Classified: France '44 – Test of Classified: France'44 – Correct classified tactic

Prepare for the big day

The game begins 65 days before the Allied landings, in the north of the French countryside. At the head of a small special operations team, the objective is to carry out various missions during the time allotted to prepare for D-Day. A small team expected to increase, a heterogeneous group in roles and origins (American commando , English soldier, French resistance fighter, etc.). There is a little work on the characterization of the playable protagonists, they each have a little story and chat with each other around the fire. Obviously the game has some historical fidelity, in stories, equipment, missions, etc. Small mention for the narration passages with pencil drawings, quite nice.

To take decisions

As said above, the game takes place in the north of France, with a map of the surrounding area in 10 regions, of three segments each. Acquiring control of an entire region allows you to unlock bonuses, whether during the D-Day preparation campaign (healing wounds between missions takes less time) or for the landing itself (force modifications enemies). But be careful, because the Nazis can launch reprisals in the regions, neutralizing a segment, then asking to repair it to maintain the bonus. Importantly, each region is linked to a faction: radicals, Gaullists or criminals. Obviously, carrying out missions and controlling a region increases affinity with the faction concerned, we will come back to this.

From the map, it is also possible to launch tasks. This can be to help a faction by assigning a character to it, to delay retaliation, to send an injured person for treatment, etc. This can make a character unavailable for several days, so you have to think carefully about what to cast and with whom. This part of the game is pretty good in idea, but comes up against the fact that the team is really small. It can be a bit complicated to block a character for several days and even more so when dealing with the injured. On several occasions, having one character healed led to even more difficult missions because the others were exhausted and potentially a bit injured too. A little complicated to manage.
It is possible to choose more or less where to send the team. We generally have the choice between at least two destinations. A dilemma forcing you to take into account the difficulty of the missions, the faction of the region, the reward equipment and, for a handful, a character to recover. The game offers this level a certain replayability, an appreciable point.

Various objectives

As for the missions themselves, there are three types: assault, ambush and stealth mission. The first ones begin with a fight that begins as soon as we arrive on site. The seconds allow a discreet approach and to undertake the discreet elimination of enemies. The last ones are a bit similar, but with a silent kill count and no ambush gauge. The objectives are a bit varied, from the simple mission of eradicating a group of Nazis to stealing documents while trying a discreet approach, including neutralizing an objective (like a radio antenna). Knowing that there are reinforcements which can, and this is often the case, arrive after a certain number of turns. Secondary objectives are also present, such as accomplishing one of the main ones with the arrival of reinforcements or reaching a target discreetly. Again, a good idea which brings a little variation and additional difficulty to the missions. But over time, the secondary objectives become partly obligatory (at least validate one), because they provide very useful resources for campaign management. Having few resources makes the game a little more difficult.

Tactical originalities

Let's move on to the clashes! As specified in the introduction, it is a strategy game (think X-COM), therefore offering turn-based combat, in aerial view by default and with classic components of the genre (cover, zones surveillance, chances of hitting, etc.).
Each character has, as a base, 12 action points that he can use during a game turn. Movements and actions consume these points, so be careful to gauge what it is possible to do with the scenery and resources available, because the weapons are not all equivalent in action points. A rifle requires 5 or 6 points to fire, while a simple pistol only requires 3, but does less damage and has less range. You have to take into account the cover, which offers dodging. However, moving there to protect yourself, or on the contrary going around them to reach an enemy, costs points.

We come to a particularity of the title: morale. In addition to his health bar, a character has a morale bar, divided into two parts. Shooting an opponent affects their morale, whether they are hit or not. At 50% gauge, his AP is halved and his accuracy decreases. At zero, he will not be able to play his next turn and will suffer critical damage. This feature brings significant changes to the course of battles compared to the usual habits of the genre, because even a missed shot can be advantageous. For example, you can neutralize a dangerous enemy that you do not have the means to eliminate during this turn, allowing you to delay. By the way, when there is a shot at an opponent with a salvo weapon (such as a machine gun), the bullets which do not hit and which continue their path still a little behind are taken into account. It is then possible to shoot at an enemy, hit him (or not) and there is another on the same trajectory whose morale is reduced by the salvo. Proper consideration and management of morale gauges, both of your team and enemies, is essential to the success of a mission.

Another partly original feature: stealth. At the start of a mission, it is possible to discreetly eliminate a few enemies (an attack with a bladed weapon kills in this case) before they spot the attackers. This helps prepare the ground a little before open hostilities. But it also fills an ambush gauge. Once this is complete, it triggers a bonus round, with increased hit probabilities. The difficulty for the rest of the mission is then much reduced. The small problem with this feature is that it's actually often a bit difficult to use. Enemies having often very intertwined routes and viewing angles, it can be quite complex to eliminate enough of them to trigger the ambush or with a long enough waiting time to accomplish discreet eliminations (this is not very fun to spend many turns waiting). It is therefore a good idea which has a somewhat average implementation in practice.
There are also terrain-related actions in missions, such as machine guns placed on sack barricades, which can be used to clear an area in front of them. This is another welcome little feature.

Overall, the tactical level of the clashes is still good, the title offers a lot of possibilities and good ideas of gameplay. Even if, as with recent X-COMs, there is reason to be angry when a shot with a high success percentage fails…

Squad Management

To continue with the little soldiers, several character modification options are offered. First of all, each squad member is of a specific class. This obviously impacts its basic characteristics, its standard equipment, etc. He also has a talent tree of his own which allows him to be given even more specific features. On this point, it's rather interesting, with enough differences in the branches to orient a character a little towards your style of play. The equipment also has characteristics specific to each weapon, such as power, range or even the number of ammunition. There is a cosmetic dimension with the characters' clothing, but, unfortunately, quite a few clothes have bonus characteristics, forcing you to choose them for this criterion alone. Furthermore, a lot of equipment is unlocked via the factions present. Improving your relationship with a faction allows you to unlock more equipment.

Should we commit?

Despite some design concerns (more in terms of their balancing), the game offers an interesting and relatively original tactical experience. We can complain a little about a slightly outdated technical part. Perhaps also a little on a certain repetitiveness which sets in throughout the missions. However, this is a point to moderate due to the presence of a mission creator and modeling tools, something that must be emphasized, because it is not that common and highly appreciable. An overall quality game, which will surely please fans of historical strategy games.

Test carried out by Zekkangel on PC using a copy provided by the publisher.