Just two months ahead of its November release, Hitman: Absolution has received its ESRB rating and summary.
To no one’s surprise, Hitman: Absolution has been rated “M” for Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. The contents of the game include blood and gore, intense violence, partial nudity, use of drugs, strong language and much more.
The rating summary describes the game’s rating in much more depth:
This is an action game in which players control Agent 47, a rogue assassin attempting to rescue a girl from various factions. From first- and third-person perspectives, players use machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, and explosives to complete mission objectives and kill human adversaries. Players can also employ stealth tactics (e.g., strangling or slicing characters’ throats from behind) to eliminate adversaries at close range. Violent encounters are accompanied by realistic gunfire/explosions, large blood-splatter/pooling effects, and slow-motion attacks. Non-adversary characters can be injured or killed at will (e.g., throwing a bomb into a crowd of civilians), though this may negatively affect players’ score; in one level, players discover the dead bodies of nun characters, with blood splatter on their clothing and in the hallways (the actual killings are not depicted). Other intense sequences include the use of a wood chipper to dispose of dead bodies (streams of bloody gibs are depicted), and an interrogation scene depicting a security guard beaten up by villains. The game includes suggestive/sexual material: One level takes place inside a strip club, which depicts women dancing on poles or performing lap dances in front of male clients; some strippers wear small pasties over their nipples. Other sexual material includes a female character briefly reaching for a man’s groin, and a woman stripping down to lingerie in front of Agent 47 (e.g., “I love a hard man . . .”). During some missions, characters can be observed snorting cocaine off a table or smoking from a bong near marijuana plants. The words “f**k,” “sh*t,” “p*ssy,” and “c*cksucker” can be heard in the dialogue.
Hitman: Absolution will be released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on November 20th.
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