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hart · Jan 12, 2004, 08:55 AM

Before I fire up Halo with my 5 year old son I thought I'd ask what makes it get a Mature rating.

We've played the NOLF games together and Elite Force and Jedi Knight II, all teen games but they have been generally fine. So how is Halo worse exactly?

Thanks for any info.

Turias · Jan 12, 2004, 09:16 AM

Lots of alien killing. Maybe some excessive green alien blood, but nothing too horrible, as far as I remember.

MindFad · Jan 12, 2004, 11:29 AM

Single player has a little bit of strong language from Marines in particular levels. "I'll get the bastard," is about the worst thing I can think of.

Other than that, green, orange, and teal alien blood. Almost goofy, but the game has a serious feel to it�enough so to earn it the mature rating, I suppose. There's also red blood when Master Chief is shot (also in multiplayer), but it's nothing over the top�no spraying or gore or anything. There are some shooting off of limbs and brownish blood later in the game, without ruining the story for you. I'd suggest giving it a run for a few minutes and seeing if *you* think it'll be cool for your boy. If you two are just going to mess around with multiplyaer, it's no biggy�it's just master chief and small amounts of blood on the floor.

eyadams · Jan 12, 2004, 11:47 AM

First, I have to correct you: NOLF and NOLF2 both have a "Mature" rating. Jedi Knight II, Elite Force, and Elite Force II are rated Teen.

Anyway, according to the ESRB's web site (www.esrb.org) the difference between Teen and Mature is that Mature titles "may contain mature sexual themes, more intense violence and/or strong language", while Teen games "may contain violent content, mild or strong language, and/or suggestive themes".

I've played Halo, Elite Force, and NOLF (I'm waiting for MacPlay to fix NOLF2 before I can play it - grrrr). I'd say there's little or no difference in the violent content between them - Elite Force certainly has sections with "more intense violence". But a "Mature" rating can come from other story elements as well - for example, there's a lot of drinking and smoking in the NOLF games - and we certainly don't want our small children thinking that smoking and drinking are cool. :-) Also, that Cate Archer is something of a potty mouth, if in a fetchingly Scottish manner.

Check out the ESRB web site. They have a long list of things they consider besides violence. All things considered, I would guess that EF is only "Teen" because there's a fair amount of story - it isn't all just running around shooting things. The same is true of NOLF, of course, but it also has the smoking and drinking and partial nudity and sexual innuendo and mature humor (try flushing a toilet) and so on. Halo is probably mature because of the nature of combat, the comments of the marines in the early levels ("You stay dead!"), and the fact that at the end they talk about how everybody is dead.

Luca Rescigno · Jan 12, 2004, 11:55 AM

I think it's because of the flood (an enemy that appears later in the game). Shooting aliens and seeing purple blood everywhere is probably enough to warrant a "Teen" rating (nothing like the bloody dismemberment present in many first person shooters), but the flood are kinda gross. They "eat" people and make some of them go insane. There isn't a whole lot of bad language - the marines have pretty clean language for soldiers. There are absolutely no sexual themes or innuendo whatsoever.

Horsepoo!!! · Jan 12, 2004, 12:09 PM

Sex scenes between one of the marines and an alien.

Arkham_c · Jan 12, 2004, 02:15 PM

You really let your 5-year old play NOLF?

I have a 3 1/2-year-old. He plays "Rescue Heroes" and similar, more positively-themed games. I save the FPS games for after he goes to bed.

To each their own I guess.

Ghoser777 · Jan 12, 2004, 03:58 PM

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
Sex scenes between one of the marines and an alien.

ehw

Matt Fahrenbacher

misc · Jan 12, 2004, 05:38 PM

I've heard the F word once. And there is something about nipples on the last level.

I'm sure it got a mature rating because of all of the killing.

OwlBoy · Jan 12, 2004, 07:20 PM

Yeah, and there is a lot of Red blood in multiplayer. (and single if you let em kill you

)

-Owl

nforcer · Jan 12, 2004, 11:25 PM

Originally posted by misc:
I've heard the F word once.

I could be wrong, but I seem to recall something where other people thought they heard that same word in the game. Someone from Bungie, I think it was Marty, claimed that they don't have that word in the game. So whatever you think you heard couldn't have been.

