History Videogame / TheLastStand

* BitchInSheepsClothing: The brothers Jeb and Paul in the Whistler's Forest area. They pretend to be traveling with husband and wife Clarence and Fern in their minivan, once the player runs into them, they ask you to collect car parts for them, ( 3 cans of gas, a fan belt, and a socket set.) once you collect said tools, they immediately try to kill you. Killing them gets you the "Human Target" achievement earlier than normal. Once, you talk to Clarence and Fern, they reveal that Jeb and Paul had actually kidnapped them and were holding them hostage.
* BlindWithoutEm: Kelly, the Stan's General Foods store clerk is blind without her glasses, so she asks you to find them. The reward for doing so is her becoming a companion for the rest of the game unless she is killed. Thankfully you don't have to look far for the glasses, as they are right outside the storage room she hid in.

* BodyArmorAsHitpoints: Played straight in ''Dead Zone'', averted in all the previous games.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: The brothers Jeb and Paul in the Whistler's Forest area. They pretend to be traveling with husband and wife Clarence and Fern in their minivan, once the player runs into them, they ask you to collect car parts for them, ( 3 cans of gas, a fan belt, and a socket set.) once you collect said tools, they immediately try to kill you. Killing them gets you the "Human Target" achievement earlier than normal.

* BladeOnAStick: The Sticker, Claw Rake, and Longarm are all improvised polearms made from mounting increasingly large blades on broom handles, giving them some of the longest ranges of any melee weapon.

* [[LandMineGoesClick Land Mine Goes Beep]]: In ''Aftermath'', land mines are present in a few areas. Get too close and they'll briefly beep before they do what land mines do best. If you're lucky enough, it can be a dud that you can strip for parts. If you're less lucky, it's likely to lead to YetAnotherStupidDeath as they HURT.

* TheJaywalkingDead: ''Union City'' opens with the PlayerCharacter running over a zombie, and [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome quickly losing control of their car and wrapping it around a telegraph pole.]]

* AnAxeToGrind: Fire Axes, Hatchets, and Battle Axes are available in ''Union City'' and ''Dead Zone'', the last of which is the most powerful melee weapon in ''Union City''. The latter game also adds Survival Axes, Ice Axes, and the improvised Mezzaluna Axe.

* ActionSurvivor: Jack, the protagonist of the first two titles, who at the start of the series was just a random survivor who found a pistol and had the idea to hole up in an isolated barricade somewhere. As he slowly managed to survive, scavenge, and recruit others to his cause, Jack became one of the most successful individuals to have thrived in the zombie apocalypse, having survived the initial three-month journey to eventually become a major leading figure in the survivor community as of ''Aftermath''.

* FiringOneHanded: The Uzi in the classic titles is held this way, unlike the other pistol-sized weapons that use a two-handed stance.

%%(ZCE)* ActionSurvivor: Depending on the background you take, your character in ''Union City'' can be this.

%%(ZCE)* OneHandedShotgunPump: In ''The Last Stand'' and ''The Last Stand 2'', Jack does this after reloading the pump shotgun.

-->''':The King''' The King has what you need friend, understand that The King can only accept cash, in these uncertain times friend, money is uhh, King. No trade-ins, no loans, no credit, it's all cash, cash, cash, baby. See something you like, go ahead and pick it out.

* OneHandedShotgunPump: In ''The Last Stand'' and ''The Last Stand 2'', Jack does this after reloading the pump shotgun.

* RareGuns:
** The [=XM8=] assault rifle that can be scavenged if you get lucky or be given to you by [[spoiler:Jack]] right before the end of ''Union City''.
** ''Dead Zone'' has the even rarer LMG variant of the [=XM8=] as well as the regular version as premium weapons. Additionally, there are a couple variants of the Desert Eagle and the Tactical Shotgun is basically the SPAS-12 with a box magazine.

* GoodBadBugs: In the first game, if you switch to your other weapon while firing an automatic weapon, the other weapon will have the first weapon's firing rate, even if it is also an automatic weapon. This makes the slower-firing but harder-hitting Magnum revolver more effective as the UMP 45 and it are the first two weapons found and the chainsaw counts as an automatic. When used on the pump shotgun or M82 Barrett, the game becomes substantially easier.

