World War Two RTS Divided We Fall launches on Steam, free to play until Thursday

Divided We Fall is a Second World War RTS—"a strategic close-combat multiplayer game that emphasizes the importance of building an effective cohesive squad and executing well thought-out tactics on the battlefield," is how the developers describe it on Steam—that launched on Steam Early Access in September 2016. Today it went into full release, and to celebrate the big moment developer Kava Game Studio is making it free to play until Thursday. 

It's a small-scale game, as you can see from the launch trailer, but it supports "massive conflicts" of up to 120 soldiers commanded up by to 15 players per side. "Working together is paramount! If you are the highest ranking officer, you will draw out your battle plan and distribute weapons to your subordinates through an in-game map board interface," the Steam listing states. "But as a lower ranking leader you still have the responsibility to lead your squad to achieve the objective set by your commander, and coordinate with friendly players to adapt the plan within the chaos of battle." 

The Divided We Fall launch announcement also brings with it a "surprise coop mode reveal," which Kava said was "one of the community’s most highly demanded features." The new mode will enable players to team up against AI enemies, and will also allow solo play—not exactly a campaign, but at least a way to play on your own. For the future, Kava aims to incorporate more nations, theaters, and weapons, destructible terrain, a morale system, and "special character DLCs." 

Steam user reviews are "mixed," but the biggest issue appears to be the fact that there are very few people actually playing it, which is a pretty big problem for a multiplayer-focused game. The free weekend may or may not help with that, but if nothing else it's a risk-free way to see if Divided We Fall stands up. 

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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