Far Cry Primal Gets M Rating for Violence, Nudity
By Kyle Sledge 26 December 2015
According to Far Cry Primal‘s official rating from the ESRB, the forthcoming action-adventure game from Ubisoft is rated M for violence, nudity, and sexual scenes.
The ESRB has given Far Cry Primal a rating of M for Mature due to its violent gameplay and imagery, in addition to points in the game in which men and women characters can be seen in various states of undress, as well as scenes that depict sexual activity, albeit non-explicit ones. Given Far Cry Primal‘s setting at the beginning of the Mesolithic period, none of this should come as a surprise to gaming fans.
The Far Cry franchise is no stranger to violence, nudity, or sexuality. After all, Far Cry 4‘s fictional version of the Nepalese Civil War contained its fair share of all three elements. Be that as it may, the content of Far Cry Primal might prove to be coarser and more intense than its predecessors, as the ESRB’s rating description reads:
“Players use arrows, spears, and clubs to kill enemies in frenetic combat. Some sequences require stealth kills in which enemies are stabbed in the head or slashed close-up. One cutscene depicts a character being held in a fire while screaming; another depicts Takkar tapping a hole in another character’s skull as the man screams. Some scenes depict corpses in various states of mutilation: heads and torsos on spikes; ears cut off and kept as trophies; headless bodies lying in pools of blood. Certain scenes or camera angles can depict male genitalia under garments or in shadows; some female characters are depicted topless. A handful of scenes depict characters engaged in sexual activity while clothed; grunts and short moans can be heard, though no explicit details are seen.”
Since its reveal trailer a few months ago, most of the promotional materials for Far Cry Primal has shied away from showing anything overtly violent or sexual, relying mostly on the game’s lush visuals of a prehistoric era to sell it. In fact, the gameplay trailer at the Game Awards 2015 stuck mostly to showing off panoramas of plains, mountain regions, and the game’s various wildlife. Even so, fans familiar with the subject matter of all of the series’ previous titles definitely expected Far Cry Primal‘s protagonist Takkar – played by voice actor Elias Toufexis – to be engaged in a world that depicted mature themes.
As developers have previously explained, due to Far Cry Primal being set nearly 12,000 years in the past, the game’s combat will eschew gunplay and modern technology in order to maintain its verisimilitude. Despite that, the action should be just as ferocious, if not more so than prior entries, as Takkar’s survival is crucial. For those looking for a better understanding of the type of gameplay the title will contain, our hands-on preview for Far Cry Primal offers up a solid primer on what’s to come.
With video games reaching a wider audience than they ever have before, the medium has now become a viable outlet for developers and storytellers to express narratives with more complex themes and mature components. Bearing that in mind, Far Cry Primal‘s violence, nudity, and sexual scenes are par for the course at this point. Naturally, though, not all games reflect humanity’s grittiest features, as there will always be a market for more all-inclusive releases like Super Mario Bros.
Far Cry Primal will be available on February 23, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and it has a release date of March 1, 2016 for PC.
Source: ESRB (via Gamereactor)