* ''[[http://armorgames.com/play/269/the-last-stand The Last Stand]]'' follows a survivor named Jack, who tries to hold off waves of the undead until he is rescued. His barricade is besieged by a [[ZombieApocalypse horde of flesh eating zombies]] every night, and the player must defend the barricade and then 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: Dead Zone'', is set in Union City AfterTheEnd, now called the "Dead Zone." It focuses on the attempts of the survivors still in the area to survive being LeftForDead by the government, and features a mix of RealTimeStrategy with IsometricProjection. The game launched on Facebook, Kongregate and Armor Games in 2012, though its servers were shut down at the end of 2020 due to the end of support for Adobe Flash Player.
* ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1266840/The_Last_Stand_Aftermath/ The Last Stand: Aftermath]]'' is a single-player roguelike (release date November 16th 2021.) that follows a group of survivors in the post-apocalypse who must fight to survive in the ruins of civilization -- and this time, ''all'' of the survivors are infected, meaning it's a question of ''when'', not if, they perish. Players can unlock new perks and rewards when their character dies, along with an "undeath" mechanic that players who risk it all with new mutations.

* AllegedlyFreeGame: ''Dead Zone'', in the style of many other browser-based strategy games. You ''can'' play entirely for free, but build times, upgrade times and wait times between missions increase quite rapidly as the levels rise, to the point that you'll eventually be waiting several hours for your survivors to return or weeks for buildings to upgrade unless you spend Fuel to speed things up. It's possible to scavenge Fuel in-game without paying anything, but it is quite rare and there is a limit on how much that can be obtained per day. Building and supplying a F.U.E.L. Generator will also provide a small amount over a period of 2 days, but this is still far slower than simply paying for it. That being said, two of the bribes, the Deathmobile Upgrade and the Inventory Upgrade are permanent, and can save one plenty of time in the long run, providing that one is willing to pay the $30 that each upgrade costs.
* AnnoyingArrows: Averted. The Compound Bow in ''The Last Stand 2'' and ''Union City'' does a lot of damage, and can often OneHitKill zombies if they're hit in the right place. Also, in ''Dead Zone'', Cross/bows cost little ammo (cross 20, standard 5), are silent and fairly quick to reload (vests can enhance the speed further). Hiding a survivor with a bow in the middle of a compound to catch some raiders off-guard can be quite funny.

** Your companions in ''Union City'' won't reload their gun if they don't have to, even if there is only OneBulletLeft. They also tend to not be very good with melee weapons, and have trouble fending off dogs and crawlers once they're close up.

** In ''Dead Zone'', loading up the entire away team with weapons that used a high ammo count, especially if there isn't a lot of ammo in storage. However, the books ''Ammo Conservationist'' and ''Ammunition Annual'' help to reduce the impracticality of this strategy, both in reducing the amount of ammo used, and in increasing the amount found.
* AnAxeToGrind: Fire Axes, Hatchets and Battle Axes are available in ''Union City'' and ''Dead Zone'', the last of which is the most powerful melee weapon in ''Union City''. The latter game also adds Survival Axes, Ice Axes and the improvised Mezzaluna Axe.

* BagOfSpilling: You finish the first game with an assortment of pistols, [=SMGs=], shotguns etc., but you start the second game with just a pistol. Justified, as Jack was involved in a helicopter crash in between the games and likely wasn't able to bring his other weapons with him.

** There's also a skill boosting book called 'Batter Up!' in ''Union City'', which boosts the Blunt skill.

** In ''The Last Stand'', a M82 Barrett anti-materiel rifle.

* {{BFS}}: The Bloodluster and the simply named Sword in ''Dead Zone'' are large improvised two handed swords.

* BottomlessMagazines: In ''Union City'', your companion has an unlimited supply of ammunition, so it's a good idea to give them guns either with hard to find ammo or fully automatic. They still have to reload though. Played straight in all other games, though again, you still need to reload.

* BribingYourWayToVictory: ''Dead Zone'' has a premium currency in the form of Fuel. You can get it in small quantities during your scavenging runs from time to time or from building and supplying the F.U.E.L. Generator, or in big amounts by paying {{microtransactions}}. It can be used in a lot of helpful things like speeding up actions, refilling your resources or building things without spending resources. You also have to spend Fuel to craft or upgrade stuff in your benches. That being said, two of the bribes, the Deathmobile Upgrade and the Inventory Upgrade are permanent, and can save one plenty of time in the long run, providing that one is willing to pay the $30 that each upgrade costs.

* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Jack (and the rest of his crew) arrive to provide cover for the player character, their wife and (if they had one) Kelly[=/=]Hank at the end of ''Union City'', after having seemingly disappeared when the hole was blown in the military barricade]].

