Valve released some new downloadable content for Left 4 Dead 2 on April, 22nd which includes a new campaign, a new game mode, new weapons, and new achievements and avatar awards. It costs 560 Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360 and is free on the PC so let me just say right away, it's a bargain on the 360 and is a necessary download on the PC. I will be addressing the 360 version since there really is no question about whether or not you should download the PC version. If you have Left 4 Dead 2 on PC, get The Passing.
As for 360 (the platform on which I played it) I strongly recommend that you download it. The simple amount of content that you get for only 560 Microsoft Points is more than worth it. It truly is a deal.
As for the quality of that content, it's almost all great. The campaign, known as "The Passing", is enjoyable. More of what you'll find in the other five campaigns just shortened from five acts to three but tweaked with a few small but interesting additions. Additions such as the M60, the golf club, weapon caches, a new uncommon infected (The Fallen Survivor), and even a new song on the jukeboxes. The M60 is similiar to the chainsaw in that you only get so much ammo and then it's gone, while the golf club works just like all the other melee weapons except that there is something incredibly fun about using it that I could not put my finger on. The caches are simply crates full of mass amounts of pipe bombs or molatovs. The Fallen Survivor is interesting because it carries extra items you can pick up if you kill him but interestingly, The Fallen Survivor runs away from you rather than attacking. The new song in the jukeboxes is a new track by The Midnight Riders (the band featured in The Dark Carnival campaign) and it also appears at the wedding part of The Passing campaign. In addition to all these new interesting tweaks The Passing also adds some intriguing twists to the overall cannon of the Left 4 Dead franchise, most notably the death of one of the survivors from the first game (whom you encounter during The Passing). The fact that you run into the original survivors in this DLC (and that one of them dies) were the most hyped aspects of this DLC but ironically it is also one of the only downsides in it. Now I don't wish to provide any spoilers here so all I will say is that meeting the original survivors, and the subsequent death of one of them, all comes off as very anti-climatic. Possibly because those were the two most hyped aspects of the DLC.
The only other real downside to this DLC is the new multiplayer mode, Mutations. The problem I had with it is that it is essentially a weekly random game generator. What I mean is that it isn't it's own game mode, it simply alters a different existing game mode each week. For example; this week is Realism Versus while next week will be something different.
Finally, there are the achievements and avatar awards. The DLC is gracious with its acievements, providing a good amount of Gamerscore in only one playthrough. They are enjoyable to unlock however because they sport the renowned Valve quirkiness. As for the avatar awards, typically they do little to add anything to the overall experience of a game but in this case (due mostly to one unlockable in particular) they are an amazing addition. I do not wish to spoil the surprise but that one unlockable alone would be worth approximately 400 Microsoft Points in the Avatar Marketplace.
Now I am sure I have made this clear from the begginning but Left 4 Dead 2's new Downloadable Content The Passing is a must download. I believe this is true of both the 360 and PC version but, at the risk of editorializing, there is no good reason not to download it for PC seeing as how it's free.
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