Valve, the famous makers of Half-Life, Portal and Team Fortress 2 are notorious for taking a really long time developing games and updates. Ask any fan about how long it took to develop Half-Life 2: Episode 2 after Episode 1. Let’s not even get started on Episode 3 that has been under wraps for years at this point. At the very least, at least they aren’t as bad as 3D Realms and the Duke Nukem fiasco.

With all of that being said though, players of Gordon Freeman are still waiting for the ending of the Half-Life 2 story, but Valve has just released “The Passing” the first batch of DLC for Left 4 Dead 2. This is the second DLC for the Left 4 Dead series overall, with the campaign map “Crash Course” being added last year to the original Left 4 Dead game. “Crash Course” was exactly that for Valve, as it was the first expansion in their first person, co-op zombie shooter. The campaign attempted to fit in as the second map of the game’s five map overarching storyline. While the level was fun, it was very short with the campaign only being broken into two parts, and didn’t really add much to the game overall.

Enter “The Passing” which, like “Crash Course” before it, is trying to insert into an already established narrative arc. Is the end result effective? I am very happy to say that it is a fantastic effort that reminds players just how great Left 4 Dead 2 is, and passes the torch from the first set of Survivors to the new heroes of New Orleans.

“The Passing” picks up right where the first campaign map of Left 4 Dead 2, “Dead Center”, left off. Coach, Ellis, Rochelle and Nick have filled up the gas tank to their stock car, made it out of the mall, and are traveling down to New Orleans where they hope they can get rescued by the military. On the way though, they end up in Georgia and find that the bridge they need to cross needs to be lowered. To add another layer of drama ontop of that, wouldn’t you know it, but all of the survivors from the first Left 4 Dead are there as well. All except one that is.