With a quicker-than-usual turnaround, I have here the Classification Board's report on Silent Hill: Homecoming.

Those of you thinking that all the killing and violence involved in the series had something to do with the restrictions are correct - the Board found that the game contained violence that is "high in impact", and that is what prompted their decision.

We have all the other details - including some gory highlights (and potential spoilers!) - as contained in the Board's report.


For those who don't know, Silent Hill: Homecoming is:

"...a third-person perspective horror-fantasy game in which the player assumes the identity of Alex Shepherd who embarks on a quest to find his younger brother. Alex comes into contact with a wide range of fantastic and grotesque creatures."

So far, so good. It's what Alex does with this wide range of grotesque creatures that is the problem, apparently. To put it simply - he has to kill them, out of self-defence, in order to progress through the game. There's also a few human creatures which he meets along the way, interacting with them - and often killing them, too.


These creatures and "zombie-like humans" are encountered in the abandoned buildings Alex visits, "such as a prison and a hospital". In the battles, Alex and the creatures use weapons and found-weapons such as "guns, metal bars, daggers, electric drills and saws".

"The violence is considered highly impactful in such scenes as where an electric drill is explicitly forced through Alex's right eye socket, remaining there for an extended period as Alex screams and blood sprays from the wound. There are several scenarios in which this means of death is used, on one occasion the drill being wielded by a zombie-nurse and on another by a woman named Margaret. In an alternative scenario, Alex turns the drill on his attacker and the drill is explicitly forced up through the woman's chin until she falls to the floor with the drill embedded in her skull."

...tasty stuff. It doesn't stop there though, with the report continuing, and detailing some of the other creatures Alex meets on his travels.

"The monsters Alex encounters are a strange mélange of human and monster. In one scene Alex encounters a creature with a human body shape and a long, barbed, spade-shaped head. Using his head as a weapon, the creature explicitly bisects Alex, the two parts of the body lying separately on the ground, with copious blood spray."

This is all on top of the frequent attacks, fights, wounding, torture and death, including explicit decapitations of both human and non-human creatures. The report explains that there is also "significant blood detail" around the dead bodies and partially dismembered corpses that form part of the scenery of the game. Blood features heavily in the game, with all of the ingame violence resulting in blood-spray, with many interiors stained red and objects coated or spattered. While the actual sprays disappear, the walls and floor often remain discoloured.


In closing:

The Board considers that the cumulative effect of this type of violence is high and as such cannot be accommodated at the MA 15+ classification.

...and so, Silent Hill: Homecoming is currently Refused Classification in Australia. It is worth noting that the Guidelines for the Classification of Films and Computer Games state that: "Impact may be higher where a scene encourages interactivity", so while some of this content may be appropriate in a film or television program, the fact it is a game prompts the Board to scrutinise things more closely.

Local distributors Atari Australia have three main options at this point: accept the ruling and move on - denying Australians a chance to play the game; to submit an appeal if they believe the judgement is inappropriate for whatever reason; or to edit the game and submit a new version without the offensive content - giving Australians the ability to play a censored copy. We have contacted Atari for comment or any insight into their planned next move, and are waiting for their response.