The Last Stand

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

If you were looking for the trope, look under Last Stand.

The Last Stand is a series of zombie survival Flash games, made by Con Artist Games (who also made Warfare 1917 and Warfare 1944) for Armor Games.

The Last Stand and The Last Stand 2 follow the same survivor, who has been named The Last Stand Guy or LSG by (some) fans. This stalwart survivor in his distinctive green hoodie must fight off hordes of zombies from behind a makeshift barricade.

The Last Stand has the LSG trying to survive until he is rescued, besieged by a horde of flesh eating zombies every night. The player must defend the barricade at night and allocate search parties during the daytime to find more weapons and survivors, as well as repair the barricade from any damage it may have taken last night.

The Last Stand 2 has the LSG gather supplies and travel across the country to Union City within 40 days, in order to catch the last evacuation boat. Much like in the last game, players defend their barricades at night and search for survivors and weapons in the daytime, only now supplies need to be gathered and a travel route planned.

The third game in the series, The Last Stand: Union City is a prequel/sequel to The Last Stand 2, and does not feature LSG as a player character although he does make an appearance, going by the name Jack now, and plays an important role near the end. Union City works more like a Fallout 3 style RPG, with XP and an optional system of food and sleep management.

The game begins with you returning to your apartment in Union City after a long day's work when you run over something and crash. Exiting the car, you find the place overrun by the walking dead. Now, you must scour the city and fight your way through the zombie hordes to find your spouse, and from there, escape Union City.

The fourth game in the series, The Last Stand: Dead Zone, is set in Union City After the End, now called the Dead Zone. It focuses on the attempts of the survivors still in the area to survive being Left for Dead by the government. It's now a Real Time Strategy game done in 3D isometric, similar to the early entries in the Fallout series. It is available on Armor Games, Facebook and Kongregate.

