As much fun as RTS games like StarCraft or Command and Conquer can be, there’s a special satisfaction to recreating battles from real-world history. In that manner, Call to Arms: Gates of Hell remains one of the best World War II strategy games on PC. A standalone expansion to the original game, itself a product of Digitalmindsoft after it spun off from collaborating with Best Way on the Men of War series, Gates of Hell just got a brand-new DLC focusing on US airborne operations during WW2.
The fittingly named Call to Arms: Gates of Hell – Airborne DLC builds on the base version, Ostfront, with a new campaign playable in single-player or co-op. It introduces 12 missions to the RTS game centered on the paratroopers of the US 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions, known as the “Screaming Eagles” and “All American Division” respectively. You’ll join their operations across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.
Digitalmindsoft says the newly polished campaign was “crafted with the feedback of the community in mind,” with “deep, immersive and complex missions that have a huge appeal to lovers of cinematic and action-packed single-player.” Along with characters based on the real-life divisions “paying tribute to some of the bravest men to see action in the entirety of WW2,” you’ll also uncover “complex secret objectives” to complete for an additional challenge.
Among the battles, you’ll experience the jump into Sainte-Mère-Église, the assault on Brécourt Manor, the winter defense of Bastogne, and of course Operation Market Garden. The Airborne expansion also adds more than 100 environment models to Gates of Hell for all the key locations featured in those missions, including map assets for the Netherlands, and nine new vehicles.
Call to Arms: Gates of Hell Airborne is out now on Steam. You can get it at 20% off through Thursday October 31, meaning you’ll pay $10.39 / £8.79. The base game is also 75% off for the same period, so expect to pay $8.74 / £7.49 if you need to pick that up first. Head here to get the new expansion for yourself.
For more historical battles from the time, here are the best WW2 games. Or try one of the best strategy games in 2024 instead.
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