Commandos: Shadows Over Crete (listed under the full title Commandos: Origins — Shadows Over Crete in some stores) is a recent single-player mission pack / mini-campaign that arrives as an extension of the revived Commandos franchise. It drops players into one of the series’ most dramatic and historically charged episodes: the aftermath of the German airborne invasion of Crete in May 1941. The content is steeped in the tactical, puzzle-like stealth gameplay that made the original Commandos games influential in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

We include this game on our site even though the game itself is not about Greek mythology, as a tribute to the memory of the Battle of Crete, and because Crete is the birthplace of Zeus, who was born in a cave in Crete.

Below I’ll cover what the new content is, how it fits into the modern Commandos reboot, what players can expect mechanically and tonally, and the real-world conflict (the Battle of Crete / Operation Mercury) that provides the historical backdrop.

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What the release is and where it sits in the series

The new Shadows Over Crete content is published alongside the modern revival of the franchise, which returned in 2025 as Commandos: Origins (a prequel to the 1998 original). The current commercial stewardship of the franchise belongs to Kalypso Media, with Claymore Game Studios listed as the studio behind Origins. The modern reboots aim to preserve the core real-time tactics, choke-point planning, and multi-specialist character play of the Pyro Studios originals while translating them to updated engines and contemporary consoles/PC. Shadows Over Crete has been released digitally across the same platforms as Commandos: Origins (PC and the ninth-generation consoles).

The new mini-campaign is modestly sized — four missions — and is framed as “in the aftermath of Operation Mercury,” meaning it deals narratively with events that follow the German airborne assault that captured Crete and led to the island’s occupation. In marketing copy found on storefronts the expansion is described as fully voiced and focused on infiltration and sabotage missions that take advantage of the island’s terrain and the chaotic wartime environment. That positioning is consistent with how the Commandos series has historically mixed historically inspired scenarios with tightly designed stealth puzzles.

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Gameplay expectations: what Commandos fans will recognize — and what might be new

If you’ve played earlier Commandos titles — Behind Enemy Lines (1998), Commandos 2 (2001) and the later entries and remasters — you know the pillars: a small squad of specialist characters (sniper, driver, spy/stealth operative, demolitions expert, diver, etc.), environmental interaction (hiding bodies, staging distractions, setting traps), and high-precision planning where timing and positioning are everything. The modern Origins prequel reintroduced these staples with camera rotation in a 3D scene, updated controls for gamepads and mouse, fully voiced dialogue, and UI/UX improvements to make some of the more fiddly classic elements less opaque. Shadows Over Crete continues in this design lineage, offering mission scenarios built around infiltration, sabotage, rescue and escape objectives on a Mediterranean island theatre.

Mechanically, players should expect:

• Squad synergy: chaining skills between characters to bypass sentries and fortifications.
• Environmental puzzles: using terrain and buildings (and the island’s narrow passes, ports, and villages) to create ambushes or evade detection.
• Stealth options and lethal/non-lethal choices: historically the Commandos games let players choose different approaches (sabotage, silent elimination, distractions). The new content keeps that focus while often restricting available equipment for mission authenticity.
• Mission scripting and pacing: shorter campaign (four missions) usually means each mission is denser — more set-piece moments and a higher expectation that each map will present a central challenge or puzzle to solve.

Because Shadows Over Crete is explicitly tied to the historical operation, you’ll also run into narrative elements that reflect occupation, partisan activity, and collaboration or resistance themes — common storytelling threads in WWII tactical games. The missions are described as fully voiced, which suggests a stronger narrative framing than the older, largely text-based mission briefings.

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Tone and design: fidelity to history vs. playable fiction

The Commandos franchise has always balanced on a line between historical pastiche and puzzle-driven fiction. The original games used WWII settings and named theatres (like North Africa or occupied France) but created fictionalized missions that emphasize gameplay over strict documentary accuracy. The modern titles follow that tradition: they lean on period atmosphere, evocative set dressing, uniforms and propaganda, but they create encounters, objectives and characters to serve the level design first.

Shadows Over Crete follows this approach. Its four missions are explicitly “in the aftermath” of the German invasion: that allows mission designers to pick up the narrative threads of a defeated, occupied island — German patrols, fortified coastal positions, commandeered airfields, and local resistance activity — while still crafting the tactical puzzles Commandos players expect. That framing lets the game dramatize the moral ambiguities of occupation without pretending to simulate the full complexity of civilian life under wartime conditions. Store descriptions emphasize atmosphere, tension and “war-scorched” environments rather than documentary realism.

