"Bionic Commando" is less profane than "House of the Dead: Overkill," less gruesome than "Dead Rising," but publisher Capcom had a good reason for ensuring their game got an M rating.
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I didn't notice the ESRB rating for Capcom's "Bionic Commando" when I first loaded my preview build of the game on an Xbox 360 earlier this week. Hours later, when I rebooted the game, I did. And I was surprised; the game is rated M.
There's cursing in "Bionic Commando." A tiny bit of it, from what I've heard in the first third. I can recall a few uses of the word "s--t" during a few lines of dialogue early in the game.
There's violence, including headshots and the ability to throw cars into people. But I've seen many more violent M-rated games.
There's been no sexual content, nothing remotely like the toplessness and explicit sex talk in a "House of the Dead: Overkill."
So why is this game that seems to barely deserve an M rating not rated T? We're talking about a military version of Spider-Man here, surely something that could have easily been tuned for a broader demographic than an M-rated game?
Capcom's director of communications, Chris Kramer, told me that "Resident Evil 5" is the reason for the "Bionic Commando" M-rating. "Bionic Commando," he explained to me yesterday via an online message, was originally supposed to ship with a demo for "RE5," which is most definitely an M-rated game. That was the plan back when "Bionic Commando" was supposed to ship before the "Resident Evil" sequel, rather than two months afterward.
I asked Kramer why Capcom didn't clean the game a bit and go for the T rating. He said the rating was already set and that the development team had already "upped the violence and language to hit an M."
Based on the preview/review build I've played for four hours (36% completion), it looks like "Bionic Commando" has a chance to go down in gaming history as one of the softer M-rated games classified by the ESRB. The game is closer to the "Halo" series spectrum of the M rating than it is to the "Grand Theft Auto," "Manhunt" or "Madworld" side of things.
On its website, the ESRB rates the game M for Mature with the content descriptors: "Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence."
An associated ESRB rating summary explains the M content:
This is a shooting action game in which players control a bionically-enhanced commando who battles a massive terrorist force. Players can traverse through a city in ruins and use a variety of firearms (guns, sniper rifles, etc) on enemy units. Weapons such as the hiker/sniper rifle can decapitate soldiers resulting in blood splatter that stains the environment and the player's screen. Frenetic combat is highlighted by screen shakes and realistic sound effects (gunfire, explosions, demolition) which add to the intensity of battle. Strong profanity (e.g., "f*ck" and "sh*t") can be heard in the dialogue.
I've heard people in the industry suggest that the ESRB's M rating might be too broad. They argue that a barely profane and marginally sexual game like "Mass Effect" might not deserve the same rating as a gorefest like "God of War." It would have been a moot issue for "Bionic Commando," though, if the game could do nothing other than match the rating for the bloody chainsaws-through-necks "Resident Evil 5."
"Bionic Commando" ships May 19 for the PS3 and XBox 360 and on PC this summer.
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