If I had the link I would plug it, but I can't seem to find it right now.

hart · Jan 13, 2004, 10:08 AM

Oh yeah, NOLF 1 and 2 are Mature. I was confusing it with the ratings on the Tomb Raider series. Well, that's ...wierd. Do you mean to tell me that NOLF has the same rating as the Grand Theft Auto games? The game ratings don't seem at all similar to movie ratings. I'd say Pirates of the Caribbean (movie rated PG-13 AND from Disney AND marketted to children) was significantly more suggestive and violent than either NOLF game. The innuendo in NOLF flew right over my son's head. Then again Finding Nemo (the movie) had him under the chair crying so what's scarey for little kids seems to be more complex than just shooting.

I'm pretty squeamish and a big chicken when it comes to scarey stuff so most of the time if I'm not scared the kiddies aren't either and vice versa. In games with the Turn Off Blood Splatters option we've tried it both ways and I'm not sure blood splatters really effect scariness that much. It's more about outright cruelty and evil intent perhaps.

SOAPBOX WARNING: I've had lots of reason to think about what games I play with my son over the years. We do have the whole Rescue Heroes/Reader Rabbit type collection and it gets some play along with the Living Books type stuff. We started down this path of FPS games when he was about 3 1/2 with Otto Matic and Bugdom 1 and 2. I'm a big one for maintaining the innocence of childhood (like no commercial kids' TV is usually allowed, only PBS) but I'm not convinced from observing him that this largely fantasy/sci fi based genre is really...what, corrupting? him. For me, it seems similar to when I was a kid and we blasted through the woods playing "Cowboys and Indians" (now long vanished into the PC mists), killing every imaginary enemy in sight.

I don't think the whole story is in on what computer games really DO to people's brains but so far actual evidence that they make you do bad things in real life is pretty thin on the ground. Here's something that he's very interested in and very good at so as long as he has other activities and shows no signs of incipient psycho-killerness I'm happy to blast some aliens with him.

(climbs off soapbox)

PS, I'm the mother (Dad doesn't know a First Person Shooter from a browser)

Jaey · Jan 13, 2004, 05:51 PM

Heh, I must be extremely sexist. But yeah, Halo should be fine for your son.

Chimpmaster · Jan 13, 2004, 06:27 PM

Guys,

Sorry to break up the party, but Im horrified that anyone would purchase Halo for a child under the age of about 12.

Ive played it extensively on my xbox, and the segment in particular where you land on an alien planet and enter a crypt full of zombies is very graphic. The zombies are quite scary and gory when they

(a) jump out at you and attempt to eat you
(b) you shoot them in the face with a shotgun and the mess associated with this.

I let my 13 year old nephew play this game with me, under my supervision, but I do not let my 10 year old niece play it or even see us playing it.

It is very much a point and shoot game, and despite the fact that you are shooting aliens and zombies, this is still a graphic title and definitely not suitable for young children, in my opinion.

Just as I would not let them see a movie like The Evil dead, I would not let them see this game. Sorry guys, but I felt I had to say something.

When comparing with Jedi knight II and Elite force, halo is far more graphic and atmospheric, plus you see your fellow soldiers who are human get ripped to shreds by aliens and zombies.

Some of the rooms are so splattered with blood its not funny.

a2daj · Jan 13, 2004, 09:58 PM

When does copious amounts of blood get funny again because I was laughing hysterically while watching Kill Bill?

Leonard · Jan 15, 2004, 01:18 PM

There was so much blood in Kill Bill that it was stupid. It's like their idea was "let's get a dozen tanker trucks of blood and hook it up to everybody that get's sliced and diced". When things get so exagerated, it just becomes hilarious.

I hate to be sexist, but a woman who's into FPS, that's gotta be one in a million. At least you found something to have fun with, with your son.

lenox · Jan 15, 2004, 02:56 PM

You guys are all forgetting the nude marine shower scene in the beginning. That would have scarred me for life had I been wearing my glasses.

Oh wait, I'm lying.

Jaey · Jan 15, 2004, 03:13 PM

Even though Halo is a shooting game, I don't think it's actually that gory or bloody at all. Blood doesn't stay, I hardly even notice it. Until you get to the flood, the enemies aren't that gross or creepy. There also is no "mess associated" with shooting an enemy in the head with a shot gun. They either die. They don't, or if they're the flood, their head falls off (which does sound gory, but it looks more like the top of a lamp post falling off than anything else).

Turias · Jan 15, 2004, 03:20 PM

It might barely deserve a 'Mature" rating, but still, I think a 5-year-old is a little young to be subjected to a game like Halo.

eevyl · Jan 15, 2004, 06:12 PM

I have to agree that Halo doesn't seem as a game for a little child, specially because he/she won't have much fun playing it.

However I really don't give a dime about age ratings, "green blood" or that kind of things.

