Treyarch’s hotly anticipated shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops has been issued with an 18 rating by UK ratings body the British Board of Film Classification, it has been confirmed.
Unsurprisingly, the 18 rating was awarded on account of the game’s copious use of strong, bloody violence and strong language. As is the case with most BBFC rating descriptions regarding Call of Duty titles, the ratings body also outlined a few details in regards to the application of game’s weapons and vehicles, which you’ll find below.
The rating describes the game as "a military first-person shooter in which the player takes the role of a member of an elite C.I.A. covert action team operating during the Cold War and attempting to stop the threat of a Soviet chemical weapons project".
In terms of expletives uttered, the BBFC notes, "The game contains uses of strong language which would have been allowed at ’15’ where the Guidelines state that ‘There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘f*ck’)’.
"Milder language in the game includes uses of ‘bastard’, ‘shit’ and ‘bitch’."
As for the violence, let’s just say this isn’t a game you’d want to show off to your dear old Grandmother: "The violence takes the form of the player’s involvement in gun battles with various enemies in which an array of contemporary weapons such as automatic rifles, pistols, grenades and other types of explosive ammunition are available, along with larger weapons such as missile launchers which are carried on ships, helicopters and road vehicles,” the report states.
"The player can also access bladed weapons for stealth attacks and hand-to-hand combat. The battles are intense and conducted from a first-person perspective with impacts registering as blood spurts which vary in strength depending on the weapon and the range at which it is used. More powerful weapons can also cause dismemberment with resultant gory detail and enemies can be set on fire.”
"Although dead bodies can sometimes be used as shields against enemy attacks there is no opportunity to inflict post-mortem damage on downed victims. Whilst most of the intense fighting action, in which the player encounters hordes of enemies, does not linger on injuries or carry a personalised edge, some stealth attacks in which a knife is used to slit an enemy’s throat contain more of a focus on the damage inflicted and some of the non-interactive cutscenes contain stronger bloodshed, for example, in the assassination of a political leader where the action plays out in slow-motion.
"It was these stronger, more focussed moments of bloody violence accumulating through the course of the gameplay that went beyond what may be permitted by the BBFC’s Guidelines at ’15’, which state that ‘Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury’, and which determined the ’18’ category."
Sounds like Black Ops ticks all the right boxes, then. The game launches worldwide on November 9 for PlayStation 3, PC, Xbox 360, Wii and DS.