just “playing a game”. That after a few run throughs of the mission, you won’t even think about firing a beanbag at an actual kid. But writing this out, I don’t think I could do anything drastic other than continuing to beg them to listen on my first play-through. That’s the level I wanted. I wanted something difficult to problem solve, something that didn’t make me feel great playing. Something I didn’t say “Now to run that again and get a better score” right after accidentally shooting a civilian in a cross fire.
The Hotel map was good at this for me back when the game had it. I remember having a very serious talk with some friends on the nature of the work we were currently pretending to do, and how just horrible it felt hearing the blood-soaked carpet squish under my boot. I was really hoping The Elephant and even levels like 23 Megabytes would be better at starting dialogues about the subject matter and scenarios police work in. Instead, I got The Elephant.

“Entry Team, negotiations have failed with the suspect” when there were never any negotiations. There is no police presence outside, no ambulances, no frantic crowd. Not even active shooting. Just silence. The chilling fear of roaming a deserted school with AR fire echoing down the vacant halls isn’t there. Instead, this situation is just like any other. Suspects intermixed with civilians with the same behaviors as any other mission. If anything, its frustrating when they do shoot a civilian because of how rare they do it.
Despite the shooters being students as shown in the evidence lockers back at the station, no 911 call alludes to it being a friend or someone they passed in the halls (even if it’s the WRONG person, no one even makes assumptions). Despite having CCTV cameras, we don’t know how many shooters there are or what they look like. (This is an issue with many other missions by the way). The 911 operators don’t even inform callers (when there would be many) they already know about the situation and help is coming. No dispatch call from either of the on sight officers as well.

Oh, don’t forget about the bomb. The bomb sends me and is the main culprit of undercutting the seriousness of it all. If there was ever an active shooter who has done this please let me know, but to me it sounds absolutely wild that a fed up on life active shooter would waste time learning and building a bomb when they already know they will be shooting everyone with a gun they have easy access to. I was very annoyed when first running the level and suddenly TOC mentions a timer almost being up. No mention it at the start of the level, in any 911 call, or the brief. Just surprise bomb threat that you’ll only know is there if you decided to check your phone game during an active shooter situation. (Again, I would imagine this would have been spotted on CCTV). I wasn’t horrified, I wasn’t pausing to ready myself for the level’s horrors, I was just annoyed.

I wanted this level to be difficult to talk about. I wanted VOID to make situations in Ready or Not like that of their initial teaser trailer, officers finding a lifeless child they couldn’t save or breaching into the worst known situation imaginable and having to fight their own emotions to get the job done. I WANTED to feel those emotions and struggles with this game. As I conclude and say that this level is incredibly Milk toast, doesn’t actually say much artistically about the situation its portraying, and lacks the vitriol I would expect from this scenario…I mean this from someone that wanted “the most controversial level in Ready or Not” to be that. Controversial. I wanted dialogues. I wanted to see more discussions about all the situations Ready or Not portrays and less conversations about the broken AI. I'm not looking for distasteful edge, which I'd argue The Elephant currently achieves. With the games title, I was genuinely hoping to Not be Ready for certain subject matters.

I get it. VOID is here to make money. We are here to play games. Seeing what the level is now? I should have known we never would have gotten anything more than a cool tagline to generate clicks. We were never going to get this game: https://youtu.be/Gd139Nin33M?t=36

If you disagree with my little write up on the levels effectiveness please, say so. Maybe I’m being too harsh, or my view on the matter is warped. If you feel this level is genuinely shocking or difficult to stomach, then let’s have some of that dialogue, even if its just debating its effectiveness and not its seriousness.

Cheers

I honestly think the level was intended to be a school but recent events encouraged the development studio to change it.

[Saint Pablo]

Originally posted by Stereotomic:

Originally posted by The Programic Knight:

Cheers

I honestly think the level was intended to be a school but recent events encouraged the development studio to change it.

