The Hotline Miami 2 demo, which contained a controversy sparking rape scene, has now been altered.
According to Hotline Miami 2 co creator Dennis Wedin, there is context for this section, but it is obviously lost during the demo section as it of course isolated from the rest of the game.
When speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, Wedin said; “We’re going to work with it, see if we can fix it. You get a bigger picture when you play the whole game, which is lost in the demo of course.”
When RPS quizzed him on whether or not this part of the game would appear in the final version, Wedin admitted that he wasn’t sure.
We’ll see. We’re gonna see how people react to it when we test the whole game. We’ll get opinions and stuff like that. We’ll see how we can present this in a good way. In a way that we want it to come across. Not just as provocative. That’s not our meaning at all.”
Wedin’s comments come in response to a PC Gamer hands on with the preview build, and obviously they took issue with the game’s depiction of rape. According to that same report, the scene is part of an in game filming session. Shortly after the scene ends, you see the Director call “Cut!”.
In my opinion, it’s a real shame that they have come under fire for this. Yes, rape is a sensitive subject, but if films, books and even TV series (Sons of Anarchy, anyone?) can touch on it, why can’t games? If games ever want to be taken seriously as a art platform, then we need to be allowed to deal with sensitive issues. Obviously sensitive issues need to be dealt with appropriately, but that will never happen if we react this way whenever developers try. Here’s hoping that this reaction does not result in this scene being cut from the game.
