F.E.A.R. 2 Too Violent for Australia

Why the Classification Board had to refuse classification to Monolith's shooter.

By John Gillooly on 27 November, 2008

As predicted, the frequency of games given Refused Classification is slowly increasing as more and more mature-focused titles hit the market. This time, it is Monolith’s highly anticipated shooter F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin that has run afoul of the Australian system.

According to the Classification Board, the excessive violence in the game was its undoing. An excessive focus upon gore and dismemberment, especially the blood splatter, was deemed to constitute high level violence. For example, this section of the report about the decision:

The violence is considered highly impactful in such scenes as where Michael uses his sub machine gun to explicitly bisect an enemy, the two parts of the body lying separately on the ground, with copious blood spray. There are also a number of explicit close range decapitations involving both human and mutant creatures. The decapitations are the result of close-up throat slashing from behind and close-up gunshots to the throat.

The Classification Board later states in the report its major reasoning was that:

Enhanced graphics and the realistic behaviour of human and mutant foes increase the playing impact of the violence to a high level.

The Board considers that the cumulative effect of this type of violence is high and as such cannot be accommodated at the MA15+ classification and the game must therefore be refused classification.

It is a completely understandable decision given the current ratings situation here in Australia. As more and more games explore adult themes, this bumping into the MA15+ ceiling will become all the more common. This is why people need to take part in the discussion about an R18+ rating for games when the time for change comes.

If anything, it would be nice to not be surprised to wake and find another game relegated to the world of piracy and grey importing that a refusal of classification inevitably results in.

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