Military RTS Broken Arrow parks its obsession with realism to bring you one of the coolest zombie modes I've seen in ages

Broken Arrow was set to be one of 2025's best strategy games, with its realistic and detailed approach to modern military combat. Touted as a spiritual successor to Command and Conquer, excitement was high, but two main issues have resulted in it falling below expectations: cheaters, and faction balance. In today's new Broken Arrow update, developer Steel Balalaika takes swings at both. However, it's also bringing a new Halloween-inspired mode to the game, and while that sounds like a travesty for a game so focused on realism, its zombie invasion actually looks awesome.

Let's start, though, with the things that will really contribute to a successful future for the game. Cheaters are an eternal thorn in the side of the biggest multiplayer games, but even for something with a more modest daily player count like Broken Arrow, they still weasel their way in. Unprepared to deal with bad actors at launch, a few weeks back Steel Balalaika said that introducing stronger anti-cheat measures was "a top priority," and now we're seeing the results. From today, Broken Arrow will use Easy Anti-Cheat "in conjunction with our internal cheat detection system." There will be an option when you boot up the game to play offline, where Easy Anti-Cheat will be disabled so it doesn't interfere with things like mods. However, if you want to play online modes, it will be automatically enabled.

There are also balance changes aplenty in the new update, which aims to finally put to bed the winrate discrepancy between the Russian faction and the US one. The "cruise missile spam meta" has been shot down by a series of changes, including damage tweaks and longer aiming times to stop missiles being launched from planes at the last second. The Russian Guard tank specialization has been nerfed, as it was one of the main reasons that faction was sitting on a much higher win rate, and the struggling Americans have been blessed with loads of buffs. There are plenty of changes (and fixes, too) which you can read in detail right here.

The update also delivers a surprise new zombie mode, which is based off of a community creation. "The most downloaded scenario of the workshop is a mode where you defend against zombies made by 'Joining Player.' This scenario uses regular units of the game to represent the zombies. Since Halloween is not far away we have decided to help with the creation of a real zombie mode by adding zombie units to the game."

Several different undead units have been created for this, from your run-of-the-mill Walkers, to Spitters that shoot acid that burns through vehicles and walls, to Throwers that will pick up cars and lob them at your forces.

You've been deployed to turn the hordes into zombie dust, but you'll need to still position vehicles and infantry strategically so you don't get overrun. There are also civilians to save and local police force officers on the ground that can help in gunning down zombs. You can play this new mode solo, or cooperatively with up to three other players. I've got to say, it sounds like good fun, and it looks epic in the update's new trailer - given it's based on an existing fan-favorite experience, this should be absolutely superb.

Broken Arrow update 1.0.11 and its new zombie mode is live right now.

For more, be sure to check out our expert picks for the best RTS games and the best war games.

While I'm mostly cynical about Halloween events and modes, this one actually looks the business - come and tell me about your favorites in the PCGamesN Discord server.