Zombie survival games usually give you a house, bunker or fortified settlement to call home, but Last Harbor is taking a very different approach. In this upcoming open world survival game, your main base is a boat, and keeping it afloat could be just as important as surviving the infected.
Developed by tinyBuild, Last Harbor is set across the San Juan Islands in Washington State following a zombie outbreak that has pushed survivors away from the mainland and onto the water.
Rather than building a permanent base in one location, players live aboard a vessel that acts as their home, transport and crafting hub. The boat can be upgraded over time, giving players a mobile base that travels with them as they explore the surrounding islands.
Exploration will regularly force players to leave the safety of the water. After anchoring offshore, survivors can take a smaller dinghy onto nearby islands to search abandoned settlements, buildings and other locations for food, resources and valuable supplies.
Leaving the boat behind comes with its own risks, though. Other players can potentially discover your vessel while you are away and attempt to steal what you have collected, adding another layer of tension to every scavenging run.
Last Harbor also combines co op survival with PvP, meaning zombies are not necessarily the biggest threat in the world. Players can encounter other survivors while exploring, with fights potentially breaking out over resources and territory.
Gunfire can make those encounters even more dangerous. Making too much noise can attract nearby infected, meaning a fight between two groups of players could quickly turn into a much larger battle against zombies.
Safe harbors scattered around the world will give players somewhere to regroup. These protected locations allow survivors to meet other players and rent anchorage where their boats can remain protected.
Outside of combat, Last Harbor includes fishing, crafting, resource gathering and boat upgrades as players attempt to build a sustainable life on the water.
The unusual setting is partly inspired by the developers’ own experiences. tinyBuild says the idea grew from spending time living aboard a boat in the San Juan Islands during the 2020 lockdown, where fishing, exploring isolated islands and visiting unusually quiet towns helped shape the atmosphere of the game.
That real world inspiration gives Last Harbor a slightly different identity from many other zombie survival games. The combination of island exploration, a mobile boat base and the constant threat of both players and infected could make scavenging runs feel particularly risky.
Last Harbor is currently planned to release in 2027 on PC through Steam, with playtests expected before launch. A specific release date has not yet been announced.