Outlast 2 has been banned in Australia on the grounds of ‘implied sexual violence’

Outlast 2 will not be releasing in Australia after the country's Classification Board issued its ruling against the game, classifying it as a Games 1(a) title. What that means is that it is a game that is intent to "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 description comes directly from the Australian Classification Board via Kotaku.

Kotaku eventually received the official report as to what exactly Outlast 2 contains that allegedly warrants the ban and it is officially being dubbed "implied sexual violence." There is a scene where the main character, Blake hallucinates a female creature giving him the business (more or less).

Here's the official description of the scene per Kotaku. Warning, spoilers for Outlast 2 follow.

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In one cut-scene in the game … a female creature prepares Blake for a ritual. She says, "I want to see your true face. Your seed will burn this world." Shortly afterwards, he objects to having psycho-active dust blown into his face, yelling, "Nope! Nope!" before he stumbles into a forest clearing.

His vision blurring, he witnesses what appears to a ritualistic orgy. 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, implicity have sex as others pray, or chant, or gesticulate.

One creature has another bent over a rock, thrusting as they implicitly have rear-entry sex, another sits astride the pelvic region of a creature prone on the ground, moving their hips rhythmically as they too implicitly have sex. Two other pairs of creatures in the clearing are also implicitly having sex.

As Blake yells for the creatures to "Get away from her!" a female creature, her greyish breasts bared, pushes him onto his back, holds his arms to the ground and repeatedly thrusts her crotch against him. As Blake protests, saying "No! Stop that!" the creature thrusts again, before placing its face over his midsection and then sitting up and wiping its mouth.

Although much of the contact between the creature and Blake is obscurred, by it taking place below screen, the sexualised surroundings and aggressive behaviour of the creature suggest that it is an assault which is sexual in nature. The Board is of the opinion that this, combined with Blake's objections and distress, constitutes a depiction of implied sexual violence.

In the Board's opinion, the above example constitutes a depiction of implied sexual violence and therefore cannot be accommodated within the R18+ classification category and the game is therefore Refused Classification.

Australia has long been known to have stricter content standards than that of places like Europe and North America. Left 4 Dead 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are two of the biggest examples to have attempted to hurdle the country's rating system. Outlast 2 can still resubmit a toned down version of the game to retry getting an approval for release in the country, but it won't be the same version as the rest of the world is getting.

Outlast 2 releases on April 25th, 2017 for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

Source: [Kotaku]