Similar to Xcom but a lot more polished
About The Game
You command an elite Group of allied special operators in Nazi-occupied France, wreak havoc through different provinces in the run up to D-Day. Classified France’44 is a turn-based tactics game. Take on the might of Germany’s war machine and launch daring raids in occupied territory.
The Tutorial
Now I would not normally mention a tutorial in a review but Classified France’44 really go in-depth with the tutorial and while I do not normally like games that hold your hand on the starting mission I have to praise them here. There are so many different tactics at play in this game and they do a seriously good job at teaching you each style of gameplay in a short 15 minute tutorial.
The mission start out with your team in a barn surrounded by enemy combatants, the game teaches us that if we sit behind low cover the enemy wont be able to actually see us when they enter the barn, once they enter the barn this leaves them open to a quick stab to the back eliminating the first two enemies.
Shortly after the barn incident the game teaches us that if we attack from the shadows and there is an enemy near by well they will make noise and draw the attention of nearby enemies to look towards the location of the sound allowing for some seriously good flanking plays from the other members of the squad.
We also get taught about suppression, moral, breaking moral, different cover benefits and abilities that our characters can provide on the field. All of these things combined make for some really cool gameplay.
The Gameplay
As you can expect from my little one line at the top of this review, Classified France’44 plays out a lot like xcom used to play out you move your troops and then once your turn is over the enemy moves there troops. Now while this sounds a little annoying it actually isn’t this style of gameplay makes you think about not just the move your currently taking but where could the enemy go next that could hinder your advance or have you left your self open to a flank.
After each mission you are taken back to a map where you can choose your next mission, there are a few things you can go for here we can choose to occupy more space, help suppressed allies, find more xp for our current allies, recruit new members to the squad and its kind of up to you how you take this on well at least once your out of the tutorial stage of the game.
Within in a mission each action will cost AP lets say you start of with 12 AP and you decide to move 10 spaces but your gun cost 3 AP to fire well unfortunately you wont be able to fire your gun, this makes you think about what your doing, do I advance to the closer piece of cover and take a shot or do I move further down the field but lose out of the chance to shoot.
I found myself advancing short distances and using the teams grenade supply to pick off enemies that had anchored themselves behind half walls. This turned out to be quite and effective strategy once I learnt how much to move and how to always ensure another team mate to cover the advance up the field.
Our Thoughts
We actually weirdly enjoyed our time with Classified France’44 which to be honest I did not think I would and its this reason that I love to play all kinds of games because sometimes you discover one that makes you think “why didn’t I try this sooner”.
Classified France’ 44 is a tactical shooter where the player has to think about each action they are taking and foretell what the enemy might do on there turn. Progressing through the campaign will allow you to indulge in the awesome story that the game has to tell and a lot of the visual are told via note book which makes for some cool story telling. Each mission plays out differently and its down to you to adapt and overcome the mission at hand.
We love the abilities within the game and the mission creator is an awesome little touch we also believe additions like this add so much replayablity to the game.
