The Walking Dead Meets Command & Conquer In New Zombie Survival RTS

Imagine The Walking Dead‘s zombie apocalypse unfolding in the middle of a Command & Conquer campaign. Rather than just a handful of survivors, you’re commanding tanks, helicopters, and entire military units as you try to stop the undead from overrunning a city. If this sounds like an interesting premise for a video game to you, an upcoming zombie survival game on Steam is looking to bring these two familiar worlds together, putting players in charge of humanity’s fight against an increasingly organized undead threat.

Developed and published by ProjectAlive, Ebbtide takes place in a world overrun by the undead, starting with a desperate fight to save Los Angeles. Players get to command TF-1 “Ark,” humanity’s last carrier task force, as it attempts to contain the outbreak and protect what’s left of the population. The game draws on familiar ideas from military strategy games like Command & Conquer but throws in a zombie apocalypse where losing ground has consequences beyond a failed mission.

Ebbtide Combines The Walking Dead With Command & Conquer

One of Ebbtide’s more interesting features is how it handles its operations map and battlefield. According to its Steam page, players can move between the two without loading screens, zooming into individual streets to take command of ongoing fights before pulling back to oversee the larger operation. Battles aren’t automatically resolved either. Every soldier lost, zombie killed, and building destroyed carries over between the two views.

Evacuating the innocent is just as important here. You’ll need to transport civilians, troops, and supplies using trucks and helicopters, while keeping routes open as the infected threaten to cut off entire sections of the city.

On top of that, the zombies aren’t simply going to stand around waiting to be shot. A hive mind called the Nexus coordinates attacks, ambushes supply convoys, and lays siege to military positions. Hordes can even pile on top of one another to climb walls and rooftops, while soldiers killed during combat can return as part of the undead.

There’s no shortage of military equipment to work with in Ebbtide. Players can command tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, Humvees, Apache helicopters, and other military units. They can also call in artillery, naval guns, and airstrikes, including support from F/A-18s and AC-130J gunships. These resources aren’t unlimited, however. Ammunition and fuel need to be replenished at forward operating bases, which players can build and defend using concrete walls, gun nests, mortar positions, and supply depots. Keeping those bases operational means protecting the convoys bringing in construction materials and other essentials.

Ebbtide Has Already Attracted 100,000 Steam Wishlists

Despite being an independent project, Ebbtide has already attracted considerable attention. ProjectAlive announced on October 22 that the game had crossed 100,000 Steam wishlists in just three days after its store page went live. Interestingly, the game is being developed largely by one person, with generative AI assisting with selected assets, including music, sound effects, illustrations, and some 3D models.

There’s no confirmed release date or price yet, and the developer is still preparing for a playtest. For now, the game is listed as coming soon on Steam for Windows and macOS. The mix of The Walking Dead’s desperate fight for survival and Command & Conquer’s large-scale military combat, where managing troops, resources, and territory is just as important as fighting the enemy, is pretty clear, so if you’re a fan of these franchises already, Ebbtide is being built to impress you.

The Walking Dead is a massive multimedia franchise that began with a comic book series created by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. The franchise gained widespread popularity with the launch of the television series The Walking Dead in 2010 on AMC, which chronicles the lives of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies, referred to as “walkers.” The success of the original show has led to numerous spin-offs, web series, video games, novels, and other media. The franchise explores themes of survival, human nature, and the breakdown of society in the face of an existential threat, making it one of the most successful and influential horror series of the 21st century.