Left 4 Dead 2 - Xbox 360

It’s not like we really need a back story to put zombie slaying into a proper context,  but when you create two separate but equally entertaining casts of characters, it’s only natural that you’d want their paths to cross at some point. And that’s the crux of “The Passing” DLC package for Left 4 Dead 2:  The original L4D crew of Bill, Zoey, Francis and Louis are meeting their L4D2 successors Coach, Rochelle, Nick and Ellis in a 3-act crossover mission.

I was able to play "The Passing" recently, though unfortunately I only got to witness the middle act, where the L4D squad was absent (Valve didn’t want to spoil the magic of the moment). This second act of three had me running through city streets, a zombie-infested building, and most interestingly, some sort of rundown water treatment facility. The climactic “Here Comes The Horde” moment happened as my crew and I were slogging slowly through the bottom of a murky tank structure, almost completely in the dark, fending off rushing zombies from all directions. A well-placed container of Boomer Bile was enough to give us a decent head start, but after that wore off, it was every man for himself trying to get to the ladder on the far end of the tank. Thrilling stuff.

I also got to play around with the new M60 machine gun, which absolutely shredded zombie flesh. I didn’t come across the new golf club melee weapon, but I’m sure its blunt power is to be feared as well. Both weapons will come in handy against the new Uncommon common infected, the Fallen Survivor. As you might surmise from the name, this guy has practically the same characteristics that you do, which means he’s a bit harder to bring down. But the bright side is that he’ll be carrying similar weapons and gear -- I was pleasantly surprised to find a badly-needed health pack near the corpse of the first Fallen that I felled.

I’m very eager to see the opening and closing acts of "The Passing" when it hits at the end of March, and then we’ll get the promised DLC for Left 4 Dead shortly after that (including a special comic featuring the L4D crew that leads up to the events in the DLC). See? All we needed was a little patience.