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." It also 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, 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 roles in the story, really just showing up in cameos 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 which is relatively small considering that most Xbox 360 consoles have at least a 20 GB hard drive to start off with.

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 refer to the idiom "The passing of the torch", which is referenced in the achievement unlocked upon completing the campaign. But it also may refer to the death, or "passing", of Bill, who gave up his life to save the others. The death of Bill and the appearance of the Fallen Survivors are also why the tagline is "Nobody survives forever." To explain how this happened, Valve will be releasing a DLC for Left 4 Dead, called The Sacrifice, in which the players play through a new campaign, leading up to the event, ending with one player giving up their life to let the other three Survivors escape. A digital comic book will also come out to show what happens to the original Survivors 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, xbox 360 only)

Available outside the campaign

 * 1 New Avatar Award. (Left 4 Dead 2 Gnome Chompski prop Xbox 360 only.)
 * 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

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