I'd argue that the level would have left a bigger impact if it took place in a highschool or even younger than that, but a shooting at a college doesn't seem far fetched, especially with incidents such as the virginia tech shooting in 2007. Really makes you wonder how the hell the devs relieved the concept of any possible tension.

[Reggae Sauce]

If something is being hyped up to be the most controversial thing on the planet, then even the most horrifying gore, shock etc is underwhelming because of the image we've created in our minds is always worse than whatever is being hyped up.
Void have never really shocked me with anything, they pull their punches on multiple occasions. You can't just show me suffering and expect me to care, you need a bit of backstory and context.
Ready Or Not is pretty shallow in its depictions of ultra violence and suffering. Mature, yes, but shallow.
Having a school shooting level doesn't mean s h i t, if you can't even do it effectively. Void does serious subjects "fine" but not exceptionally.

[Das Trojanische Pferd]

the "school" lvl is a big ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ disappointment they dont barricade themself in rooms or start shooting people they just run around and if seen it multiple time that they just casualy walk past people then the lvl somehow loses everything even if they hear you shoot instead of starting to cap people they try to go rambo on your ass

[BitsOfSkin]

All right, I guess I'm going to have to write an entire essay here to cover some points...

Originally posted by The Programic Knight:

With so many people already harping on the AI issues, I figured the devs needed a break downing shots and wanted I to hear people’s thoughts on The Elephant in the room.
To make sure what I say isn’t going to be misinterpreted, the point I want to make is The Elephant undercuts the seriousness of Active Shooter situations by making the situation run of the mill.

Go watch the videos on Youtube breaking down the Active Shooter situation in Nashville, the few videos from Uvalde, and what little video exists from other Active Shooter incidents.
After the initial panic, such places usually get an eerie quiet over them.
Hell, look at the incident in Texas where the cop spent a good five minutes running around before encountering the shooter and ending the threat; some distant gunfire is heard, but other than the obvious adrenaline racing through the beat cop's system and his ragged breathing, and his yelling at a few stray civvies who haven't gotten the Hell outta dodge, there's little action until the actual shooting.

And that is, realistically, how it goes.
Frantic action is usually only there when contact is made with shooter(s) and/or survivors, the rest is a lot of walking, checking corners, taking things slowly and safely, especially in a S.W.A.T. team.
It's not an action movie where everything is high drama amped up to 11 for the sake of keeping the viewer engaged.

As to your talk about how the survivors act; it's rather realistic, because they act the way they should : like people completely shellshocked by the horrific ♥♥♥♥ they've just witnessed.
Some people run for cover and then GTFO at the earliest opportunity, others ball up, break down, sit and stare in disbelief, or just hide.
A rare few will go towards the action, but they usually die pointlessly, unless they're very well trained.

As for the bombs, shooter rationale etc., read on below.

Originally posted by Saint Pablo:

It felt really silly seeing the suspects simply walk around lazily, sometimes straight up ignoring civilians.

Look at Columbine, Parkland; Harris and Klebold spared random people, Cruz even told someone he was OK with "You’d better get out of here, things are gonna start getting messy" and sent the guy off.
You're applying a (Hollywood-esque) rationale to a situation that isn't rational.
Not to mention that for all the manifestos, farewell letters and such, shooters often break down during the incident.
As monstrous as they are, they aren't super-humans, and they will get winded, they will suffer from the post adrenaline rush comedown that's often paired with anxiety, confusion, headaches, extreme fatigue...
Which explains the ambling behavior of the shooters

Originally posted by Saint Pablo:

Hell, what's with the bombs stupidly placed out in the open? Wouldn't it make sense to have the bombs in a secluded area of the school/highly defended by the suspects?

