The Passing

"The Passing will become the most important campaign in the Left 4 Dead story, as all the Survivors are being called together in one campaign."

- Doug Lombardi

The Passing is the first Downloadable Content (DLC) campaign for Left 4 Dead 2. It was released on April 22, 2010. It includes a new campaign and "new co-operative challenge modes of play" and introduces a new firearm, the M60; the Golf Club, and a new Uncommon Common Infected called the Fallen Survivor.

The Passing takes place between Dead Center and Dark Carnival and is set in the suburban town of Rayford, Georgia. One of the most highly advertised features of this campaign is a meet-up between the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors and three of the Survivors from Left 4 Dead. However the original Survivors are not playable and play very minor cameo roles in the story, showing up at the very beginning and very end of the campaign. The campaign is playable in all of the current game modes, as well as the newly featured ones. It is free for PC, and costs 560MSP on the Xbox 360. On Xbox 360, the download size is 284.04 MB.

The campaign is called "The Passing," which could be interpreted in several ways. It may simply be referring to the passing of the two parties. It could also be idiomatic in the sense of "The passing of the torch" from one set of Survivors to the other and which is referenced in an Achievement unlocked upon completing the campaign. But it also may refer to the "passing" of Bill, who gave up his life to save the others. Bill's death and the appearance of the Fallen Survivors also explain why the campaign's tagline is "Nobody survives forever." By way of explanation, Valve released a DLC for Left 4 Dead called The Sacrifice in which the players work through a new campaign, leading up to the bridge-failed generator scenario and ending with one player giving up their life to let the other three Survivors escape. A digital comic book also shows what happened to the original Survivors before and after the events of Left 4 Dead.

Available inside the campaign only

 * The Fallen Survivor.
 * The M60.
 * The Golf Club.
 * A new Midnight Riders Song: Save Me Some Sugar.
 * A new Bride Model for the Witch.
 * New Common Infected Models: Midnight Riders fans and Wedding Guests.
 * New Survival Maps.
 * New Scavenge Maps.
 * Foot Lockers containing an infinite quantity of usually limited items (Molotovs, Pipe bombs, Pills, Adrenaline)
 * New dialogue for all the remaining Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors.
 * 9 New Achievements.
 * 1 New Avatar Award (Left 4 Dead 2 baseball hat)

Available outside the campaign

 * 1 New Avatar Award. (Left 4 Dead 2 Gnome Chompski prop.)
 * 1 New achievement (Mutant overlord)
 * New weekly game modes dubbed "Mutations".
 * The Baseball Bat now randomly spawns within all maps alongside other melee weapons including at the start of campaigns and inside safe rooms. Baseball Bats used to always spawn at the start of a campaign for people who pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2, but no longer appear at the start.
 * Weekly blog posts by Valve

Achievements

 * See Main Article: Achievements

Video Walkthrough
The Passing Expert Realism: Part 1 | The Passing Expert Realism: Part 2 | The Passing Expert Realism: Part 3 The Passing Expert Realism: Part 4 | The Passing Expert Realism: Part 5