Left 4 Dead 2- The Passing DLC Review

Left 4 Dead 2 – The Passing

What’s the best cure for a hangover? Well, besides grabbing another brewski, I’d say taking a nice titanium shafted driver to the skulls of some Zombie foe with one, two or preferably three of your online buddies, which should do the trick. There’s just something about hunkering down with a few good pals (or making a few new alliances) and splattering blood of the undead across your flat screen that should help quell that gargling in the pit of your stomach. Luckily for us, Left 4 Dead 2’s newest DLC expansion, The Passing, offers up some nice ingredients to add to our hangover cure. After a few bouts of Mutation mode, you probably won’t even be bothered with the memories of how much of an ass you made of yourself last night.

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What’s Good

Shiny Toys: Not Just for Kids Anymore - As a survivor of the latest post-apocalyptic event, you are always looking for the latest and most effective way to dispel of your local undead community. Problem is, with these slinking freaks taking over just about every nook and cranny, you are hard pressed to find very much in the way of innovative Zombie killing gear. Instead, you find comfort in the smaller things. Like, say, coming across a newly re-gripped golf club. It may not seem like much at first, but once you go all Tiger Woods (and I don’t mean whore around with flesh-rotting swine!) and tee up a few Z-noggins, you’d be amazed at just how comforted and satisfied you feel. A new M-60 machine gun is just as pleasurable to wield, though in my haste to survive I found that I only came across the new weapon a couple of times, but still found its Zombie shredding ability just as fun and effective.

Mutate My Expectations - After playing through the 3-episode campaign a few times and then jumping into some Versus and Survival action, I felt shortly slighted and not entirely satisfied, even with the new weapons and zombie type (“uncommon common” zombie). It was one of those “been there, done that sort” of things as there’s no discernible value to the new campaign sequence in terms of story development and I’ve been around the block in L4D multiplayer.  Mutations were just the fixer upper I needed, and really is one of the more ingenious ideas for multiplayer I have seen in a while. Mutations take well-known modes of multiplayer and tweak them oh so slightly to give a fresh and innovative approach so as to give you that rush of taking your first undead life all over again. Okay, so maybe that moment of nostalgia will be lost on many of you, but the idea of weekly-mutated game modes is still just as juicy, and that you can’t deny. It will be interesting to see how the game modes cycle in the long run, but for now this mode alone is worth the 560 MP points, if you have a knack for spilling Z blood in new, fun, and exciting ways.

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What’s Bad

Brief Encounters - I mentioned the brief encounters with the M-60 previously, but there were several other moments that felt all too fleeting. The “uncommon common” Zombie true to its name was uncommonly common. In similar fashion to the M-60, even though I played several times through the new campaign episodes, I rarely encountered this new Zombie type. I’m not complaining as I had my hands full with the everyday Zombie horde, but I was rather looking forward to decapitating this new manifestation of the undead.

The Passing was highly billed as an opportunity to encounter the original Z wrecking crew from L4D1, but this too was nothing more than a “passing” moment. The encounter produces nothing more than a few exchanges of dialogue and a brief moment where the Z killing vets give you some sniper support. The DLC failed to take advantage of the opportunity to bridge the two story lines together, but perhaps that leaves a window of opportunity for a future DLC? One can only wish.

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PC gurus don’t have to worry about the conundrum of whether to shell out dough for this piece of DLC, as you lucky kiddies get access for free. As for the 360 crowd, you have quite the decision on your hands, but the longer you wait the more you will undoubtedly miss out on with the Mutations mode underway. Honestly, Mutations mode alone is worth the 560 Microsoft points, with over 20 mutations currently planned. That means at least 20 weeks of fresh and unique ways to dispose of flesh-rotting drones. But, throw in a couple new weapons, a new zombie type and a new mini campaign (3 new multiplayer maps) for only about 7 smackers? That’s a mighty fine price for a hangover cure and stress reliever all in one shiny DLC package. The fact that doubles up as a great stress reliever is just the icing on the cake (if you work in an office, you know what I’m talking about here.)

*A Code for The Passing was provided to MMOMFG from Valve for the Xbox 360 for reviewing purposes

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