The thing is to educate the children just right, tell them what is good and bad, tell them about death when it is the time, about sex, whatever. Games are, well, games. The sad thing is that some parents would like that games, TV and music "magically" educate their children without them worrying a bit, and when that happens is when the poor childs get confused and you know, let's frag my friends with my daddy "lasergun"

Jaey · Jan 15, 2004, 10:16 PM

Heh, or his railgun

But seriously, that's a really good point. I guess I never though about it like that.

hart · Jan 18, 2004, 07:22 AM

I bought Halo, like all the other games, for me. The ones that aren't too hard, or too scarey he get's too play or watch, depending. (Halo won't work on his computer anyway as the system requirements are too stiff.) But my conclusion from this little outing is that the game ratings are not exactly helpful. Which is why I was asking here in the first place: to find out if it IS too scarey for him.

Coincidentally, he gave me a fairly extensive lecture himself the other day about how it's not OK to use real guns and shoot real people and that real life is different from games and how sad it would make him feel for people to die. What could I say but yes indeed, good thoughts. My family and extended family are actually a pretty hardcore dyed-in-the-wool leftist, anti-gun group and our thoughts and feelings on real life violence are clearly and regularly discussed, especially with the world the way it is today.

I think eevyl's point is the true crux of the matter. These games don't exist in a vacuum. They can be either a safe outlet for the kind of hunter/killer, adrenalin-rush-seeking instincts that seem to still linger on in the gene pool or they can feed aggression and hostility in isolated, angry people. It depends on the total environment.

Anyway, I could go on and on here but this is almost turning into a Lounge topic. So....thanks for the info on blood spatters etc. I think I'll fire up the game by myself to monitor overall scare factor and proceed from there.

moonmonkey · Jan 23, 2004, 01:18 AM

Originally posted by Jaey:
Even though Halo is a shooting game, I don't think it's actually that gory or bloody at all. Blood doesn't stay, I hardly even notice it. Until you get to the flood, the enemies aren't that gross or creepy. There also is no "mess associated" with shooting an enemy in the head with a shot gun. They either die. They don't, or if they're the flood, their head falls off (which does sound gory, but it looks more like the top of a lamp post falling off than anything else).

You can run people over and their bones crunch.

hart · Jan 23, 2004, 10:50 AM

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
You can run people over and their bones crunch.

that's a tad grim.

Arkham_c · Jan 23, 2004, 12:39 PM

Originally posted by hart:
that's a tad grim.

I've never heard that. I unfortunately seem to get run over all the time in Halo. Some people seem to think that's all there is to the game. I don't like playing "Blood Gulch" for that reason. If you're not in a vehicle, you're as good as dead on that map.

misc · Jan 23, 2004, 04:48 PM

To each their own.... He was asking why it was rated Mature, not for your parenting advice...

nforcer: I think I remember reading that.. Sorry about that!

Angus_D · Jan 24, 2004, 03:56 AM

Originally posted by OwlBoy:
Yeah, and there is a lot of Red blood in multiplayer. (and single if you let em kill you )

I thought Master Chief wasn't human?

Chimpmaster · Feb 8, 2004, 08:23 PM

Its the fact that you are part of a platoon most of the time and you see the aliens slay your team-mates, who are screaming and getting all cut up that makes this title unsuitable as opposed to say quake 3, in my opinion.

I love this game personally, and as I said, I have no problem playing it with my 13 year old nephew.

Id categorise playing this game as a similar level of gore, violence and realism to say the movie "aliens".

Its up to you as a responsible adult what you allow your children to see, but I would never show this kind of game or encourage its use to a child under the age of about 11-12, regardless of his/her intelligence or maturity.

blizzard · Feb 8, 2004, 11:37 PM

Originally posted by Angus_D:
I thought Master Chief wasn't human?

Cybernetically enhanced human, was my understanding.

Holigen · Feb 11, 2004, 01:24 AM

Ill set your guys's records straight. Having read all three of the Halo books, I can safely say that the Master Chief (aka John or Spartan-117) is a human that was picked at the time of his birth. He has been trained to kill since childhood and in his late teens, he underwent several chemical enhancements (reflexes, strength, etc) that improved his abilities even further. Later, the Spartans were introduced to the first prototypes of MJOLNIR, the armor that Master Chief wears. In the beginning, the only thing this armor provided was an atmosphere, faster reflexes, strength, some protection, and other stuff. The final protoype, however, allows a Spartan to load shipgrade AIs (Cortana) and adds energy shielding. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread...