'Outlast 2' News and Updates: Australian Classification Board Bans Game for 'Sexual Violence'
Reports have it that the Australian Classification Board denied "Outlast 2" a classification rating due to some parts of the game purportedly implying "sexual violence."
Kotaku Australia has obtained a copy of the classifications board's decision explaining why they refused to grant the game even an R18+ rating. Since the game has been unclassified by the censorship body, the game is practically not allowed to be sold in any Australian store.
The survival horror game will mainly feature a character named Blake Langermann, a journalist who is on a mission to dig deeper into the story of a murdered pregnant woman named Jane Doe in an Arizona desert. Blake brings along his wife, Lynn, as they attempt to uncover the truth behind the mysterious death.
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In the obtained copy of the ACB decision, the board has mentioned particular scenes in the game that caused the non-classification of the game.
In one of the game's scenes, according to ACB, Blake and a female creature can be seen as she gets him ready for a ritual. She gives him "psycho-active dust" but he objects. After that, Blake wakes up to find a "ritualistic orgy" in the forest where his wife, Lynn, seemed to have been coerced to join.
The document further narrates: "His wife, Lynn, calls out for his help, saying, 'It hurts! Oh god!,' as she hangs from chains on a raised platform at the front of the clearing. Humanoid creatures, their skin grey, spattered with blood and scarred, implicitly have sex as others pray, or chant, or gesticulate."
ACB also noted that the actual contact of the characters' sexual parts is blurred from the game's screen. However, they still argued that the environment pictured in those scenes, Blake's and Lynn's acts of refusal to be part of the ritual "constitutes a depiction of implied sexual violence."
ACB ruled that the game "cannot be accommodated within the R18+ classification category and the game is therefore Refused Classification."
"Outlast 2," developed by Red Barrels, is slated for release on April 25 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.
