The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 for the 360 is fantastic, but man, Microsoft is screwing people over by forcing Valve to charge for all that DLC. I say this because I’ve recently played through The Passing and The Sacrifice with my brother and Brer, and while they are really fun little campaigns, I can’t help but feel like I would have felt gypped if I had paid 7 dollars for them.

If for no other reason, the Passing is probably the better DLC because it has so much fantastic dialog. Valve knows what it’s doing when it’s trying to create characters who are only built through realistic dialog. They’re fantastic at it, and throwing both groups of survivors together to talk was a great way to let the writers of the game have fun. There is some hilarious stuff there, and while I’ve only played through it one and a half times (the half was due to technical difficulties) I already heard a ton of different dialog. There’s some of that in The Sacrifice, too, but since there’s less people to play off of, it’s, perhaps, less obvious. They do give Louis some great dialog in safe rooms, though.

Lengthwise, neither is really long, though you can tell they put The Sacrifice together with the idea that it would be a shorter campaign for Versus. Nothing wrong with that, of course, especially since it’s free on the PC. Again, having to pay 7 bucks for it would be a little harder to swallow, but it’s still just fine. At the same time, there’s nothing particularly different about the levels: they’re just a different place to play Left 4 Dead on. They try to mix it up with a door you have to open that has a tank behind it, the “Sacrifice” mechanic, and the original Left 4 Deaders providing covering fire for you in the end of the Passing, but it doesn’t really change it much. You don’t have anything as sweepingly big, change-wise, as Hard Rain, or the first time you do the conclusion to Dead Center. It’s not a new game, so that’s probably too much to ask for, since, as I said, they did try to mix it up within the confines of the game, but I’m just saying, if you’re wanting something fundamentally different, these won’t do it.

But still! They’re fun! Plus, with Left 4 Dead currently being on sale on the PC for the same price as the 360 DLC will cost, well, you should probably pick it up. It was nice to get back to the game. I’m not going to be the sort who plays the mutations every week, but the game still holds up, and is a fantastic time with friends.