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

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Language: There are 4 uses of h**l, 6 uses of d**n, 1 uses of a**, 2 uses of b****rd, and 6 misuses of God. Other than the main script, enemies will say, "D**n!", "Stop you b****rd!", "What the h**l?!", "Dumb a**!", "S**t!" (only used in 2 level), and "God d**n!" during fire-fights. All of the enemies speak English and utter those listed above in the early levels. But, about half way through the game, enemies only curse in Japanese.

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Mild suggestive themes: An early level takes place in a Japanese "massage parlor," where you see some of the women and their "bedrooms." Both are dressed in gaudy fashion. However, there is no actual "clients" in the beds. Near the end of this level you see a man with a couple of hired girls in hot tub, but they're well covered, and there's nothing going on.

A later level's objective is to save some Geisha girls. During this level you see a couple of scantily clad women dancing on a stage, before running for their lives, when your fire-fight starts.

A couple of songs in the game's soundtrack have girls moaning and singing in a slightly suggestive tone. Although, this is offset by the fact that these songs are extremely annoying.

Last but not least, you see several people drinking or holding bottles of alcohol; there is a level that takes place in a gambling joint; and, there's also some light drug reference, but no use.

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Violence: This game is all about shooting and fighting, is a bit intense and chaotic, with partially destructable enviroments. But overall the violence is pretty mild compared to other games of its kind. Your character starts out with just a pistol, but eventually ends up aquiring a shotgun, a couple different types of machine guns, sniper rifle, a sword, etc. You can only carry two at any given time, not including the sword.

You'll be fighting dozens of Japanese gang members with these weapons. There is no blood whatsoever in cutscenes or gameplay. However, when you shoot someone in the head, you do hear something brief on impact. It sounds like a mixed crunching/squishing noise, and could gross some weaker listeners out. A form of this sound effect (which is much more mild) also carries into the sword play, and happens whenever you or the enemy makes contact with a sword. But, like I said, the sound is very brief, and beyond this there is no gratuitous violence and absolutely no gore. Other than this, you can sometimes use the environment to kill enemies, like shooting gas-tanks, cars and electrical panels.

There are several one-on-one sword fights in the game, and when you defeat an enemy (which are sometimes women), they will drop to their knees and await their fates. You have the option to either give them one last swipe with your sword, killing them, or you can pull back your sword and spare their life. The game rewards you with respect points if you choose to do the latter. Also worth mentioning is that you can't shoot/kill civilians or allies.

The last technique with firearms is the focus mode and is limited by a meter. With this mode time stops, and you can then target specific parts of multiple enemy bodies, which means you can aim for the head and the heart, killing them, or aim for their gun and shoot it out of their hands. If you do the latter, and nod up and down to let them know to drop it, you will gain respect points.

Also, there is a pretty trippy level with men dressed as Japanese school girls and Godzilla, huge eggs, demented bunny statues, manequins, rollercoasters, etc. Overall it's just a really weird level with the feel of Alice in Wonderland or Willy Wonka, only more demented.

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Closing comment: Overall this game is pretty fun. If you can get used to the shooting controls, they are one of the more accurate and intuitive (other than turning) in really any console shooter. However, the sword fighting and platforming portions are atrocious, and should have been cut (pun intended) altogether. This game is pretty mild violence-wise, as it has no blood or gore, and the suggestive themes are extremely mild. But, there is a bit of language, and even though there's no blood or gore, it is pretty violent and chaotic. Add all this and the frustrating controls, and I think that kids 13- could find better alternatives than this. So, I recommend this game for ages 14+.