If you want advice on how to access the games without their low-violence flags, that post is a good place to start. While a re-evaluation is relatively inexpensive, appealing a ban is a more time-consuming and expensive process, which would require Valve to hire a German lawyer. The Reddit post states that “the uncensored version is literally banned and confiscated,” although owning or playing it is not illegal. L4D1 is indexed, meaning the rules that apply to it are similar to those that currently apply to Half-Life, but Valve are apparently able to apply for early re-evaluation. According to a comprehensive Reddit post, the update means that the only remaining censorships apply to the two Left 4 Dead games.
