Content review for this game:
Pertaining to content listed in the upper left corner of this site.

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(This is the first game in the series.)

Blood & gore: There is blood, but it's mild. When you shoot enemies, small and almost undiscernable sprays of blood are produced. It does not linger. There is no option to turn blood off in this game.

Specific scenes of blood & gore:

The second half of the first level takes place in a police station's morgue. Your objective is to find the bodies of two CIA agents and recover their ID implants, so that no one can discover their identities. When you do find their bodies, you see that they've both been shot in the chest, and have had the ID implants removed from their foreheads. Later in the same level, if you lockpick the door to the interrogation room, you will find a bloody and beaten man tied to a chair, but you can't tell if he's dead or just unconscious.

In the next level you overhear a conversation between two of the main villians, it goes something like this:
Enemy #1: "What, did you rip it out with pliers? (referring to the ID implants in previous level).
Enemy #2: "We had some difficulty with Blaustine's chip (one of the dead CIA agents) you can still see some muscle tissue attached.
Enemy #1: "Nasty!"

The fifth level revolves around one of the main villian's mercenaires killing there computer programmers, to cover evidence. Throughout the entire level you will see the mercenaries execute these men. The main character's objective is to save and interrogate one of these computer programmers for information. At a couple points in the level you will overhear the mercenaries speak of things like:
Enemy #1: "You have Blood on your shoes."
Enemy #2: "So I do."
Enemy #1: "This is terrible work!"
Enemy #2: "He (their boss) told me to think of them as sheep (the computer programmers), he says we are thinning the flock.

Enemy #1: "Are you sure he's dead?" (referring to the computer programmer they just killed)
Enemy #2: "Come on, you can see his brain, of course he's dead."

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Violence: This game is about stealth, so the objective is to not get caught. In fact many of the missions don't let you kill anyone, and if you do it's an automatic fail, resulting in you having to restart from the last save. So other than a few key moments of the game, the majority of your missions encourage you to knock your enemies out, not kill them. This is further encouraged by you being given very little lethal ammo, and instead, especially in later missions, given non-lethal ammo. The weapons are also very touchy, and will usually get you killed if you try to run n' gun your way through.

One example of a key "lethal" moment I mentioned above: The seventh level takes place in a slaughter house, where the main villian is going to execute American soldiers on live internet tv. It's your job to stop them. So at the end of the level, when the time comes to stop the execution, the enemy will be killed. There really is no alternative.

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Language: The ESRB didn't mention this in their rating. There are over 10 uses of h**l, 6 uses of d**n, and 3 uses of a**. There are over 5 misuses of God, 3 misuses of Christ, Jesus and Jesus Christ, there is also at least 1 use of bast**d. Other than the main script, your boss will say things like "God d**n it Fisher!" or "Jesus Christ Fisher!" if you fail the mission. Also pedestrians say things like "Jesus!" when they discover you, or when you shoot out light or grab enemies, they will say things like "What the h**l?" or "How the h**l?"

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Closing Comment: This is an amazing game, one of the--if not the best--stealth series out there. With breakthrough graphics (at the time), amazing stealth gameplay, and because of the gameplay the atmosphere is very immersive. The only downside, is that the story is a bit weak. Content-wise, It does have an overall intense setting, and is pretty heavy for a "T" for teen game. So, I recommend this game for ages 14+.