Tropes used in The Last Stand include:
  • Aerosol Flamethrower: The Flame Can in Union City.
  • Action Survivor: Depending on the background you take, your character in Union City can be this.
  • AKA-47: Quite a few weapons get fake names in Union City, and Dead Zone brings it Up to Eleven. Some weapons do get to keep their real names including, ironically enough, the AK-47.
  • An Axe to Grind/Deus Ax Machina: Fire Axes and Hatchets are available in Union City and Dead Zone. Also, the most powerful melee weapon in Union City (not counting modifiers) is a medieval Battleaxe.
  • Annoying Arrows: Averted. The Hunting Bow in The Last Stand 2 and Union City do a lot of damage, and can often One-Hit Kill zombies.
  • Apocalypse How: Regional/Societal Disruption at least. While there were evacuation planes and ships going somewhere in The Last Stand 2, they have been stopped by the events of Union City. It's also unknown how extensive or how severe the outbreak is.
    • We learn from the timeline in Dead Zone that Planes were flying over the city, Likely HERC recon planes for several weeks after the city was overrun. Later, attack planes bombed zombies and survivor bases. After about 200 days no more planes flew over, but automated defense turrets would found around the entire city, keep survivors trapped.
  • Armor Is Useless: Averted. It makes the zombie Immune to Bullets (in the first three games), at least where it's covered by the armor. In Union City, it also reduces all melee damage to 1, again, where it's covered by the armor (and the Riot Shield-carrying police zombies are one of the most annoying opponents), though the most powerful guns as well as explosives will punch through the armor. Union City allows the player to wear armor as well, reducing the amount of damage they take from zombies and human opponents.
  • Art Evolution: Noticeable between The Last Stand and the sequels.
  • Artifact Title: No Last Stands for you in Union City or Dead Zone, unless something goes horribly wrong.
  • Artificial Stupidity: The other survivors in your group in The Last Stand 2 don't know how to dodge the attacks of armed zombies, which means they'll die quickly once said zombies reach the barricade. In addition, even if you give them a machine gun, they will only shoot in short bursts.
    • Your companions in Union City won't reload their gun if they don't have to, even if there is only One Bullet Left. They also tend to not be very good with melee weapons, and have trouble fending off dogs and crawlers once they're close up.
    • While you can't accuse zombies of being very smart, not responding at all to someone bashing your face in while in broad daylight is rather stupid even for them.
  • Back Stab: In Dead Zone, any attack on an unaware zombie from behind is an automatic Critical Hit.
  • Badass: The LSG. Also, anyone who's lived long enough to join your group and barricade. The main character of Union City as well, since he/she doesn't need a barricade to slaughter hordes of zombies.
    • Badass Beard: The LSG grows one in The Last Stand 2 and keeps it in Union City. Also, you can give your character one in Union City and Dead Zone.
  • Bag of Spilling: You finish the first game with an assortment of pistols, SMGs, shotguns etc., but you start the second game with just a pistol. Probably justified, since there was a helicopter crash and Jack couldn't salvage them or the military only picked up the survivors, not their guns.
  • Batter Up: Baseball Bats and Nail/Spiked Bats are available in Union City and Dead Zone. There's also a skill boosting book called 'Batter Up!' in Union City, which boosts the Blunt skill.
  • Bear Trap: One of three kinds of possible traps in The Last Stand 2.
  • BFG: In The Last Stand, a M82 Barrett anti-materiel rifle.
  • Body Armor as Hit Points: Played straight in Dead Zone, averted in all the previous games.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Mostly averted in Union City, but your companion has an unlimited supply of ammunition, so it's a good idea to give them guns with hard to find ammo. They still have to reload though. Played straight in every other games, though again, you still need to reload.
  • Bulletproof Vest: In the first two games, only certain types of zombies had them. In Union City and Dead Zone, the player's survivor(s) can equip them too.
  • Chainsaw Good: It's an Emergency Weapon in the first two games, and is Awesome but Impractical in Union City.
  • Critical Hit: In Union City, and tends to cause quite a bit of Gorn if it's a kill-shot. Also present in Dead Zone, but minus the Gorn.
  • Crowbar Combatant: Present in Union City and Dead Zone, though they're rather average at best.
  • Dead Weight: Fat zombies show up, Kevlard style. Later on there are RUNNING fatties.
  • Determinator: The LSG won't abandon his barricade during an attack. Ever. Even if the player tries to get him to.
  • Disc One Nuke: Sometimes you get lucky and a zombie drops a powerful weapon early on in Union City, like a Fire Axe or Sledgehammer. If you find an assault rifle or SMG though, it's best to give it to a companion since they have unlimited ammo.
    • Averted in Dead Zone. While it is possible to raid relatively high level areas, you likely can't use the weapons you just looted since they have level requirements.
