Robots in Half-Life (German version)?

[Ze_ro]

I was recently informed via #vbender that when Half-Life was released in Germany, Valve censored it by changing many of the characters to robots in order to get it past the strict German censorship laws. Some links seem to confirm that this version does indeed exist:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/half-life/trivia

http://www.hlfallout.net/forums/inde...hreaded&start=

However, the specifics seem to be impossible to find... pretty much all the links I find are just full of complaints regarding German law with no real information. Doesn't it screw up the storyline if all the aliens are robots, or did they change the story? What about Nihilanth (the end boss), Gonarch (that alien with the giant nads that you shoot), or those tentacles that you sneak past in the beginning of the game? Did they change all the character models, or just make new textures for them? Was Xen left with it's "organic" look?

Has anyone played this version of the game? Can anyone find any screen shots?

--Zero

[roushimsx]

God damnit, if this is true then I'm going to have to hunt down a German copy of Half Life to play through.

...also, if anyone happens to get their dick beaters on the final Mac build of the game, I'd love to play through that at some point as well. Hopefully it leaks onto the net at some point like the Dreamcast version did.

[Kitsune Sniper]

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/half-life/trivia mentions a bit of it. What did you expect? German censors are pussies when it comes to game violence.

[Bratwurst]

Is that possibly the reason behind the robot player model in multiplayer Half Life?

[UniHamachi]

This is nothing new -- they did this for the German version of Turok on the N64. All aliens replaced with robots.

[108Stars]

Yes, just browse eBay Germany. Only the version with robots is sold here. You can get it very cheap.

[Steve W]

I know that the German version of Carmageddon replaced all the pedestrians with robots.

[Bluteg]

Germany does it to piss off gamers and mgriff. Imagine Half-Life were the AI are all T-1000s.

[108Stars]

Carmageddon had no robots, but Zombies as I recall.
Basically, it is not Germany who does those changes; it´s the publishers who change it. They don´t want it to be banned: if banned, it may still be sold to people over 18, but not advertised, and it has to be kept in a place were no children have access (so you mustn´t put it in the shelves everybody can see).
This is really bad for us customers: We have to live with badly censored games, and those who are uncensored and get banned are not sold in your average electronics market. Personally I would like to see Half-Life with human soldiers.

[Bluteg]

This is nothing new -- they did this for the German version of Turok on the N64. All aliens replaced with robots.

OK THAT'S IT. Debate over Germany just has a strange robot fetish.

[ProgrammingAce]

I used to have an iso of this. we're going back almost 10 years, but i think they just did a model swap for robots. As for the final levels, i dunno. My save was corrupt and i couldn't go through the teleporter to reach Xan (or whatever the hell the planet was called).

[Push Upstairs]

I don't like this anti-robot agenda Germany is pushing.

We must welcome our mechanical friends with open arms!

[Ze_ro]

pretty much all the links I find are just full of complaints regarding German law with no real information.

+1

So no one has any useful information about this version, other than "it exists"?

--Zero

[108Stars]

What should I say? It exists, all human soldiers have been replaced with robots, they are talking with typical robot clichee-voices...
Ah, and the human npcs have no real dying animation, but are just sitting down and shaking their heads...this is the most ridiculous cut I have ever seen in a game. Usually they just don´t bleed and get their heads blown off etc.

[Ed Oscuro]

Was I the person who told you, Ze_ro?

I went searching for this a while back; didn't find any copies on eBay at the moment but it's gotten crappy about making you do multiple searches for international items.

[108Stars]

Just visit ebay.de directly , the game is super-common and cheap. It is the easiest thing to get.