Of all the stupid, bone-headed, idiotic things to do! In a well-intentioned effort to distract an incoming Nazi patrol, my soldier had tossed a stone to distract them. The theory was sound, and it had worked before: throw a rock, make noise, and the guard in question obligingly turns to see just what caused the ruckus. Unfortunately the rock had landed at the feet of one of my other soldiers, who, until that moment, had been successfully sneaking through the German bunker. And what’s worse, the only person I had to blame for this was myself. I had, like a chump, failed to spot that anyone turning in the direction of the stone would blow my cover, and blow my cover, it did. In fact, it spectacularly demolished it.
With being quiet no longer an option, the only course left was to go loud. What had, up to that point, been a tense stealth mission, turned into a white-knuckle fire-fight. Well, parts had become a fire fight. While one of my soldiers kept enemy reinforcements bottled-up, my other three had enlisted the help of a hapless German guard to re-enact the finale scene of Julius Caesar. With immediate obstacles either perforated or ventilated, I ordered my squad to do the only sensible thing a band of fearless freedom fighters could in that given situation: leg it. Well, certainly not the tactical, stealthy masterpiece I had been hoping for, but at least I had the radio crystals in my possession.
Classified: France ‘44 is a turn-based, squad-based tactical combat game. Set in the lead up to D-Day, players are tasked with commanding a squad of Allied troops and French resistance fighters attempting to disrupt the Nazi war machine. Each mission has players getting to choose up to four of their team, ranging from shotgun wielding medics (or “kill & cure” as I like to call them) to expert snipers (masters of the long-range, short-term relationship) to go up the numerically superior foes.
Missions themselves come in a variety of flavours. Stealth, as the name suggests, gives players the theoretical ability to complete a mission undetected. Gliding silently past the enemies that you can, and quietly removing those that you can’t. Assault missions lie at the other end of the spectrum. It’s all out combat, trying to protect people, objectives, and generally survive. Ambushes, on the other hand, lie somewhere in the middle. You know the mission is going to end in a firefight, but you have a chance to use stealth to help even the odds. After 3 or 4 undetected kills an ambush is declared, with all remaining enemies alerted to your presence. It’s a clever system which encourages players to carefully think through their actions in order to maximise their advantage.
Combat itself relies of positioning, chance-to-hit (based on weapon type, range, line-of-sight and cover), and careful use of abilities. Each squad member has so many Action Points (AP), with movement and abilities costing a certain amount. Furthermore, most combat actions end that squad member’s turn, regardless of how many AP they have remaining. This encourages a carefully thought out approach – do you use all your points to try and get into an advantageous position for the next turn? Or do you try to find a nice balance between mobility and offense?
And while each weapon, excepting melee, comes with a chance to miss (meaning that one can occasionally miss at point-blank range), there’s always a good reason to fire at foes. This is thanks to the ingenious morale system. Any soldier, friend or foe, who takes fire, losses a chunk of morale. Lose 50%, and they become suppressed – losing half their AP for the next turn, and taking a significant hit to their accuracy. If all morale is depleted, that unit is ‘broken’, and loses all AP until after their next turn, effectively rendering them useless. And given a small amount of morale replenishes each turn (excluding the use of the ‘rally’ special ability), it’s possible to pin down an enemy soldier in place, while you manouevre another squad member to line up the perfect shot.
Between missions, you get a chance to upgrade your squad members’ abilities and equipment, excess troops on tasks (build support amongst the various French factions, repair damage done to your network by the Germans, or simply rest and recuperate), or even eavesdrop on conversations with your squad. This last one is a brilliant design feature. Firstly, it rewards you for taking an interest by restoring lost morale and reducing fatigue. Secondly, you can completely skip the dialogue if you’re not interested.
All up, I rather liked Classified: France ‘44. The tactical combat was satisfying, the controls and systems easy to grasp, and the detail in the setting, clothes and weaponry is pleasing. Whether you’re a veteran of turn-based tactics games, or looking to get into them, Classified: France ‘44 is easy to recommend. ■