  • Downer Ending: In The Last Stand 2, if the LSG doesn't make it to Union City in time, it gets bombed back to the Stone Age. In Union City, you find out your spouse was bitten. You both make it to a boat off the mainland, but it stalls. You hear a familiar growling as it fades to black.
  • Driven to Suicide: Implied in one of the notes in Union City.
  • Drop the Hammer: Claw Hammers and Sledge Hammers are some of the better melee weapons in Union City and Dead Zone.
  • Eleventh-Hour Superpower: In The Last Stand, you find the M82 Barrett after you have found everything else possible. Also, the first soldier zombie you run into in The Last Stand comes with a M4A1 assault rifle in case you haven't found it yet.
  • Elite Zombie: Fat zombies, armored zombies, and zombies with weapons. In Union City, there's also a strange case where pantsless zombies do more damage and are tougher.
  • Emergency Weapon: The Chainsaw. It's the only weapon that requires zombies to be near the barricade (and damages it in the second game), and it has a large "clip" (unlimited in The Last Stand, in The Last Stand 2 it stalls after you use it up, making you "reload" it). It's quite powerful though.
  • Every Bullet Is a Tracer: Sometimes they don't show up, though.
  • Gorn: Zombies can lose limbs and have heads blown off, and the LSG's death animation is one of the scariest ones currently in gaming, as well as being very gory.
  • Golf Clubbing: A below average weapon in Union City.
  • Grenade Launcher: The M79 Thumper, to be precise. Union City only, and has an interesting feature where the grenade won't detonate until it's past a certain distance.
  • Have a Nice Death: "After surviving X days, YOU ARE DEAD. (Well kind of, you're a zombie now.)" as you're being eaten alive.
  • Heavily Armored Mook: SWAT and soldier zombies in all the games. They wear kevlar body armor and helmets, forcing you to aim carefully for the face, or waste more ammo and shoot at their legs. HERC zombies join them in Dead Zone, which also reworks them into simply having more health than other zombies.
  • Hide Your Children: There are no children in the series, aside from a few mentioned in Union City in the notes.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: While you can only equip 2 weapons at any one time and there is a weight limit, Union City allows you to carry a large assortment of weapons.
  • Improvised Weapon: Quite a few. Taken Up to Eleven in Dead Zone.
  • Infinite Flashlight: In Union City.
  • Interface Spoiler: The first game has a Wall of Weapons with silhouettes of all the weapons you can get, except the secret M82 Barrett.
  • It's Quiet... Too Quiet: The player will probably be saying this, as rooms tend to be clear of zombies before a horde attack in Union City.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Played straight in Union City, with katanas being one of the best melee weapons available. A Sharpened Katana has the highest damage of all the melee weapons. Averted in Dead Zone, which has much stronger melee weapons available.
  • Knife Nut: Pocketknives and Kitchen Knives are common in Union City and Dead Zone, though they're barely more effective than your bare hands. Cleavers are also available, which are much more effective.
  • Last Stand: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Except for your fellow survivors, who'll run away (temporarily) if the barricade is weak enough.
    • It is implied that Jack and his group of survivors makes one to cover your escape from Union City.
  • Last Chance Hit Point: Not for the LSG, but for your barricade. If its HP reaches zero, zombies start to slowly pass through the barricade. If they touch you - game over, though you can still clear the level if you manage to kill all of them.
  • Machete Mayhem: You can wield Machetes in Union City and Dead Zone, and they're excellent at slaughtering zombies.
  • More Dakka: Lots of SMGs and assault rifles around, though the king has to be the M249 Minimi/SAW.
  • No Plot, No Problem: Besides the diary, which is not very informative, you get no clue about the details of the Zombie Apocalypse. This is averted in Union City.
  • One Bullet Clips: In Union City. The Last Stand,The Last Stand 2 and Dead Zone have infinite magazines, so it isn't an issue.
  • One-Hit-Point Wonder: The LSG in the first two games. Thankfully averted in Union City and Dead Zone.
  • One-Hit Polykill: Quite easy to pull off, especially with the M82 Barrett in The Last Stand. Still doable in The Last Stand 2 and Union City.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Some lurch, some sprint, some crawl, some wear armor, some use weapons, some sprint and use weapons, some sprint and wear armor, some sprint, wear armor and use weapons, and some are dogs.
  • Pipe Pain: A basic melee weapon in both Union City and Dead Zone.
  • Pistol-Whipping: In Union City with any weapon, though it only does 1 damage. However, it's guaranteed to knock the zombies back, which could give you enough time to reload your gun. Zombies also don't know how to use firearms, so if they carry one, this is the only way they will use it.
  • Player and Protagonist Integration: Controller flavour in The Last Stand. Lampshaded: a "Somebody is controlling me!" note is written next to the controls, which leads us to:
  • Playing the Player
  • Pretty Little Headshots: Normally played straight in Union City, but averted when you score a critical headshot kill.
