MAG has received a tame “Teen” rating from the ESRB.
According the Ratings Summary provided by the watchdog via its official Web site, the most graphic things players will see in the game are cute (and instantaneous) clouds of red after being punctured by a weapon and any postmortem damage after the fact.
“Soldiers can be shot repeatedly, even after they have fallen to the ground (i.e., postmortem damage),” the summary reads. “When an enemy is shot or knifed, small red puffs of blood are visible (under 1 second on-screen).”
On the audio side, players will be forced to hear the word hell “several times during the game.”
I assume this rating was expected from Zipper Interactive who have been coding the massive shooter during the day and dreaming about it at night. But I was surprised it received that baby rating. I associate simulation-style warfare with “Mature” content — an association that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Ghost Recon is always “Teen.” Same with the Delta Force games and even some Rainbow Six titles. In fact, even a few SOCOM games have been given this rating.
Little puffs of blood. A cloud of red. No chainsaw-to-face awesomeness or excited screams riddled with juicy expletives in MAG. But, of course, online interactions aren’t rated by the ESRB — so we could totally make it Mature if we wanted to. Or something.
