Why Batman: Arkham Knight is rated M

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Batman: Arkham Knight has received an M rating from the ESRB for containing naughty things like swearing and violence. But it must have to be fairly severe to cross the Teen/Mature dividing line, right? Eurogamer scooped a few details from ESRB's summary. Beware, there are spoilers ahead.

"This is an action-adventure game in which players primarily assume the role of Batman as he battles several villains spreading chaos across Gotham City. Players traverse a variety of locations around Gotham while battling thugs, examining crime scenes, and occasionally rescuing hostages. Players engage in melee-style combat using punches, kicks, and gadgets (e.g., batarangs, explosives). Enemies cry out in pain when struck, and some takedowns are highlighted by brief slow-motion effects and loud impact sounds. Some sequences allow players to use tank-like vehicles with machine gun turrets and rockets to shoot enemies; a vehicle's wheels are also used to torture an enemy in one sequence. Cutscenes depict characters getting shot (on and off camera) while restrained or unarmed. Large bloodstains/pools of blood appear in crime scenes and in the aftermath of violent acts; one room depicts a person torturing a character on a bloody operating table. During the course of the game, players can shoot unarmed characters and a hostage. Neon signs in a red-light district read "live nude girls" and "XXX." The words "b*tch," "gobsh*te," and "a*s" appear in the dialogue."

The most notable part has to be the fact that "players can shoot unarmed characters and a hostage". Shooting people isn't really Batman's thing, unless he's using rubber bullets in the Batmobile, perhaps we'll play as someone else during the campaign.

Also, the word "gobshite". That has to be the Penguin.

Batman has a good reason for upping his violence quotient. In Arkham Knight his worst enemies are working together to destroy him, as they publicly announce in the latest Arkham Knight trailer.

Tom Senior
Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.