* CoolCar: The Deathmobile in ''Dead Zone'' - seems to be based off of a black muscle car from the late sixties, like a Cadillac Eldorado. It can instantly return survivors to your base, but this cost Fuel unless there is less than five minutes on the away clock, but if it is Upgraded, all mission return times are reduced - five minutes for manually controlled missions, and ten minutes for automated missions - and there's a cowcatcher added to the front, making it even cooler. Crosses over with ClownCar, because while the car looks like it is based off of a two-seater, it can transport the entire away-team, which can be up to five people. Also crosses over with AutomatedAutomobiles, as it is possible to send the car to pick up an away team, even when no survivors are currently at the base.

** Pocket Knives 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. ''Dead Zone'' also has the premium Hunting Knife, the HERC-1 Combat Knife and the Combat Knife, very fast but relatively weak weapons for the levels they're available in.

* GatlingGood: ''Dead Zone'' has The 2nd Amendment that can be crafted during Independence Day and the Minigun only available from the Raid on Union Island. There's also a few other craftable miniguns/gatling guns, although some are only crafteable during the holidays. The HERC troops in the latter will also be using Miniguns against you.

* GolfClubbing: A below average weapon in ''Union City''.

** The Barrett [=M82=] in the first game. It is immensely powerful, capable of {{One Hit Polykill}}s when firing into a mob and has an agreeable magazine size that gets reloaded very quickly. It's basically the Hunting Rifle on steroids with a touch of MoreDakka. It is also the last weapon you'll ever find, if you do at all, since it will only drop if you keep searching for guns after filling up your WallOfWeapons. By the time you've found it, you're probably close to (or at) Night 20 already.
** The RPG and [=M249 SAW=] in the second game are both hideously powerful, but are only found in the very late-game Fort Tran, which was in itself a VersionExclusiveContent to Armor Games and inaccessible otherwise until the series was re-released as part of the Legacy Collection. Unless your time management is really on point and you also got lucky with supplies, it would be very difficult to reach the fort ''and'' Union City within the time allotted.
** ''Union City'' has a number of weapons that are at the top of their class -- and ''extremely'' hard to find, with most only being found in Lucky Drops or in unique containers. These include the Katana (Sharpened), M249 SAW (Military), UMP 45 (Spec Ops or Military), the SV-SMG and the AK-47 (Spec Ops).

** [[spoiler:It is implied that Jack and his group of survivors makes one to cover your escape from Union City.]] However, ''Aftermath'' reveals [[spoiler:that Jack is not only alive and well, he's actually the leader of the Council that runs The End now. You even learn his full name, "Jack Davis".]]

* NewGamePlus: In ''Aftermath'', completing the main story doesn't end the game, and even opens up a few new game mechanics. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that you only find out that [[spoiler:Dr. Stedman was working on a serum to eliminate the infection at the end of the run, and that the lab he was at is the only place to reliably perform adjustments and experiments with the serum he was working on, requiring future volunteers to make the full trek over]].

* RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain: 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.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: Averted. They're more powerful, but carry less bullets and reload more slowly than regular semi-auto pistols.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Lisa Granger's brother Terry Granger is implied to be one, he speaks in military manerisms and Lisa mentioned him having gone off his meds before asking you to find him. Implying he was in the military and suffers from PTSD.
* ShieldBearingMook: 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 ScratchDamage unless you're using [[StuffBlowingUp explosives]]. Thankfully, they walk slowly, never carry weapons, lower their shield to attack, and never run. They are a minimal threat unless you are in an enclosed room with many zombies.
* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: 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.

** The way you purchase things from vendors (a man and his wares behind chain-link fence and barbed wire, who tosses the items over to you) is directly lifted from ''VideoGame/DeadRising2''.

* ShovelStrike: Shovels are present in ''Union City'' and ''Dead Zone''. In particular, the Shovel in ''Union City'' stands alongside the Police Baton as the best blunt weapons in the game, being able to deal heavy damage and be fairly lightweight at the same time.

** Completing Darnell the tinkerer's three side quests gets you a heavy pipe, a heavy nail board, and a silenced [=PP9=] pistol.

** Companions can only be recruited by completing fetch quests. Kelly the store clerk will become your companion for finding her glasses, since she can't see without them. Hank the gunshop owner will become your companion for finding his father's rifle and bolt group.
** Completing the car parts sidequest will earn you $500 as a thanks from Clarence and Fern for saving them from the bandit brothers Jeb and Paul.