This isn't counterstrike or the movies, mah nizzle; homemade explosives intended to make many victims wouldn't do much good in a secluded classroom.
They would lack the power to fully destroy a classroom, let alone level a school building unless the amount of explosives used was enormous...
Think of the Oklahoma City bombing; it took a full sized trailer with six and a half thousand pounds of ANFO explosives, formed into a shaped charge, to destroy roughly one third of the Alfred P. Murrah building.
I don't see a bunch of Angsty teens with delusions of grandeur lugging sufficient explosives to level their school building around during a shooting.

Also, why defend a bomb?
What if the shooters didn't originally intend to die in the explosion?
Again, you're applying your logic to something that isn't logical, or otherwise follows a deranged mindset that you cannot fathom because you (hopefully) aren't deranged.

Hell, why even have a bomb in the first place?
Well, again, these aren't rational people we're dealing with here.
And we should all be glad these people aren't really rational (even if they think they are) or every school shooting would be a massacre with pretty much everyone deceased at the scene.
Neon Tomb is a good example of Hollywood storytelling/game design meeting the horrors of the Extremist attack on the Bataclan theater in France.

Originally posted by Saint Pablo:

The design of the level itself is underwhelming, as well.

It's like a typical wing of a modern American College/University... *shrug*

---

I think the real issue here is the disconnect between the reality of how these shootings break down after the first shots have been fired versus people's expectations.
By the time Police arrive, the shooting itself is usually mostly over.
After all "when every second counts, Police are minutes away at best".
Organizing a S.W.A.T. team takes longer still.
The developers did make one mistake though; they expected players to understand that realism isn't necessarily what makes for the most exciting, compelling gameplay and storytelling.
Players expected masses of running, screaming kids, frantic action and such... when the reality is this quiet horror unfolding in front of them.
Frankly, with everything most of us have seen... this level will be boring purely by being (relatively) realistic, and the developers even trying to approach this type of Mass Shooter situation in a world where we have the original "No Russian" mission is interesting, but ultimately futile.
Expectations can't be met when the devs aim for any level of Realism, where player expectations will vastly differ from how these things usually play out.

Does the shooter/civilian AI hold things back a bit?
Certainly.
But IMHO, it IS a realistic scenario... and thus doomed to be boring to most.

[Green]

Originally posted by Saint Pablo:

Originally posted by Stereotomic:

I honestly think the level was intended to be a school but recent events encouraged the development studio to change it.

I'd argue that the level would have left a bigger impact if it took place in a highschool or even younger than that, but a shooting at a college doesn't seem far fetched, especially with incidents such as the virginia tech shooting in 2007. Really makes you wonder how the hell the devs relieved the concept of any possible tension.

I was mainly referring to that one event where everyone criticised the local police department for not intervening sooner (happened either this year or last year from the top of my head). I cannot remember where it happened, unfortunately.

[Cmdr. Lumpus]

Fore the most part, I absolutely agree with this post. 'Elephant' is a disappointing mission. I wanted to like it, but the serious lack of dead bodies, lack of active shots being fired, and the (strange and out-of-place) presence of bombs to defuse make the level seriously underwhelming and not at all how I (and many others) expected it to turn out. VOID, admittedly, could have done better on 'Elephant' - and I say that as a HUGE fan who's been playing since the day the game came out on Steam back in Dec. 2021.

[Saint Pablo]

Originally posted by BitsOfSkin:

All right, I guess I'm going to have to write an entire essay here to cover some points...

Originally posted by The Programic Knight:

With so many people already harping on the AI issues, I figured the devs needed a break downing shots and wanted I to hear people’s thoughts on The Elephant in the room.
To make sure what I say isn’t going to be misinterpreted, the point I want to make is The Elephant undercuts the seriousness of Active Shooter situations by making the situation run of the mill.

Go watch the videos on Youtube breaking down the Active Shooter situation in Nashville, the few videos from Uvalde, and what little video exists from other Active Shooter incidents.
After the initial panic, such places usually get an eerie quiet over them.
Hell, look at the incident in Texas where the cop spent a good five minutes running around before encountering the shooter and ending the threat; some distant gunfire is heard, but other than the obvious adrenaline racing through the beat cop's system and his ragged breathing, and his yelling at a few stray civvies who haven't gotten the Hell outta dodge, there's little action until the actual shooting.

