8 Times Censorship Almost Ruined Your Favourite Video Games
3. Left 4 Dead's Bloodthirsty Zombies Run Away When They're Hurt
Left 4 Dead is an inherently violent game. A multiplayer shooter that's all about getting a team of survivors from one safe house to the next, you mow down hundreds of zombies in any given level, dispatching them with both regular firearms as well as messy personal weapons like chainsaws.
Unfortunately, all of that zombie-killing violence didn't make its way to the Australian or German versions of the game. Instead of exploding into a bloody mess when meeting the tip of your shotgun, in this version the enemies just disappear when they're shot, with the impact never being seen. Likewise, instead of burning to a crisp when hit with a molotov cocktail, the zombies would run away from the screen and never return.
It's all pretty standard stuff as far as censorship goes, but the changes were so egregious because they actually made the performance of the game worse. Matches became glitchy, and the new animations could cause the AI to freak out, resulting in an experience that was objectively worse than other verisons on the market.