Outlast 2 is not banned in Australia any more

If you followed gaming news last week, you might have noticed that Outlast 2 was left unclassified in Australia. They were aiming for R18+, however, the Australian board did not give them one.

The main problem was a particular scene in the game where the main character appears to be under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, while the scene later develops into a full-blown orgy, with possible allusions to rape. This is a Red Barrel game, after all, so this was to be expected. Anyone remembers the huge, well-endowed patients of the lovely psychiatric hospital from the original Outlast?

Here is a lovely bit of the description of the scene that caused the problems with the Australian Board:

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.

The interesting part is not that the Board changed their opinion, but that they did it without the developer changing a single thing in the game. They have marked sex, violence and themese as “high impact”, language and nudity as “strong impact” and drug use was marked as “moderate impact”.

The developers issued the following statement:

Outlast 2 has been rated R18+ by the Classification Branch in Australia and will be released 26th April 2017. There will be only one version of Outlast 2 available worldwide.

The game will launch on April 25 for PS4, Xbox One and PC, and it will be available in two editions: as a standalone game and as a part of Outlast: Trinity, which will contain the original Outlast, its Whistleblower DLC and Outlast 2.