Lately I've been looking to play the game completely solo, i.e. without bots. Finding the right mod combination has been pretty painful, though, due to how the game works.

The closest I found to a viable, relatively balanced way of playing the game that way was a mutation that gets rid of the special infected entirely, to get around the specials pretty much one-shotting you and screwing your level progression over. That, however, makes the game pretty shallow.

Is there some magical mod combo I'm missing that will allow me to play the game truly single player, while also keeping at least some of the special infected? Some way for the game not to straight up end when you're incapacitated (since while playing solo, the game detects that there are no other players/bots alive to help you up, and just restarts the entire level over), combined with some way to free yourself out of a grab would be all I need. Any advice?