And that is, realistically, how it goes.
Frantic action is usually only there when contact is made with shooter(s) and/or survivors, the rest is a lot of walking, checking corners, taking things slowly and safely, especially in a S.W.A.T. team.
It's not an action movie where everything is high drama amped up to 11 for the sake of keeping the viewer engaged.

As to your talk about how the survivors act; it's rather realistic, because they act the way they should : like people completely shellshocked by the horrific ♥♥♥♥ they've just witnessed.
Some people run for cover and then GTFO at the earliest opportunity, others ball up, break down, sit and stare in disbelief, or just hide.
A rare few will go towards the action, but they usually die pointlessly, unless they're very well trained.

As for the bombs, shooter rationale etc., read on below.

Originally posted by Saint Pablo:

It felt really silly seeing the suspects simply walk around lazily, sometimes straight up ignoring civilians.

Look at Columbine, Parkland; Harris and Klebold spared random people, Cruz even told someone he was OK with "You’d better get out of here, things are gonna start getting messy" and sent the guy off.
You're applying a (Hollywood-esque) rationale to a situation that isn't rational.
Not to mention that for all the manifestos, farewell letters and such, shooters often break down during the incident.
As monstrous as they are, they aren't super-humans, and they will get winded, they will suffer from the post adrenaline rush comedown that's often paired with anxiety, confusion, headaches, extreme fatigue...
Which explains the ambling behavior of the shooters

Originally posted by Saint Pablo:

Hell, what's with the bombs stupidly placed out in the open? Wouldn't it make sense to have the bombs in a secluded area of the school/highly defended by the suspects?

This isn't counterstrike or the movies, mah nizzle; homemade explosives intended to make many victims wouldn't do much good in a secluded classroom.
They would lack the power to fully destroy a classroom, let alone level a school building unless the amount of explosives used was enormous...
Think of the Oklahoma City bombing; it took a full sized trailer with six and a half thousand pounds of ANFO explosives, formed into a shaped charge, to destroy roughly one third of the Alfred P. Murrah building.
I don't see a bunch of Angsty teens with delusions of grandeur lugging sufficient explosives to level their school building around during a shooting.

Also, why defend a bomb?
What if the shooters didn't originally intend to die in the explosion?
Again, you're applying your logic to something that isn't logical, or otherwise follows a deranged mindset that you cannot fathom because you (hopefully) aren't deranged.

Hell, why even have a bomb in the first place?
Well, again, these aren't rational people we're dealing with here.
And we should all be glad these people aren't really rational (even if they think they are) or every school shooting would be a massacre with pretty much everyone deceased at the scene.
Neon Tomb is a good example of Hollywood storytelling/game design meeting the horrors of the Extremist attack on the Bataclan theater in France.

Originally posted by Saint Pablo:

The design of the level itself is underwhelming, as well.

It's like a typical wing of a modern American College/University... *shrug*

---

I think the real issue here is the disconnect between the reality of how these shootings break down after the first shots have been fired versus people's expectations.
By the time Police arrive, the shooting itself is usually mostly over.
After all "when every second counts, Police are minutes away at best".
Organizing a S.W.A.T. team takes longer still.
The developers did make one mistake though; they expected players to understand that realism isn't necessarily what makes for the most exciting, compelling gameplay and storytelling.
Players expected masses of running, screaming kids, frantic action and such... when the reality is this quiet horror unfolding in front of them.
Frankly, with everything most of us have seen... this level will be boring purely by being (relatively) realistic, and the developers even trying to approach this type of Mass Shooter situation in a world where we have the original "No Russian" mission is interesting, but ultimately futile.
Expectations can't be met when the devs aim for any level of Realism, where player expectations will vastly differ from how these things usually play out.

