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| Tagline | "This time it all goes south." | |
| Creator | Valve Software | |
| Chapters | ||
| Previous | Hard Rain | |
| Next | Cold Stream | |
"Fight your way through zombie-infested New Orleans to the bridge, where the military has a chopper just for you."
- "DANGER, YOU ARE NOW ENTERING A U.S. MILITARY INSTALLATION, Use of deadly force has been authorized"
- ―U.S. military sign seen before entering The Waterfront.
The Parish is the final campaign in Left 4 Dead 2 and is set in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The campaign involves traveling from The Waterfront to a military helicopter evacuation point on the far side of The Bridge.
On leaving Virgil's boat at the Waterfront Market, it is immediately evident that the city has been overrun with Infected and that the military has begun to execute a plan to abandon it entirely, covering their retreat with aerial bombing.
To complete the campaign, the Survivors must make their way through the Infected-infested city, traversing not only a memorial park but an overrun CEDA evacuation center, impound lot, bombed out freeway, and cemetery. The Bridge finale is particularly challenging as it obliges Survivors to fight their way across the bridge in the face of rapidly spawning waves of Infected.
If successful, players are rewarded with a military helicopter evacuation and a cut scene depicting the bridge being blown up.
A complete video walkthrough of the campaign can be found here.
The Parish includes appearances from the Riot Infected, though two dead CEDA Worker Infected appear in both yellow and white suits.
This campaign is notable for having two gauntlet crescendo events: one at the Bus Station and the other at the Veteran's Bridge finale.
Achievements[]
- Main article: Achievements
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BRIDGE BURNER | (20G) |
| Survive The Parish campaign. | ||
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CONFEDERACY OF CRUNCHES | (30G) |
| Finish a campaign using only melee weapons. | ||
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VIOLENCE IN SILENCE | (30G) |
| Navigate the impound lot and reach the cemetery safe room without tripping any alarms. | ||
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BRIDGE OVER TREBLED SLAUGHTER | (30G) |
| Cross the bridge finale in less than three minutes. | ||
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THE REAL DEAL | (35G) |
| Survive a campaign on Expert skill with Realism mode enabled. | ||
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STILL SOMETHING TO PROVE | (35G) |
| Survive all campaigns on Expert. | ||
Behind the Scenes[]
Originally the Uncommon Infected were going to replace the CEDA Worker Infected, but they were replaced with Riot Infected. Also, during the finale, The Bridge itself was going to be bombed by the military, as seen in the Zombie Survival Guide trailer.
Notes[]
Early Poster. Note Coach's Blue and Yellow Shirt, the blood on Ellis's Shirt along with it being Blue on the Sleeves and White on the main part and Rochelle's hair being in a ponytail instead of a bun.
A map of the campaign which spans from The Waterfront to The Bridge.
- The Parish was the first campaign unveiled at E3 2009.
- The Parish is the 3rd campaign to feature a gauntlet crescendo, after Dead Center and Dark Carnival.
- The tagline of this campaign has been changed at least twice. First time it was seen with "This time it all goes south" tagline, but then used "Welcome to the Big Uneasy" only to change back to "This time it all goes south".
- The second tagline would be a reference to the unofficial name for New Orleans, "The Big Easy".
- The Bridge depicted in this campaign is most likely based on the I-10 Bridge located on the Mississippi river a few miles upriver from New Orleans. However, the real bridge is not a Double Decker bridge as depicted in game, rather it is a four-lane Highway and two-lane Railway bridge.
- It could also be based on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. The lengths of the bridges are largely similar, although the real life bridge is not double-decker.
- Notably, when the campaign was first seen, different music is used. Its leftovers can still be found in the "mob" folder of the game music's folder. It's called easygerm (other campaigns being called mallgerm, fairgroundgerm, plankgerm, milltowngerm and parishtmpt) and is significantly deeper and creepier than the music that's currently used.
- The beta version of this campaign combined the first two levels (The Waterfront and The Park) together. Also, the crescendo of the second level was somewhat changed. Instead of entering a simplistic CEDA trailer, the Survivors entered a sanitation center, which would spray them with a mist of some sort, and sound an alarm. The map is still in the game files and is playable through the "map c5m1_waterfront_sndscape" command in the console.[1]
- At the start of the Bridge Chapter, if you hang out by the radio without answering it, the military radio chatter will start commenting on your presence.
- The name "The Parish" comes from the fact that instead of using the word County for divisions of a state, Louisiana uses the word Parish.
- The tagline "This time it all goes south" references the phrase "go south", meaning to head south to escape conflict or pursuit, which is what the Survivors do. Also "going south" may refer to something that goes bad or not as planned.
- It may also be a pun on the word "perish" since the Infected get blown up.
- On the campaign poster, one can see that it says "Produced by Tharmy Burns-Bridges", referring to the finale.
- This is the only campaign that is available on Developer Commentary Mode. Players can find out how this campaign was made, such as the body piles, The Park chapter, narrow hallways, Special Infected, etc... You can also get a Combat Shotgun in the first part, which is impossible on Single Player mode.
- CEDA and Worker Infected spawn in this map in the kitchen building, but only in the Developer Commentary Mode.
- Also, according to several audio clips of the Developer Commentary, this campaign was the first one ever built for Left 4 Dead 2; as its crescendo events, props, mazes, and the jukebox were the first ones made within its chapters.
- In the loading screen, on the right side you can see a note that says "WAIT FOR OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS". This is a reference to the Zombie Survival Guide Trailer.
- There are military Humvees, M35A3 trucks, and CEDA trailers seen in the campaign, however there are no military or CEDA zombies.
- This could be due to them abandoning the city entirely, and none of them were infected beforehand or during the evacuation.
- The Parish is the only campaign that has 10 car alarms, the alarmed car near the safe room in The Waterfront, the eight alarmed cars in the impound lot in The Cemetery and the alarmed car near under the bridge in The Quarter.
- Bile Jars are scarce in this campaign, they spawn rarely in The Park and The Quarter.
- It is unknown why grenade launchers and chainsaws do not spawn in the Waterfront and Park chapters.
- Flying birds can be seen in the Waterfront, Park, and Bridge, however they aren't seen in the Cemetery and Quarter.
- The Park is the only chapter where the Bridge can't be seen.
- The Parish is the only Campaign in the demo version, and only has the first 2 chapters.
