The Last Stand (Left 4 Dead 2)

This article is about Left 4 Dead 2 expanded campaign. For other uses, see Last Stand.

The Last Stand
Tagline	"It doesn't end well."
Creator	Valve, Left 4 Dead 2 Community Update Team
Chapters	The Junkyard Lighthouse Finale

"Hold out for your last stand at the lighthouse."

"The Last Stand" is a two-map campaign remake of the Left 4 Dead survival mission of the same name, made by the Left 4 Dead 2 community. It was released as part of The Last Stand Update—the fourth DLC for Left 4 Dead 2—on September 24, 2020.

This campaign as well as content update of the same name is PC exclusive and will not be coming to Xbox 360.

The full Walkthrough of this Campaign can be found here.

Setting

According to the developers, the campaign takes place as an alternative what-if ending to "Death Toll" in the case that the survivors took a different path leading to the Death Toll Finale.

As revealed at the start of "The Junkyard", the Left 4 Dead survivors eventually reach an unnamed village by way of a pickup truck. However, their truck breaks down, forcing the survivors to continue their journey on foot. Barricades and blockades from chaos at the village cause them to take a detour that leads them to the lighthouse instead of to the village evacuation sites (which are no longer manned by the time the Survivors arrive). Concluding that their only hope for rescue is by lighting the long-disused lighthouse and hoping that a boat sees them, the Survivors light the beacon and must then fight on their own against massive onslaughts of the Infected while awaiting rescue.

Graffiti

Main article: Graffiti#The Last Stand 2

Like other maps in Left 4 Dead series, scattered graffiti serves as a story telling mechanic. Similar to its predecessor, graffiti in this version of The Last Stand is strongly pessimistic, depressing, distressing, and hopeless, despite this version providing rescue and salvation to the survivors, although it does not come easily.

The graffiti in the village reveals that although all evacuation sites are empty, it is suggested that there was an evacuation attempt within the village. It is unknown if the evacuation was successful or not. However, it seems that one of the evacuation sites used by villagers was the lighthouse, which was manned by a small unit of military servicemen at that time.

The graffiti in the watchtower outpost near the lighthouse reveals that in the end, the military unit was eventually overrun by the Infected. One graffiti warns future passing survivors not to go to the lighthouse, as death awaits them there. It can be discovered that a distraught survivor possibly committed suicide here after realizing that rescue was hopeless. Other survivors holding out here also eventually gave up hope, and either fled from the area or perished.

Achievements

Main article: Achievements

	CONFEDERACY OF CRUNCHES	(30G)
	Finish a campaign using only melee weapons.

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	DEAD IN THE WATER	(20G)
	Kill 10 swampy Mudmen while they are in the water.

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	CRASS MENAGERIE	(20G)
	Kill one of each Uncommon Infected.

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	THE REAL DEAL	(35G)
	Survive a campaign on Expert difficulty with Realism mode enabled.

PC exclusive

	THE LAST DASH
	Complete The Last Stand campaign in 13 minutes or less, without any Survivors dying.

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	HOUSEHOLD NAMES
	Discover the hidden room in the Last Stand campaign

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	STILL STANDING
	Survive The Last Stand campaign on any difficulty.

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	THE LAST FRONTIER
	Survive The Last Stand campaign on Expert Realism.

Notes

• "The Last Stand" is the only campaign to not be playable on Left 4 Dead: Survivors, due to Taito discontinuing online servers for the game on July 26, 2017.
• It is highly implied, if not confirmed that the L4D2 version of "The Last Stand" offers an alternate explanation or "what-if" scenario if the Survivors had taken an alternate way from the Death Toll's Boathouse Finale. As the result, this campaign might provide alternative history that stitched Death Toll and Dead Air together.
  • At the starting point of the campaign, a gate guarding a fenced-in area can be found. The design and position is similar to one from the Boathouse Finale chapter. Using noclip to explore both areas beyond the fenced-in area also results in the same view of each other's counterparts.
  • There is a video showing the connection between this campaign with Death Toll. A prop (specifically a truck) was recently added to the Death Toll finale that suggests The Last Stand branches off from the main story here.
  • In addition, the usage of the name "Riverside" to refer this area in some signs and graffiti, indicates that the campaign takes place in Riverside.
  • The reuse and appearance of John Slater and his boat at the end of the campaign to pick up the Survivors, which was also done during the Death Toll escape sequence.
  • It has been confirmed by members of the Community Update Team that the Last Stand indeed branches off from Death Toll's finale. The survivors hotwired the pickup truck seen behind the fenced off area of Death Toll's Boathouse Finale and drove it to the starting area of The Last Stand.
• Despite said shared the same area as in the Boathouse Finale, there is some differences between The Last Stand and the Death Toll version of this campaign:
  • The arch of the gate is complete in The Last Stand version and had a pile of bodies outside. In the Death Toll version, the arch is not complete (no arch, just a pair of pillars) and there is no pile of bodies outside.
  • The right side of the starting point is a tall cliff. In the Death Toll version, the right side is much lower and one can see a row of the back side of houses.
  • The location and water are also not consistent. The original Riverside Park in Death Toll is near to the water body (in this case, a big river). However, the location of the starting point suggest the distance between the Park and the water body is somewhat far from Riverside's big river.
  • In addition, the flow of the stream near the Junkyard is also not consistent and somehow moves much faster than the flow of the stream seen in the stream in the beginning of Death Toll. Whether it was intended to become part of the stream near the starting point or not is unknown.
  • Since the escape point is located at a much lower area compared with the original river in Death Toll and much farther from Newburg, where Dead Air takes place, it is unexplained how John and Amanda Slater found the way to Newburg to kick out the survivors.
• Like its predecessor, the L4D2 version of "The Last Stand" also reuses many of Death Toll's aesthetics. In addition, several props and concepts from Blood Harvest, The Sacrifice, and Cold Stream are also taken and implemented here, especially in The Junkyard chapter.
  • A concept from the unfinished Dam It campaign about a burned forest with lingering fire was implemented in The Last Stand at the plane crash site, albeit only covering a small area rather than a large portion of forest like in the original Dam It.
  • Restarting the generators in the Junkyard event is directly inspired by the generators from The Sacrifice's Finale, which need to be started up in order to progress, as well as the generator shutting down during Crash Course's Finale.