  • Purely Aesthetic Gender: Other than your spouse's gender and some of the dialogue, there are no changes whatsoever.
  • Rare Guns: Guns like the XM8 assault rifle (automatically given to you by Jack right before the end) tend to pop up near the end of Union City.
    • Dead Zone has the even rarer LMG variant of the XM8 as a Fuel Trading Post weapon.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The survivors.
  • Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: Averted. It's the fastest way to kill unarmored zombies, but shots at the chest or legs work as well. Zombies with helmets are resistant to headshots, unless you hit it directly in the unprotected face. Leg shots are the only reliable way to bring down fully armored zombies. There is a game mode included in the premium Survival Kit for Union City that only allows headshots, though.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: Played with. They're more powerful, but carry less bullets and reload more slowly than regular semi-auto pistols. Averted by the Tauron 9mm however, it's the starting weapon in Union City and one of the weapons you find en masse in the early levels of Dead Zone and is an utter joke of a firearm.
  • Sawn Off Shotgun: Present as a weapon in all the games except Dead Zone. There, it's a condition that reduces accuracy.
  • Shield Bearing Mook: One of the most annoying kind of zombies in Union City. They carry riot shields and wear armored vests and bulletproof helmets, so you have to aim for the legs to do more than Scratch Damage unless you're using explosives. Thankfully, they walk slowly, never carry weapons, lower their shield to attack, and never run. They are a minimal threat though, unless you are in an enclosed room with many zombies.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Averted. They pack a lot of punch, but reload slowly, since each shell has to be loaded one at a time, have relatively few shots and are inaccurate (first three games only). The Thor automatic shotgun in Union City is magazine loaded, but it's weak. It does, however, have the advantage of far more knockback.
  • Shout-Out: The name of the task where you have just found out your spouse is somewhere else? Another Castle.
  • Shovel Strike: Shovels are present in Union City and Dead Zone, and they're pretty powerful weapons.
  • Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: Type I or II - there are rotten-looking zombies, but due to the fact we never learn anything about them they may be revived corpses as well, not just turned infectees.
  • Sniper Rifle: Hunting rifles are available in all the games, and Union City and Dead Zone also have a military sniper rifle, the M24. The M82 Barrett Anti-materiel Rifle is also available in The Last Stand and in Union City. These guns are also the only non-explosive weapons that can punch through armor.
  • Spread Shot: Shotgun class weapons have this effect in the first three games. Not present in Dead Zone.
  • Standard FPS Guns
  • Title Drop: In the first diary entry of The Last Stand.
  • Took a Shortcut: In Union City, all the NPCs that change location do this, including Jack in the ending.
  • Trauma Inn: In Union City, sleeping in any bed will heal you to full, in similar way to the newest Fallout games.
  • Undeathly Pallor
  • Unusable Enemy Equipment: In The Last Stand 2 and Union City, zombies can carry a variety of melee weapons, but you can't pick them up and use them. In Union City, however, they often drop other things instead (ammo, food, clothes, medkits, and random weapons). However, in The Last Stand, you could get three weapons from zombie corpses (a .357 Magnum Revolver from a cop, a Shotgun from a biker and a M4A1 assault rifle from a soldier). Played straight for the various hostile HERC characters, which carry unlootable weapons and ammo.
  • Walk It Off: Half the damage you take in Union City will regenerate if you don't take any damage for a while.
  • Wall of Weapons: In The Last Stand. Subverted in that there's a secret weapon (the M82 Barrett) that doesn't fit on the wall, and instead sits on the desk below it.
  • X Meets Y: Union City is the original The Last Stand meets Resident Evil meets Fallout 3/Fallout: New Vegas meets Left 4 Dead.
  • Zerg Rush: You are facing zombies. In the first two games, zombies will always attack this way.
    • In Union City, after a period of time a zombie horde attacks. Outdoors, they just come in from the map edge. Indoors, they come in through the ceiling. They make an absolutely massive one at the end of Union City. It's literally limitless, so you'll have to make a run for it.
    • In Dead Zone, zombies will only do this if your survivors make enough noise or if they're attacking your compound. If your survivors are being quiet though, the zombies will just wander around.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: Possibly, but information on the extent and severity of the outbreak isn't given out.
  • Zombie Gait: Zig-zagged. Some zombies lurch, while others sprint at hellishly fast speeds.
  • Zombie Infectee: It turns out that a survivor in your group in The Last Stand is one, which starts off the events of The Last Stand 2 when he turns while in the rescue helicopter, causing it to crash. Also, your spouse in Union City is one.
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