Thirty years ago I installed a demo of a new game from a 3.5 inch floppy disk that was included with a video game magazine. Named X-COM: UFO Defense, this turn-based strategy game featured tactical combat as humans fought to save the Earth from an alien invasion. I loved the game, which I subsequently purchased, and spent hours upon hours playing it. While most other video games of the time were platformers, shooters, or fighting games that required carefully timed button presses to complete combos, jumps, and other actions, this type of game let players think and plan strategy to defeat the enemy. While defending the world against aliens was fun, I played lots of tabletop wargames about World War II. Therefore, when similar new video game was released four years later where you controlled a squad of soldiers during WWII, I spent hours playing Soldiers at War. Since that time, I have looked for something that would improve on that game. Several years ago a new generation of X-COM games were released and others of the turn-based tactical combat genre followed. While I enjoyed them, I still yearned for returning to WWII. Therefore, when I learned about Classified: France ’44, I could not wait to play it.
What is Classified: France ’44?
Classified: France ’44 is a turn-based tactics game where players take command of the Jedburghs. This group of special forces were dropped deep in the heart of Nazi-occupied France and worked with the Resistance to disrupt and sabotage enemy forces in the lead up to D-Day. Players start with two characters and add more as they progress through the strategic campaign. Classified: France ’44 was developed by Absolutely Games and published by Team 17.
Classified: France ’44 is available for PC through Steam as well as for the XBox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5. The standard version of the game sells for $34.99. Deluxe and Overlord editions sell for $39.99 and $49.99 respectively. The Deluxe edition includes the Guerrilla pack DLC expansion while the Overlord edition includes the Guerilla pack as well as three future DLC expansion packs. Each DLC contains two new Special Ops missions. two new weapons or weapon variants, and one new clothing set.
Classified: France ’44 Features
When you first begin playing, Classified: France ’44, you get right into the battle. Your first two characters have parachuted into occupied France and need to meet up with their Resistance contacts. However, a patrol of German soldiers is around the barn where they have been hiding. The game literally walks you through the first mission as a tutorial that teaches players how to play the game. Like some missions, the tutorial offers tactical stealth action at the start where you move from cover to cover outside the sight of the enemies and then make silent melee attacks to thin down their numbers. Some actions create noise which can alert enemies. Each time you silently kill an enemy, the ambush meter increases. Then when it is full, usually after four kills, your team immediately launches an ambush and gains an extra turn. Other missions start right in the middle of a fight, usually with your team defending against an attack. A mission continues until your team has completed their objectives or have been neutralized.
Classified: France ’44 is played in turns with the player getting to take actions with their team and then the enemies completing their actions. Each unit has a certain number of action points–usually 12 at the start. As they are wounded or lose morale, the number of action points they get at the beginning of each turn may decrease. Each space a unit moves costs action points. They also have different actions they can take such as aimed fire, hip fire, melee attack, overwatch, and special abilities which can vary depending on the class of unit. Most combat actions, whether firing a weapon or making a melee attack, ends a unit’s turn, even if they have action points remaining, so be sure to use the points you want before attacking.
While on the topic of unit types, there are five different classes in the game. Each uses a specific type of primary weapon and has unique skills panels where they can spend points to obtain new active or passive skills. Leaders use a carbine or semiautomatic rifle and often have skills that improve the morale of nearby allies or even provide them additional action points. Support uses shotguns and can heal wounded allies. Scouts carry submachine guns and can distract enemies. A Marksman uses a bolt-action rifle and is good at long range shots. Finally, the Heavy carries a machine gun and is good at suppressing enemies and keeping their heads down.
Classified: France ’44 features a unique health and morale system where very shot counts. Every unit in a battle, whether ally or enemy, has two status bars near them. The top is their health. When it is reduced to zero, some enemies may die. Player units and some enemies are instead downed and cannot act for 3 turns, after which they will stand up and rejoin the fight. An allied unit can move adjacent to a downed unit and revive them. However, if a downed unit takes damage, they will retreat from the battle. Also a revived unit is wounded and being wounded a second time will also cause them to leave the battle. In addition to health, a unit’s morale plays an important roll as well. Some weapons such as pistols, shotguns, and machine guns can really reduce morale even if they miss. When a unit’s morale falls to 50% or lower, the character is suppressed. This reduces their action points in half, reduces the accuracy of their attacks, and they deal less morale damage. If a unit’s morale falls to 0, then it is broken and they skip their next turn. Therefore, if you have a lot of enemies coming at you, or are behind cover where you don’t have a good chance of inflicting damage, spraying the area with machine gun fire can suppress or break them and seriously reduce what the enemy can do during their turn.
