Hey guys. You might already know the passing has been released on every platform, though you’ll have to pony up for the Xbox version. Here’s my micro commentary/review.

Ok, so I beat this sucker in between two Bad Company sessions with King and Abyssus. Yeah, short. If you’re a gamer, like most of you are, you’re probably prone to shredding through most full games in hardly the time it takes to buy it. You’ll pummel this addon into oblivion then. Its as short as Crash Course released for the original game back when, if that gives you any indication.

Thing is, some parts are like, yeah man, I remember why this seemed like such a good idea. Then you get to the end. Here’s the good (spoiler free): their are certain sections of the game which felt long overdue, the architecture being such that you wonder if it just took this many tries to get the flow right. Also, the darkness and openess in said part (yeah, not plural) is also actually tension-inducing, which is nice. I mean, you can actually get jumpy, which has long since left the standalone game (and never really made it into the second for me). Also, the music is a lot creepier. I know, right? Small additions definitely work for the mood here. Seeing the old survivors is middle of the road, and the infamous death of the survivor is, as I pondered earlier, slightly backwards. One is dead. Permantly. But now you’ll know when we play the next DLC. Oh well, I guess.

Here is more middle-of-the-road stuff: you have no idea why or how the old survivors got to New Orleans or anywhere in the south. I didn’t get the impression they were anywhere near the new survivors, but hey. The two new weapons are whatever. You may agree that, despite the facade, the weapons ultimately do one singular thing at different, almost negligible, rates: stop zombies. So they act as face plates of sorts. The setting; I liked it, but I mean, I was never too keen on the New Orleans setting anyway. One thing I’ll love until the end is the setting Valve subtley creates. You still see the messages, old hideout spots, and deserted everything, which is really the “story.” The bride witch? A little too much.

Which brings me to the bad. I suddenly had the epiphany when I booted up the game to try and get some achievements after I beat it. The reason why it feels cheesy is because it was made to be cheesy. Yeah, cool story bro, but check it out. There is a fundamental flaw in this thinking: I want to make X resemble Y from Z time period/genre/theme. The rub is that people thought Y and Z were both bad. Cheesy action flicks, I mean, they are cheesy. Because you’re purposely making your game that way doesn’t allow the game to transcend that realm. So, Left 4 Dead 2 pushes it. Left 4 Dead seemed to contain itself, perhaps without the weight of the gaming world on its shoulders. This is also why I like the first game more.

So even having the title screen display clown zombies walking in front of Whispering Oaks amusement park taints the whole experience for me. I just want a serious, detailed, and visceral/haunting zombie apocalypse shooter. Not one with awkward humor. I appreciate Valve’s humor as much as the next gamer, I really do. But I mean, when Ellis is boiled down to a walking stereotype, do we need more? Suffice to say, the Passing does not stray from this concept. Here’s something to think about: does any of the character dialogue point to serious character background? I haven’t heard one quip that imparts some humanity to these folks that isn’t a joke. Maybe thats why the trailer was so cool to me. When Coach says, “This used to be a nice neighborhood” you think, oh, what does that mean about Coach as a character? In game we’re reduced to a barrage of jabs and jokes which could only be the product of serious stress. I want to see the emtional weight of Half-Life 2 in the game. I mean, can you imagine a zombie apocalypse game as detailed as Left 4 Dead with the emotional heaviness you see in the apartment dwellers at the start of Half-Life 2? Affecting is what that would be. That’s what I want, not more jokes about how coach is fat, Ellis is dumb, and Nick is a hypochondriac in a doctor’s coat.

My score for the DLC would be 7.2/10.

Related posts:

1. The Passing DLC to be Released Next Week
2. The Passing Delayed, but I’m OK with it.
3. One Survivor Dies
4. Left for Dead Mutations Explained