The ESRB has given us a few reason why Bioshock 2 was given it’s mature rating and part of it being due to “intense acts of violence,”

Intense acts of violence are as follows: players can use telekinesis to bring enemies close-up before drilling them to death—blood splatters in all directions; players can freeze enemies and allow them to shatter into pieces; players can set fire to enemies, or electrocute them in standing pools of water. In addition to the spurts of blood from combat, players will sometimes encounter smears of blood on walls and floors, and corpses lying in pools of blood—or spiked onto walls with rivets. When players come across a “special” corpse, they may set down the Little Sister and allow her to harvest ADAM (a DNA-modifying substance); the depiction of a child-like creature using a needle to draw fluid from a corpse can be somewhat unsettling (though overtly fantastical).

While that does seem pretty “intense,”  they make it out to be like a massacre of some kind. As I was reading that I was thinking “wow this sounds really violent!” but after playing the first Bioshock, I feel it’s not as bad as they make it sound.  Although they do a great job at making it sound more violent than it really is, they also me want to play it sooner rather than later.  Bioshock 2 is set to hit stores on February 9th.

BioShock 2 [ESRB via SF Examiner]