Like many tactical games, it is important to keep your units behind cover. Low cover reduces the chance of being hit by 30% while high cover has a 60% reduction. Many of the missions have buildings, which not only have lots of cover, but also different ways of entering. If an enemy has a doorway covered, break a window and crawl through the opening to flank them. When you target a unit for a shooting attack, spaces will be highlighted to show you where units might be hit. This hit area is wider for shotguns, submachine guns, and machine guns. So while you are aiming at one target, you might also gets hits or cause morale damage on other nearby units. But be careful since friendly units in the highlighted spaces might also take damage.
The replayable campaign lets you determine the success of the historic ‘D-Day’ battle with 15 different endings. During the campaign, you form a specialist team, court the Resistance factions and aid them in building their strength, and make decisions that lead to game-changing outcomes. Some missions let you rescue allies that will join your team. Successful missions also provide new weapons and equipment as well as supplies which you can use to purchase more weapons and equipment from the Resistance or for different side tasks outside of missions. In-between missions you can listen to your team talk with one another, outfit them for the next mission, spend upgrade points to add new abilities, change their outfits, and even get to know the three different Resistance factions. The campaign map is where you select your next mission and monitor the results of your missions, with a countdown to D-Day at the top. The map is divided into 10 regions each with 3 segments. As you complete missions, you can activate segments for the Resistance faction of the region where the mission took place. If you activate all three segments of a region, you activate its ability. Objectives also appear on the campaign map screen which provide rewards when completed. In addition to the campaign, there are also Special Ops. These are stand alone challenging missions which can be played to see how many stars you can earn.
Why Should You Play Classified: France ’44?
While I was excited to play Classified: France ’44, I also did not want to get my hopes up since I have not been impress with some games in this genre. I am happy to say that my apprehensions were unfounded. I really love playing this game. Some tactical games simplify actions into two or even three actions per turn rather than providing the flexibility of spending action points. I like that as I move the cursor over spaces, the game lets me know how many action points will be used for that movement. Then I can see if I want to spend 6 AP for an aimed shot, I can spend 6 AP on movement if my unit starts with 12 AP. Hip shots only cost 1 AP, so I can move a lot farther before shooting a shotgun or submachine gun. The morale system also adds a lot of realism to the game. In real life, soldiers will keep their heads down when the bullets are flying. Therefore, if you don’t have a good chance of hitting an enemy who is behind cover, shoot to suppress or break them to limit their actions so you can then move in to flank them. Grenades are a good weapon for not only damaging several enemies in the blast radius, but also cause morale loss to anyone in the blast radius as well. All of these features really add to the tactics in this tactical game.
While the missions are exciting and vary depending on the objectives and mission type, the strategic layer of the game is also fascinating. Between missions you get to know your team. Since you can only send four units on a mission, once your team gets larger you can have those with wounds get healed, have them train to learn new skills, or send them to support the Resistance factions and improve your relationships with them. As your relationships with the Resistance improves, you gain access to special weapons and equipment and they can provide additional bonuses as well. I like the ability to customize your units with different weapons, clothing, and skills. Even if you have two of the same class, you can upgrade them with different skills to they specialize it different areas. For example, one support unit could focus on healing and supporting other units while the other becomes more deadly with shotguns and grenades. In addition, you need to make sure you give your units some downtime. Sending them on every mission will cause fatigue which reduces the amount of AP they get each turn. While you can send wounded units on missions, they are less effective. Better to heal them while others go on a mission. All of these decisions test the player’s leadership abilities just as missions test their tactical abilities.
I have had the opportunity to play Classified: France ’44 for a few weeks and have thoroughly enjoyed every minute. Some missions I have had to play more than once so I could complete both the primary and secondary objectives. As you progress through the campaign, you come across new classes of enemies which make the missions more challenging. This not only keeps the game fresh, but also balances your improving team with their newly acquired skills. Plus the game rewards the use of tactics. Running around shooting will quickly get your team killed. Instead, use stealth, cover, and keeping in mind the effects of morale and your team can emerge victorious. Finally, I appreciate the historical WWII setting of the game and the great original soundtrack by Ian Livingstone (available on Spotify, iTunes, and Amazon Music). After having played many different turn-based tactical games (it is one of my favorite genres) and enjoying some, I can truthfully say that Classified: France ’44 is my favorite. If you like a game that gives you time to think and is set at the tactical level of individual soldiers, then I highly recommend Classified: France ’44.
Classified: France ’44 is currently available for PC through Steam and is also available for XBox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5.
Here is the launch trailer for the game.
Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
