Left 4 Dead Recieves BBFC Rating

Sierra Oscar · October 4th, 2008, 02:03 PM

Left 4 Dead has received its British Board of Film Classification - and it has been rated 18's, with frequent strong bloody violence and gore being cited as the main reason. No game cuts have been required to pass the game.

LEFT 4 DEAD is a team-based action horror game played from the first-person perspective. Each player takes the role of one of four human survivors in a ruined city, desperately trying to survive against a horde of the undead. The game was classified '18' for frequent strong bloody violence and gore.

The player has at their disposal a range of weapons from a pistol to machine guns, shotguns and grenades. While weapons such as the pistol and small machine guns cause blood to spurt from characters' bodies when they are hit, higher-powered items such as the machine gun, shotgun and sniper rifle are capable of blasting off limbs or even heads, with chunks of flesh seen falling to the ground. The environments (e.g. walls, floors) are also covered with blood in an area where characters have been shot. Dead bodies are occasionally seen on the ground and some of these have been eviscerated with sight of entrails, missing limbs and so on.

At '15' The BBFC's Guidelines state that 'violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury', and that 'the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable'. LEFT 4 DEAD includes frequent sight of such gory images, and the player is generally unable to progress through a level without shooting dozens of enemies, with an arsenal of realistic weapons that cause bloody damage throughout. The game was therefore classified '18'.

Language in the game includes mild and moderate language, such as 'shit' and 'bitch'.
This work was passed with no cuts made.

Source: BBFC