The Australian government has refused to classify Hotline Miami 2 for a scene that implies sexual violence—the same scene that caused a fervor when it was discovered by press more than a year ago.
The scene in question occurs during the game’s opening—a film shoot. The player, controlling the main character, clears out a couple floors of enemies in brutal Hotline Miami fashion before smacking the final enemy, a female wearing only underwear, to the floor.
At this point, control is taken away from the player and a brief cutscene proceeds. The woman starts to crawl away, but the main character approaches and stops her. Here’s where the “implied” stuff starts—Hotline Miami’s pixelated visuals and top-down camera aren’t know for detail. We see the woman’s legs and arms move around a bit, the main character’s pants drop, and a director suddenly yelling ‘Cut!’ from off the set.
The Australian ratings board has this to say about the scene:
"The computer game is classified RC in accordance with the National Classification Code, Computer Games Table, 1. (a) as computer games that "depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified."
Devolver Digital, the game’s publisher, shared the ratings report with Polygon:
"In the sequence of game play footage titled Midnight Animal, the protagonist character bursts into what appears to be a movie set and explicitly kills 4 people, who collapse to the floor in a pool of copious blood, often accompanied by blood splatter. After stomping on the head of a fifth male character, he strikes a female character wearing red underwear. She is knocked to the floor and is viewed lying face down in a pool of copious blood. The male character is viewed with his pants halfway down, partially exposing his buttocks. He is viewed pinning the female down by the arms and lying on top of her thrusting, implicitly raping her (either rear entry or anally) while her legs are viewed kicking as she struggles beneath him. This visual depiction of implied sexual violence is emphasised by it being mid-screen, with a red backdrop pulsating and the remainder of the screen being surrounded by black."
"This depiction of implied sexual violence exceeds what can be accommodated within the R18+ classification category and the game is therefore Refused Classification."
In a statement, Devolver Digital expressed disappointment over the decision and the rating board’s misconstrual of fact. There is no thrusting depicted, they say, which undermines the entire argument that sexual violence is actually occurring or was allowed to take place before the scene’s director yelled ‘Cut!’"
You can see the scene for yourself in the video below. Note that the player can decide whether to view this scene or a slightly altered one by responding to the game’s warning of allusions to sexual violence.