In an auspicious turn of events for horror fanatics residing down under, Australia’s Office of Film and Literature Classification has confirmed that it has reissued F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin with an MA15+ rating, granting the title release in the territory early next year.
Monolith’s horror shooter was previously banned in November due to the board not being particularly taken with its display of severed limbs and buckets of claret flying about the place, commenting, "The violence is considered highly impactful in such scenes as where Michael uses his sub machine gun to explicitly bisect an enemy, the two parts of the body lying separately on the ground, with copious blood spray.”
“There are also a number of explicit close range decapitations involving both human and mutant creatures. The decapitations are the result of close-up throat slashing from behind and close-up gunshots to the throat".
However, following an appeal by publisher Warner Bros. Interactive, the game has been granted release with no cuts made, and is now scheduled to hit Australian retailers in February 2009.
Said a spokesperson for WBIE, "We’ve always believed in the merit of the game as an MA15+ title, and we’re pleased that the Review Board saw it our way," adding, “The appeal process involved WBIE representatives performing a live game demonstration with the Review Board members, as well as taking questions from the Board. The WBIE spokesman said the appeals process allowed them to better explain the "detail, context, and storyline behind the game".