EBBTIDE Is Game of the Week #78: Zombie Hordes Meet Modern Warfare

Can modern military firepower hold Los Angeles against the undead?

A tactical zombie survival game puts military units, logistics and Los Angeles’s streets into one relentless battle.

For Game of the Week #78, Aidan Minter picks EBBTIDE, an upcoming real-time strategy game from ProjectAlive. Like our earlier look at Defilade, this spotlight is based on the publicly shown game and developer updates, not a review of a playable build.

EBBTIDE Official Trailer

Watch the official EBBTIDE gameplay trailer on YouTube

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One of more memorable chapters in Max Brooks book World War Z is the Battle of Yonkers, the fictional account of the United States military’s first large scale engagement of the zombie war.The battle itself takes place in Yonkers, New York just north of the Bronx.

In the book the Saw Mill River Parkway is used as a choke point to where the zombie hordes funnel into what the military hopes will be a controlled kill zone, in the book the U.S military brings out the big guns to decimate the approaching zombie mass and deploys MLRS strikes and M109 Paladin self propelled howitzers all to no effect as the zombie hordes, although ripped apart could still crawl.

Troops trained to fire centre mass panic as their rounds have zero effect on zombies now encroaching onto the firing line.

What ensues is a full on desperate and chaotic battle for mankind as mortars,infantry , air strikes, Bradleys all engage in a desperate bid to deplete the zombie masses.

The Battle for Mankind Has Begun.

Enter Ebbtide , Fix Gaming's Game of The Week, a game that mirrors an eerily similar battle of mankind against masses of zombie hordes using modern military weapons and warfare. In a style that’s also very close to Defilade which we’ve also got our eyes on, the attention to detail in Ebbtide also looks remarkably similar. Instead of enemy military units, Ebbtide places the combat and military asset management squarely on tactical defence and eradication against hordes of zombies in Los Angeles.

Between Wednesday October 21st and Friday 23rd October the game had gained 85,000 wishlists, a reassuring sign that developer ProjectAlive had tapped into something that players are hungry for.

The game combines isometric command and control of military units in direct line of sight battle with the overall tactical map and intelligence gathering necessary to see the ebb and flow of effective military strategy and resources.

Deploy Tactical Resources.

In World War Z (the book) it's quickly evident there are more zombies than there are bombs and bullets to defeat them and Ebbtide looks very similar in that predicament as hordes of the walking dead swarm around military vehicles as military attack helicopters try to stem the zombie advance. If crisis management is your thing then this could be the perfect game for you.

Players can order National Guard, LAPD and LA County Sheriff's units to hold, delay or withdraw, and call in Marines from Camp Pendleton. Other detail includes the ability for players to send truck and helicopter convoys with supplies, troops or refugees.They can also pull out units and survivors cut off behind the lines before the zombie horde reaches them.

If the game’s steam page is anything to go by the level of detail is insane, check out the LAPD patrol car pulling doughnuts to take down swarming zombies or the AH Littlebird gunships strafing the mass hordes with it devastating miniguns and the troops fighting hand to hand combat as they fight for their lives on the streets.

Currently the game is single player  for PC with multiplayer possibly being added post launch, there is no word yet on console ports.

By the developers own admission Ebbtide uses generative AI, using neural networks to create part of the music, voice overs, sounds, illustrations, and 3D models, as well as translating the game text. He points out that without it, he couldn’t bring the project to fruition.

Be sure to stay up to date with details for the upcoming playtest that the developer has planned via Ebbtides official steam page

Editorial update, November 2, 2026: ProjectAlive also reported reaching 100,000 wishlists in the game’s first three days on Steam. The release date and public playtest dates remain unannounced. See the developer’s Steam announcements.

EBBTIDE

Release: Coming soon — date not announced

Genre: Zombie Survival / Real-Time Tactics / Strategy

Developer / Publisher: ProjectAlive

Platforms: Windows PC and macOS (Apple silicon) — Steam

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