Hotline Miami 2 Refused Classification In Australia Over Rape Scene, More Violent Content

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number has been refused classification in the country of Australia, due to the scenes of violence and sex in the game.

The Classification Board shared their report in public, including this scene. It very strongly implies that the lead character raped a female character.

In the sequence of game play footage titled Midnight Animal, the protagonist character bursts into what appears to be a movie set and explicitly kills 4 people, who collapse to the floor in a pool of copious blood, often accompanied by blood splatter. After stomping on the head of a fifth male character, he strikes a female character wearing red underwear. She is knocked to the floor and is viewed lying face down in a pool of copious blood. The male character is viewed with his pants halfway down, partially exposing his buttocks. He is viewed pinning the female down by the arms and lying on top of her thrusting, implicitly raping her (either rear entry or anally) while her legs are viewed kicking as she struggles beneath him. This visual depiction of implied sexual violence is emphasised by it being mid-screen, with a red backdrop pulsating and the remainder of the screen being surrounded by black.

This is not the only scene with offensive content, but it gives a good idea of the tone set by the game, and the levels of extremitypresent within.

The Classification Board has these guidelines on what causes a game to be refused classification:

…(sic) depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified.

The game joins Saints Row 4, State of Decay, and South Park: Stick of Truth in the list of games that have been refused classification. It remains to be seen if Devolver Digital will act to adapt said content, or will push ahead with leaving the game as is, even if it leaves Australian gamers outin the cold.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is scheduled for release in Windows, Mac and Linux, PS3, PS4 and Vita, in early 2015. It seems likely that the game will see some form of delay.