The Last Stand Community Update



The Last Stand Community Update, or simply The Last Stand Update, is a fourth DLC for Left 4 Dead 2, released on September 24, 2020 and made by the L4D2 community members. It features "The Last Stand" two-map campaign, 20 new survival maps, 4 new scavenge maps, 30 new achievements and much more.

This content update is PC exclusive and won't come to Xbox 360. This update is a second community-based update for Left 4 Dead 2, the first being the Cold Stream DLC released in 2012 for both the PC and Xbox 360.

New content

 * A TON of bug and exploit fixes, too many to list. Also, specific PVP enhancements and fixes.
 * "The Last Stand", a brand new campaign based on the original Survival map — it's no longer impossible to survive.
 * Introduces Versus Survival to the Main Menu, which was formerly a mutation gamemode.
 * Adds 26 new Survival maps based on the first Left 4 Dead and the previously hidden Left 4 Dead 2 survival maps.
 * Adds 4 new Scavenge arenas based on the first Left 4 Dead.
 * Adds 30 new achievements, mainly based on the new features.
 * Adds two new Mutations: "RocketDude" and "Tank Run".
 * The Last Stand Update did originally feature a mutation named "Training Toolbox", which intended to give the player a place to practice a variety of customizable scenarios to improve their skills. Unlike "RocketDude", this mutation was cut from The Last Stand Update because its presentation was considered to be lacking and not polished enough. It was released on Steam Workshop separately on the same day as the update.
 * Adds two entirely new melee weapons, the shovel and pitchfork, which have also been added to existing campaigns unlike previous DLC weapons.

Gameplay and AI changes

 * The once-exclusive international weapons from Counter Strike became commonly spawned by The Director in all servers. Thus, the only weapons that remain officialy out of Left 4 Dead 2 are the M1911 Pistol and the weapons from the arcade game.
 * Also, the Golf Club now spawns in Dead Center, Crash Course, Dead Air, and The Sacrifice instead of only appearing in The Passing.
 * The Frying Pan can now be found in Crash Course.
 * The Axe has also been added to Death Toll as per request from various community members.
 * It seems that First Aid spawns became more common in harder campaigns. This probably was done to balance the difficulty of the campaigs if played in chronological order; for example, there was a huge difficulty gap between No Mercy and Crash Course.
 * Other rare items have become more common in harder campaigns as well. In special, the Bile Bomb and the Defibrillator will spawn in numerous new spots, such as right before a Crescendo Event or at a Finale arena, respectively.
 * The Witch now takes far less time to kill an incapacitated target in Normal and Advanced difficulties, like she did in the first game. Previously she inflicted damage to her target every two seconds.
 * The Tank recovered his behavior from the first game of smashing incapacitated Survivors to death. However, the Tank AI may choose between finishing off an incapacitated Survivor or attacking the others, while in the first Left 4 Dead he would aways go for the incapacitated Survivor.
 * Now the Tank aways will finish off an incapacitated Survivor vomited-on by a Boomer.
 * The Uncommon Infected now make more appearances in the Left 4 Dead campaigns.
 * The Fallen Survivor can now appear in more campaigns beyond their original exclusivity to The Passing, including No Mercy, Crash Course and Death Toll. The military plane pilot from The Swamp can now appear as an unique Fallen Survivor as well.
 * The CEDA Worker Infected now appears during the entirety of The Hospital. Before the update they were confined to appear only at the front entrance area of Mercy Hospital and during The Sacrifice.
 * The Mud Men now appear in The Sewer of No Mercy and in The Drains of Death Toll. They are also featured in the new map The Junkyard.
 * The Worker Infected now appear in the upper floors of The Hospital and within The Construction Site as construction workers, as well as in The Terminal standing in for baggage handlers. They are featured in The Junkyard as well.
 * The noise of the oxygen tank leaking before exploding now attracts nearby common infected. This repurposed the weapon making it way more useful.
 * Common Infected police officers will drop Nightsticks when slain during the Left 4 Dead campaigns. Before the update, the nightsticks carried by them were aesthetic and only Uncommon Infected could drop items.

Aesthetic changes

 * Removed the "Single Player" option from the main menu carousel, instead adding it as a drop-down menu option for all co-operative game modes, making it user-friendly to play an offline game of Realism, Survival or any co-op Mutation.
 * The update also made it more straightforward to create a new game lobby.
 * New animations and UI improvements. Too many changes to list individually.
 * Improved weapon viewmodels. Prior to this update, some weapons, such as the M60 or SIG SG 552, had visible cut-off points before they reached the edge of the camera's view.
 * Formerly unused dialogue was restored for both Left 4 Dead 2 original campaigns and Left 4 Dead campaign ports, resulting in more potential conversations between Survivors that are specific to the campaign's scenario and surroundings. Many unused lines were already of public knowledge as they could be found in the files from earlier game builds, however, the Last Stand Update restored even voice lines completely unknown previously.
 * The Left 4 Dead Survivors are more vocal when discovering and using equipment introduced in Left 4 Dead 2; as before, this is done by repurposing of existing dialogue, however the range of vocalisations has been greatly expanded.
 * Cut dialogue related to deaths caused by friendly fire, as well as friendly fire occurences during a Tank fight, was restored.
 * When the Survivors are being chased by a Witch, they now scream in terror in addition to their existing dialogue for this situation.
 * When an incapacitated Survivor is running low on health, now they will scream for help in visible despair.
 * Left 4 Dead Common and Special Infected models appear in campaigns featuring the Left 4 Dead survivors, with Left 4 Dead 2's visual gore systems added to the Common Infected. The Common Infected also had their scrapped skins from the early build of the first game restored.
 * Uncommon Infected (with exception of the Clown Infected and Jimmy Gibbs Jr) have also received new Left 4 Dead-styled skins for the Left 4 Dead campaigns.
 * In special, the Fallen Survivor has entirely new visuals based on the Helicopter Pilot/US Military zombies.
 * The Ceda Worker Infected got an entirely new blue hazmat suit, denoting the clinical environment of Mercy Hospital.
 * While the Riot Infected was not included in any of the campaigns from the first game, they got new skins themed in line with the first game, available as a material for custom content.
 * The soundtrack from the first game was restored and plays during its campaigns as well.
 * In The Last Stand campaign and Survival mode, when the final Tank comes out, a metal version of the Tank theme will play. This is an entirely new addition to the series' soundtrack.
 * The armored truck used by the Survivors to escape from Whitney County can be seen at the beginning of Death Toll since the update. This was, once again, an effort to settle a continuity between the first game's campaigns.
 * The dialogue from the civilian helicopter pilot contacted near the end of Cold Stream now has proper captions.

Reception
Although the update offered "a ton of bug and exploit fixes", it also introduced some new bugs. Most of the bugs in this update were related to the new survival maps and the way the new achievements unlocked. To fix the bugs, Valve and the Community Update Team periodically released a series of patches in the following days after the update was released.

While The Last Stand Update initially garnered overwhelmingly positive reception from both the gaming press and the player base, it gained detractors over time as well. Recurrent criticisms are about some of the balance changes, mods becoming broken with the update and that the update didn't address notable flaws in the bot AI.