Does the shooter/civilian AI hold things back a bit?
Certainly.
But IMHO, it IS a realistic scenario... and thus doomed to be boring to most.

You make good arguments, and I'm inclined to agree. Also yeah, I forgot how boring college architecture is. I set myself up for disappointment when I expected the environment to be more 'lively' to contrast the violence occurring, especially based on the very short scene of it within the trailer.

[Green]

Originally posted by Saint Pablo:

Originally posted by Stereotomic:

I was mainly referring to that one event where everyone criticised the local police department for not intervening sooner (happened either this year or last year from the top of my head). I cannot remember where it happened, unfortunately.

I'm certain that was a shooting of an elementary school within Uvalde, where the cops stood idly at the end of a hallway while the shooter was still loose.

Highly likely. I think this event made the studio change their plans for the level.

[Green]

Originally posted by Saint Pablo:

Originally posted by Stereotomic:

I honestly think the level was intended to be a school but recent events encouraged the development studio to change it.

I'd argue that the level would have left a bigger impact if it took place in a highschool or even younger than that, but a shooting at a college doesn't seem far fetched, especially with incidents such as the virginia tech shooting in 2007. Really makes you wonder how the hell the devs relieved the concept of any possible tension.

To add to your original reply, I think the level was poorly done here. Most levels simply do not feel genuine in the slightest, with the exception for Ends of the Earth and Rust Belt (which I thought were really well-written and designed).

Rather than focus on being controversial, I think the developers should have simply focused on authenticity, where SWAT officers could have been employed to advise on the situations they encounter (like they did for SWAT 3). It probably would have made them more impactful in my opinion.

[The Programic Knight]

Originally posted by YAMM TIME:

it doesnt feel like your being pressured into rushing, but thats what you would have to do in real life, look at Nashville, they rushed as fast as they could to the shooter and took them down, but you dont need to do that here

Its funny that you mention this because back in early access there were active shooter scenarios available to us where they did actively hunt civilians and you had to be fast. My suspicion is this was deemed unfun because of the game's scoring system counting those civilian casualties heavily against you.

Artistically I wouldn't mind a level like Elephant presenting a cryptic score (except for S ranking) of something like "you did the best you could" instead of a letter grade, but then again I fully understand thats a bit too on the nose and not a great gameplay mechanic for replaying things.

This is my first time using the formatting functions so hopefully that quoted right...

[The Programic Knight]

Originally posted by Stereotomic:

I honestly think the level was intended to be a school but recent events encouraged the development studio to change it.

That's a much better analysis than what I had thought up while I was at work. I forgot there were a few heavy hitting events between then and now that might have given the devs cold feet.

The theory I came up with was after their publisher dropped VOID for saying they were keeping the school level in, whatever that may have been in that stage of the game's life, they instantly felt the financial loss or realized the issues with losing their publisher. VOID may have been adamant and stuck to their guns and were happy to see the player base rallying to support them, but ultimately they didn't want to risk further loss by making something that got them into a further hole- this time without a publisher to bail them out. So they played it as safe as they could while still delivering on the promise.

[Major Fret]

What's most disappointing about The Elephant is VOID had the formula for an Active Shooter game mode. I know because it was the first thing I praised about the game. No game has ever made me feel so helpless despite being decked out in the latest in tactical equipment.

There's no panic or sense of urgency in The Elephant. I saw barely any civilians and none of them seemed to be panicking. There's barely any casualties (I saw about 3) and the shooters don't really try to create more. Hell, I spent more time chasing civilians than I did dealing with the shooters.

The only reason I can think they cut the Active Shooter is due to score which is beyond frustrating. The game mode never needed scoring in the first place. I'm sure people would understand if that specific level didn't have any scoring to it. It's not like getting an S on The Elephant right now is all that impressive. Not compared to a lot of other levels in the game.

But hey, disappointment and RoN v1.0 seem to go hand in glove at this point.