Sex and Violence and Drugs, Oh My!
The ESRB has released their rating for this summer’s Vampyr, and it looks totally rad. Assuming you’re into such wholesome activities as drug use, sex, swearing and horrific violence, that is. As expected of a game about vampires, this one will be for mature audiences only.
I mean, it’s not exactly a surprise, right? That a game like this would be savagely violent and full of dark dealings of every sort? Still, if you were somehow worried that the devs would be pulling any punches whatsoever with this game, the recently-released summary from the ESRB should put those fears to rest. The ratings board’s complete summary is embedded below. Note certain highlights such as intravenous drug use, gobs of expletives and even prostitution! Vampyr is currently set to release on June 5th for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
This is a third-person action game in which players assume the role of a surgeon (Jonathan Reid) roaming through London as a vampire. Players learn vampire skills/abilities; track citizens as potential prey; and battle other vampires, ghouls, and vampire hunters in frenetic combat. Characters mostly use swords or guns to attack enemies; Jonathan can also rip out the throats of human enemies by stalking and biting them. Some sequences depict executions of characters on and off-screen—a man’s decapitated head appears on the ground in one off-screen killing. Blood-splatter effects occur frequently, and some environments depict mutilated corpses covered in blood. The game includes some sexual material: references to a priest molesting a child; a prostitute soliciting a character on the street (e.g., “Pay me a glass and I’ll be gentle…Pay me a bottle, and I’ll be nasty…I promise I’m cheap and clean.”). During the course of the game, a character is depicted slapping his arm for a vein, then injecting himself with a drug off-screen (“that is better…I will make it through one more night.”). The words “f**k” and “sh*t” appear in the dialogue.