* SlidingScaleOfContinuity: The first three games have a Type 3 (Loose) configuration. Jack manages to escape at the end of the original game, but is referenced as having survived a helicopter crash at the beginning of the second. At the end of ''2'', he arrives at Union City and is seemingly successful at finding a boat and fleeing the city... that is, until ''Union City'' reveals that when he arrived, he discovered that nearly all the boats were destroyed by the military to prevent people from escaping, forcing him to amass a like-minded group of survivors within the city (offscreen), which the player encounter discovers towards the end of the game. ''Dead Zone'' begins AfterTheEnd, with the city described as still having form of life left in it and the survivors explicitly stated as having been left behind in Union City, but with none of the references to prior works.

--> ''':The King''' The King has what you need friend, understand that The King can only accept cash, in these uncertain times friend, money is uhh, King. No trade ins, no loans, no credit, it's all cash, cash, cash, baby. See something you like, go ahead and pick it out.

** A soft time limit is present and justified in ''Aftermath''. The entire reason your Volunteers are going out into the zombie-filled outside is specifically because they're all already infected, and due to turn any time, so they have nothing more to lose. In-game, this is represented by the infection slowly but surely reducing your maximum HP over time (and getting hit, bitten, certain traps, etc. will make your infection all the worse), and while there are Antivirals to temporarily halt its advance, you CANNOT permanently stop your infection and Antivirals are both finite and can be difficult to obtain.

* TraumaInn: In ''Union City'', sleeping in any bed will heal you depending how many hours you spend on sleeping, in a similar way to the newest VideoGame/{{Fallout}} games.

* UndyingLoyalty: Your companion characters, except when in the first 2 games when they tend to run away when the barracade health is too low, or in 2 when they get killed by a melee weapon zombie. They will stay with you for the whole game. In Union City, if you complete Kelly's quest to find her glasses, or Hank's quest to find his rifle and bolt group, they will be your companion for the rest of the game, unless they are killed, or you replace one with the other, as you can only have one companion in Union City. Heck, even the protagonist of ''Union City'' counts, they go through hell and back to find their spouse and decide to take them with them anyway when they discover that they had been bitten at the hospital.

** Averted 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).

*** It turns out that [[spoiler:you're not getting that help. The final area reveals that Dr. Stedman was working on a serum to deal with the infection. However, he himself is succumbing to the virus, and while he made progress, it's not presently in a state that does anything but kill anyone with ANY level of infection, and you find this out after he fully succumbs and you're forced to kill him in self-defense. Your finding out the serum's status the hard way ends the first run of the game, and future runs involve more Volunteers making the trek out to make adjustments to the serum, in hope that one day they'll be able to perfect it.]]

''The Last Stand'' is a series of [[ZombieApocalypse zombie survival]] Flash games, made by [[http://conartistgames.com Con Artist Games]] (who also made ''[[http://armorgames.com/play/2267/warfare-1917 Warfare 1917]]'' and ''[[http://armorgames.com/play/4071/warfare-1944 Warfare 1944]]'') for [[https://armorgames.com/ Armor Games]].

* ArmorIsUseless: Averted. It makes the zombie ImmuneToBullets (in the first three games), [[AttackItsWeakPoint 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 [[ShieldBearingMook Riot Shield-carrying police zombies]] are one of the most annoying opponents), though the most powerful guns as well as [[StuffBlowingUp explosives]] will punch through the armor. ''Union City'' and ''Dead Zone'' allow the player to wear armor as well, reducing the amount of damage they take from zombies [[spoiler: and human opponents.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: ''Aftermath'']]. [[spoiler: Your volunteer ''is not'' making it through his run alive, win or lose: completion of the first run reveals that Dr. Stedman was working on a serum to deal with the infection. It isn't complete, and in its current state, it deals with the infection by slaying its recipient, regardless of infection level. However, he did leave enough information, notes, and equipment behind for adjustments to be made, and with your notifying the Colony of its presence, it ''is'' possible that over time, a serum that eliminates the infection but leaves a not-fully-turned recipient alive could be made out of his research.]]

** [[spoiler: In ''The Last Stand 2'', if Jack doesn't make it to Union City in time, it gets bombed back to the Stone Age.]]
** [[spoiler: 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.]]

** [[spoiler: It is implied that Jack and his group of survivors makes one to cover your escape from Union City.]] However, ''Aftermath'' reveals [[spoiler: that Jack is not only alive and well, he's actually the leader of the Council that runs The End now. You even learn his full name, "Jack Davis".]]

* NewGamePlus: In ''Aftermath'', completing the main story doesn't end the game, and even opens up a few new game mechanics. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that you only find out that [[spoiler: Dr. Stedman was working on a serum to eliminate the infection at the end of the run, and that the lab he was at is the only place to reliably perform adjustments and experiments with the serum he was working on, requiring future volunteers to make the full trek over]].

