Tripwire’s Killing Floor 2 is certainly taking it up a notch in the visuals department, especially when it comes to separating body parts from other body parts. The game, which has been in Early Access since last year, now has a release date — November 18. What is doesn’t have is a rating from the Classification Board.
The simultaneous platform release was announced via publisher Deep Silver’s Twitter account, with the PS4 date confirmed by the official PlayStation blog.
Last year, Tripwire highlighted Australia as a region that may get a “reduced gore” version of Killing Floor 2, but whether that comes to pass is entirely in the hands of the Classification Board.
It’s true we have an R18+ rating now, but the Board has been known to frown upon realistic displays of dismemberment.
That didn’t stop the Board from classifying the likes of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, which according to the organisation depicts dismemberment with “detailed [graphics] and human characters … portrayed in a realistic fashion”.
The Old Blood managed to get in with an R18+.
Back in 2009, the original Killing Floor was rated MA15+, but this was before games could receive the higher rating. Given the increased focus on gore, it’s hard to predict what form Killing Floor 2 will take in Australia.
November is still a couple of months away, so the title may not appear in the Classification database for some time. That said, if Tripwire needs to make edits to the game, it may submit it sooner rather than later.
@DeepSilverUK [Twitter]
Comments
4 responses to “As Yet Unclassified Killing Floor 2 Set For November Release On PC, PS4”
No game has been banned for violence or gore alone since the R rating was introduced. See Outlast, Dying Light, Mortal Kombat X, DOOM, The Evil Within, God of War Ascension, GTAV, Left 4 Dead 2 uncut re-release,
It won’t be banned or censored. Do your research, Booker. Linking L4D2 when its no longer banned just wreaks of clickbait and ignorance.
Oh dear.
While I appreciate the sentiment of your comment, I think you’ve really missed the point. I don’t think it’ll be refused classification — I don’t even mention “banned” in my post. Not sure where you got that from.
What I am talking about is whether Tripwire will go ahead with the edited version in Australia anyway to get an MA15+, rather than the R18+. Both ratings have pros and cons — a potentially bigger audience for the former, an unaltered experience the latter. There’s been no comment one way or the other, hence my interest.
Pffff! It’ll pass, violence doesn’t bother the ACB anymore, if it were a game focused on taking drugs or raping people, that would get the nanny state’s knickers in a twist.
I find it very hard to imagine why the classification board has dismemberment in particular as a target. I mean what possibly goes through these people’s minds to go “hey guys limbs being dismembered is bad”. Would be interesting to see behind the scenes of how the classification board works because as someone outside looking in it all spunds a bit ridiculous. I am curious to know whether the cliche image of a bunch of old men bickering about stuff they have no idea about is close to the truth.