F.E.A.R. 2 Refused Classification
Another day, another highly-anticipated title is refused classification in Australia. This time it’s F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, the sequel to the 2005 first-person shooter F.E.A.R. According to New Enthusiast, the key factor in the game’s refusal was the depictions of violence.
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.
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.
As Kotaku points out, the inconsistency in this ruling is maddening. Luke Plunkett cites the example of Gears of War 2 where you the player is at times literally swimming in blood, assuming they are not using their gun-mounted chainsaw to violently bisect an enemy and cover the screen in the resulting gore. Also consider Fallout 3, where the game’s slow motion combat system allows you to sever opponents limbs with precise bursts of gunfire and watch them trail blood through the air.
Both of these games have been rated MA15+ and are currently available for sale to Australian children. Both of these games should, by all rights, be classified at R18+ and be restricted to adults. Keeping F.E.A.R. 2 off the shelves does nothing while games like this are still available for sale – Australians need an R18+ rating to make sure that these sort of games are freely available to the mature adults who want to play them.
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R18+ Games Australia » Blog Archive » F.E.A.R. 2 Ban Overturned says:
[...] you may recall, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origins was recently banned in Australia for containing high level violence that could not be accommodated at an MA15+ rating. Two days ago [...]