This article is about the Left 4 Dead 2 chapter. For the original version, see The Lighthouse.
- "I don't like this one damn bit."
- ―Louis
"Lighthouse Finale" is the second and final chapter of "The Last Stand" Left 4 Dead 2 campaign.
The Survivors start in a safehouse adjacent to a military outpost and settle in a fire tower near the lighthouse.
Outside the safehouse, the Survivors must pass an overrun watchtower outpost. From here, they must fight their way to the lighthouse. They find that the lighthouse is still working despite being in a dilapidated state and without means to contact help. Upon the survivors deciding to turn on the lighthouse generator, the combination of bright light and the lighthouse's alarm glare will summon large hordes of the Infected. The Survivors must defend themselves against the Infected whilst they wait for rescue.
Halfway through the finale, the generator runs out of fuel. The Survivors must hastily collect fuel cans (the amount changes between difficulties) to turn the generator back on. Once they do, depending on the difficulty, either one or two Tanks will arrive shortly after. After the Tanks have been killed, a small fishing boat catches the lighthouse signal, and the Survivors must go down to the seaside from the lighthouse, where it waits to pick up the survivors. Multiple Tanks will spawn once the Survivors reach the shoreline. After all Survivors board the boat, the boat will drift away from the shoreline to the misty island far away from the mainland, as the camera pans to the lighthouse.
Trivia
- It is unknown if the lighthouse depicted in Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 is based on a real-life lighthouse. The lighthouse building itself might be modeled after the Presque Isle Light on the shore of Lake Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania. It is one of three lighthouses in Erie, along with the Erie Land Light and the North Pier Light. The lighthouse is situated on the northern shoreline of Presque Isle State Park, overlooking the beach.
- This map is largely based on the original "Lighthouse" map from Left 4 Dead's "The Last Stand" but extended to cover the watchtower and the new shoreline under the lighthouse.
- In the safehouse bathroom, Survivors can find an axe stuck into the wall. This refers to the 1980 psychological horror film The Shining, based on the 1977 Stephen King novel of the same name. In a memorable scene, Jack Torrance, the film's villain, breaks into the bathroom using an axe while yelling, "Here's Johnny!".
- If the Survivors go to the right instead of passing straight to the watchtower from the safe house, there is a stretch of road blocked by a bus wreck at the end. The bus model is the same one that appears in Death Toll's The Church.
- Also, if the Survivors go to the safe house's right side, graffiti is written over the mason wall that says, "Jim, thank you for your sacrifice 1928–20xx". The graffiti is a tribute to Jim French, the original voice actor of Bill, who passed away due to old age in 2017. It also refers to his character's sacrifice in the campaign of the same name.
- The last two numbers of "1928-20xx" are smudged to preserve the canon timeline consistency, as the game took place in 2009, but Jim French died in 2017. The initial version of The Last Stand Community Update (version 2.2.0.0) was not smudged and written as "2017". The smudging was done after a patch, possibly after a developer spotted the oversight.
- There is a presence of military equipment (and Infected servicemen). However, the lack of traces of CEDA suggests that the lighthouse and the nearby village were solely under the protection of the military before they were finally overrun by the Infected.
- A backpack with the CEDA logo can be found in the watchtower, indicating that CEDA may have contacted the soldiers stationed there and sent them supplies to assist them.
- The maps stored on the outpost tower are actually the same maps used in Blood Harvest's Farmhouse Finale.
- If the Survivors interact with a radio in the military outpost tower, the radio's light will flicker to yellow as static plays. A weak 'Hello?' will sound, and the radio's light changes to red shortly before it sparks and becomes unusable.
- The voice lines for the watchtower's radio were originally recorded for a scrapped teaser trailer concept.
- At the top room of the watchtower is a footlocker. An AK-47, a Magnum Pistol, and a Silenced Submachine Gun with unique skins can be found when opening the lighthouse; there is a small cabin. Inside the cabin is the body of a deceased Survivor with a pitchfork next to him.
- In the original L4D1 version of the map before its final version, a video showed that the Survivors were supposed to use a radio to call for help instead of turning on the generator. This cut concept was referenced with a darker tone in this map. At the same cabin where one can find a deceased Survivor and his pitchfork, there is a non-functional radio located here. It is speculated that the desperate Survivor tried to fix the radio to no avail, resulting in him falling into insanity and committing suicide (see the graffiti). This might have influenced the L4D1 survivors' decision to use the lighthouse for help instead of the radio.
- In the initial version of The Last Stand Community Update (version 2.2.0.0), you may find an unobtainable gnome resting inside the dilapidated fishing boat shipwreck beneath the cliff, directly under the lighthouse. However, the gnome was already removed in the later version, possibly deemed unnecessary.
- The gas cans appear as indestructible decorative objects that cannot be interacted with at first, colored green to help them seem even more inconspicuous. Once the generator shuts down during the finale, the gas cans will behave like regular ones during a Scavenge-style finale. Survivors can then pick them up, fuel the generator with them, or set them ablaze to fight the Infected (causing them to respawn so the finale does not become impossible shortly). This is the only official campaign in which gas cans undergo this "state change" following a scripted event.
- When the escape sequence begins, the rescue boat fires a bright red signal flare into the air, which is the source of the dramatic red lighting during the escape sequence. This flare lands on the ground in a manner that also helps to draw the player's attention towards the route that leads down to the boat.
- Although the map is non-canonical to the base timeline, the ending of this map ironically resembles and fulfills Bill's plan to get away from the U.S. mainland to a remote island to ensure his and the rest of the L4D1 survivors' safety. In the canonical story, Bill dies before his plan is realized, although Zoey, Francis, and Louis manage to escape to the Florida Keys in the aftermath of "The Passing."
- Alternatively, since this campaign is also based on the Survivors taking a wrong path in Death Toll, and they are nonetheless saved by John Slater's boat, it's possible that events that follow in this alternate history would have played out on the boat in the same way as described by Francis in The Sacrifice comic, leading to where the Survivors begin in Dead Air.
- It has been confirmed by members of the Community Update Team that this is indeed the case, meaning that despite The Last Stand branching off from the canon storyline where the survivors get rescued in Death Toll, it loops back and continues with Dead Air, making it simply an alternate timeline.
- It is possible to skip the finale sequence and jump straight into the rescue sequence with the help of the L4D2 Admin System tool. This results in the lighthouse's beacon being turned on when the final escape cutscene plays, despite the player not turning on the lighthouse beacon, refilling the generator, and the lighthouse beacon staying turned off. However, the lighthouse beacon's light animation appears to become a long flickering light instead of rotating. This indicates that the lighthouse beacon is coded to be turned on by default.