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The real conflict behind the missions: Operation Mercury and the Battle of Crete (May 1941)

To understand why Crete is a compelling setting, a short history note is useful. The German invasion of Crete — codenamed Operation Mercury — began on 20 May 1941 and lasted until early June 1941. It was the first major airborne invasion in military history on such a scale: thousands of German Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) and glider troops were dropped onto the island with the explicit objective of securing airfields that would permit follow-on landings and the establishment of a German foothold in the eastern Mediterranean. The fighting combined conventional front-line clashes with fierce local resistance. Allied (British, Commonwealth and Greek) defenders and many Cretan civilians resisted vigorously, but the Germans succeeded in capturing Maleme airfield early enough to fly in reinforcements and secure the island. The result was an Axis victory and the establishment of what the Germans called “Fortress Crete.”

The battle’s consequences were stark: heavy casualties on both sides, significant numbers of Allied prisoners, and a long occupation that included harsh reprisals against civilians. The bravery and the brutality of the fighting in Crete left a potent legacy in British, Commonwealth and Greek wartime memory — factors that make the setting evocative for narrative game designers. Because the historical event combined airborne shock, decentralized fighting across rugged terrain, and partisan operations, it naturally translates into mission types featured in Shadows Over Crete: sabotage of occupation supply lines, rescue attempts, and targeted strikes against high-value sites like airfields or coastal batteries.

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Historical sensitivity: how games handle occupied civilians and reprisals

Any game that dramatizes Nazi occupation faces an ethical design question: how to depict soldiers, civilians, and partisan fighters without trivializing suffering. The Commandos franchise historically avoids graphic depictions of atrocities by keeping its focus on small-unit operations and mission objectives; that trend appears to continue here. The marketing emphasizes tactical gameplay and atmosphere rather than wartime suffering. That said, because the real Battle of Crete included civilian involvement and harsh reprisals, designers who want to be mindful of history must choose wording and scenarios carefully — portraying resistance heroism and German tactical reach without using real-world atrocities as mere background spectacle.

Players and critics often judge WWII tactical games on how they treat these topics: are civilians reduced to static set dressing, or do missions treat local populations and moral choices with nuance? The short size of Shadows Over Crete (four missions) limits how deep the narrative can go, but fully voiced missions and focused set pieces can still offer moments of emotional weight if writers choose to include them. Store pages and publisher blurbs emphasize atmosphere and mission design over explicit historical storytelling, so players should expect hints and implications rather than an exhaustive historical treatment.

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For whom is Shadows Over Crete best suited?

• Longtime Commandos fans: players who loved the original stealth-puzzle design and want more curated maps that demand timing and multi-character choreography.
• Tactical/stealth players: folks who enjoy methodical, low-tempo planning over run-and-gun action.
• Players interested in WWII vignettes: especially those curious about lesser-covered theatres (the Mediterranean islands, partisan warfare).
• Short-campaign players: those who prefer a compact experience (four missions) rather than a 20+ mission marathon; it’s bite-sized by design.

If you expect a sprawling, narrative-heavy campaign with branching moral choices and extended political context, this release may feel concise. If you expect tight, handcrafted stealth puzzles with evocative Mediterranean settings, you’ll likely find it satisfying.

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Final thoughts — why Crete still matters to tactical game design

Creatively, Crete is an excellent setting for a Commandos-style game: its rugged topography, narrow passes, dispersed villages, and importance of airfields naturally enforce the tactical constraints the series thrives on. Operation Mercury’s combination of airborne shock, small-unit engagement and civilian involvement provides game designers with historically inspired set pieces (blocking airfields, ambushing reinforcements, protecting or evacuating civilians) that translate cleanly into compelling levels.

Shadows Over Crete is not a sweeping historical simulation; it’s a series of focused tactical vignettes that borrow the island’s drama to create intricate stealth puzzles. For fans of methodical, multi-character tactics and historically flavoured scenarios, it’s a worthwhile expansion of the modern Commandos revival — a reminder that even short, well-designed missions can highlight both the cleverness of players and the tragedy and intensity of the conflict they fictionalize. You can find the game on their official Steam page. Remember that this is a DLC pack that needs the original Commandos Origins game to work.