Left 4 Dead 2 is like a steak dinner. It’s great, but if you keep eating the same steak over and over, it can lose its appeal. So with the first DLC pack for the game, the Passing, Valve have added a new mode that they call Mutations. The idea behind the mutations mode is that the game has a different way to play each week. Going back to the steak analogy, the mutations are like a sauce which is changed every week. The steak remains the same, but you get a different experience each time.

The Passing campaign is decent, but if you are on the Xbox 360 version you have to pay 560 Microsoft Points to get it, as opposed to the Steam version which gets the DLC for free. By itself the Passing campaign is fun, but isn’t worth paying for. Throw in the mutations, however, and Left 4 Dead suddenly has new life for those who have grown tired of the existing campaigns.

Each week, on Friday, the game is updated with a different mutation. These change the way you play the game and they can vary, from Versus Survival (where one team has to survive as long as possible against a team of human controlled special infected) to Last Gnome on Earth, where you have to complete a campaign whilst carrying a garden gnome (which attracts the zombies to whomever is carrying the gnome) to the end of the level to win.

This week’s mutation is Hard Eight. Special infected spawn at an increased rate, they all spawn together at the same time and there are now eight special infected at a time rather than four. What this means is that you will most likely die horribly. As you can see in the embedded video, unless you have a good group, chances are you probably won’t survive very long. It’s rather difficult, but with the right people could be a lot of fun.

Next week’s mutation is Healthpackalypse. On the Steam forum, Left 4 Dead 2 players are speculating that the Healthpackalypse isn’t an abundance of health packs, but instead a Versus game where all the health packs are swapped with pills. This certainly will help speed up Versus games, since health gained through pills is lost over time, and the user doesn’t have to stand still to heal themselves.

Details about everything happening with Left 4 Dead 2 can be found on the Left 4 Dead Blog. My Xbox Live Gamertag is PyroTails. If you want to join me for a game of Left 4 Dead 2, send me a friend request with the message Only Kent. What mutation is your favourite? Let me know in the comments below.