The Division 2 Age Rating | Is it safe for children?

Ubisoft’s new tactical third-person shooter, The Division 2, will be available to play on PC, PS4, and Xbox One later this week. The Division 2 will see players navigating Washington D.C. in a civil war conflict that has arisen among the survivors of the smallpox pandemic, set seven months after the events of the original game. Of course, many people are wondering what The Division 2 age rating is, with themes of conflict and civil war assessed in The Division 2 ESRB rating. Read on to find out more about the game’s content, and help decide is it safe for children?

The Division 2 Age Rating | Is it safe for children?

With an ESRB Mature rating, you would understandably question whether your children should play The Division 2. The ESRB’s rating specifies that the game includes “Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language” in gameplay and story events, in addition to in-game microtransactions. The full ESRB summary is listed below, which explains that players are expected to use weapons against enemies to progress in the story. As such, graphic scenes of violence are common in The Division 2, as well as multiple references to drug use in the game environment and story.

Based on this information, you may decide that The Division 2 isn’t suitable for your children, but there are still plenty of alternative games that may be more child-friendly. Two other options can be found in the third-person shooter Destiny 2, and more recently Anthem, which both share the same co-op story elements as The Division 2. Both of these third-person shooters have the same facility for multiple players to progress through the story together, but are attributed with a more amenable ESRB Teen rating and PEGI 16 rating. In short, this means that the violent elements of both games are less graphic in nature.

In their assessment of The Division 2, the ESRB summarised:

This is a tactical third-person shooter in which players assume the role of an elite government agent battling hostile factions in a fictionalized Washington D.C. Players use machine guns, sniper rifles, and explosives to kill waves of enemy soldiers/thugs in frenetic combat. Firefights are highlighted by realistic gunfire, cries of pain, and blood-splatter effects. Cutscenes depict instances of intense violence: characters shot in the head at close range; a restrained character struck repeatedly with a hammer (mostly off screen). A fictional drug called Spice is prevalent in the game, as well as other drug references: bags of Spice, drug labs, drug-making paraphernalia depicted; the words “Drug Kitchen” written on some walls. The words “f**k,” “sh*t,” and “a*shole” appear in the dialogue.