* TookAShortcut: In ''Union City'', all the [=NPCs=] that change location do this, [[spoiler: including Jack in the ending]].

** Played straight 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 any of them. Also played straight for the [[spoiler: various hostile HERC characters]] in ''Union City'', which carry unlootable weapons and ammo.

** In ''Union City'', after a period of time a zombie horde attacks. Outdoors, they just come in from the map edge. Indoors, [[DynamicEntry they come in through the ceiling.]] [[spoiler: 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.]]

** It turns out that [[spoiler: 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.
** [[spoiler: Your spouse in ''Union City''.]]

*** It turns out that [[spoiler: you're not getting that help. The final area reveals that Dr. Stedman was working on a serum to deal with the infection. However, he himself is succumbing to the virus, and while he made progress, it's not presently in a state that does anything but kill anyone with ANY level of infection, and you find this out after he fully succumbs and you're forced to kill him in self-defense. Your finding out the serum's status the hard way ends the first run of the game, and future runs involve more Volunteers making the trek out to make adjustments to the serum, in hope that one day they'll be able to perfect it.]]

* AKA47: Quite a few weapons get fake names in ''Union City'', and ''Dead Zone'' brings it UpToEleven. Some weapons do get to keep their real names including, ironically enough, the AK-47.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Quite a few. Taken UpToEleven in ''Dead Zone'', especially those that you can craft, and which the Engineer class specializes in using.

* ArtEvolution: Noticeable between ''The Last Stand'' and the sequels.

* EmergencyWeapon: The [[ChainsawGood Chainsaw]] in the first two games. 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.

* KnifeNut: Pocket Knives 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. ''Dead Zone'' also has the premium Hunting Knife, the HERC-1 Combat Knife and the Combat Knife, very fast but relatively weak weapons for the levels they're available in.

* ProngsOfPoseidon: A Type 2 called Lucifer's Trident is a Halloween weapon in ''Dead Zone''.

%%* EveryBulletIsATracer
%%* EverythingFades

* FriendlyEnemy: In the ''Dead Zone'', the relationships between various players can have this sort of feeling. One day, Player 1 could be trashing Player 2, as well as the reverse, and the next, they could be swapping weapons, armor, and necessary components.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: ''Aftermath'']]. [[spoiler: Your volunteer ''is not'' making it through his run alive, win or lose: completion of the first run reveals that Dr. Stedman was working on a serum to deal with the infection. It isn't complete, and in its current state, it deals with the infection by slaying its recipient, regardless of infection level. However, he did leave enough information, notes, and equipment behind for adjustments to be made, and with your notifying the Colony of its presence, it ''is'' possible that over time, a serum that eliminates the infection and but leaves a not-fully-turned recipient alive could be made out of his research.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: ''Aftermath'']]. [[spoiler: Your volunteer ''is not'' making it through his run alive, win or lose: completion of the first run reveals that Dr. Stedman was working on a serum to deal with the infection. It isn't complete, and in its current state, it deals with the infection by slaying its recipient. However, he did leave enough information, notes, and equipment behind for adjustments to be made, and with your notifying the Colony of its presence, it ''is'' possible that over time, a fully working serum could be made out of his research.]]

* MadScientist: It's not particularly well-hidden that something's up with Dr. Stedman in ''Aftermath''. [[spoiler:However, what ISN'T obvious is that he was genuinely trying to help humanity by trying to cure the infection, made enough progress to get a serum to a testable state, and even made sure to leave enough notes and material behind to where his work could be built upon, it's just that his methods were extreme and led to a host of additional problems in the process.]]

* NewGamePlus: In ''Aftermath'', completing the main story doesn't end the game, and even opens up a few new game mechanics. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that you only find out that [[spoiler: Dr. Stedman was working on a cure at the end of the run, and that the lab he was at is the only place to reliably perform adjustments and experiments with the serum he was working on, requiring future volunteers to make the full trek over]].

*** It turns out that [[spoiler: you're not getting that help. The final area reveals that Dr. Stedman was working on a serum to deal with the infection. However, he himself is succumbing to the virus, and while he made progress, it's not presently in a state that does anything but kill them, and you find this out after he fully succumbs and you're forced to kill him in self-defense. Your finding out the serum's status the hard way ends the first run of the game, and future runs involve more Volunteers making the trek out to make adjustments to the serum, in hope that one day they'll be able to perfect it.]]

* BreakableWeapon: Melee weapons in ''Aftermath'' have a Durability stat that will decrease with each hit, which will eventually result in the item breaking from use.

* HideYourChildren: There are no children in the series, aside from a few mentioned in ''Union City'' in the notes.