Classified: France ’44 PC Review
Summary: Lead a group of allies in Nazi-occupied France to gain support of the partisans and prepare for the D-Day landings.
4.5
Rebel Rousing
My first enjoyment of squad based World War tactical gaming I think was Silent Storm, there had been other games before it… but there was something about the way it handled squad based missions and the overall feel of it was just a joy. Classified: France ’44 gave me a similar feeling (though with a far more reality based experience).
The general idea is that you are a group of elite allied soldiers tasked with drumming up support from the partisans in Nazi-occupied France whilst doing all you can to disrupt the enemy and help prepare for the coming D-Day landings. This sounds straight forward enough… but it turns out not all partisans are equal and in this case there are three distinct factions who don’t strictly play well together. The story sections are told via a sketchbook that you watch get filled in… it’s a nice personal touch and feels like something troops may well have done to pass the time and to keep them distracted from the horrors around them.
Your tasks are somewhat up to you. You are presented with a tactical map that shows what areas you have managed to make a difference in (gain sway with the locals or disrupt the local Nazi forces etc), you are then given some options for how to proceed. Do you go on a recruiting mission or do you try and scrounge some intel? Do you destroy a local garrison or do you try and obtain some ordinance? Each choice can have a pretty significant knock on effect and may just be the difference between victory or defeat.
The missions themselves are more or less what you would expect. Select your squad, choose their loadout and head off. You will have a main objective and other objectives that might give you an edge in the future. Some missions require you reinforce allies who are under attack, others require you sneak in and grab intel. There are different ways to approach the missions and how you choose to tackle it will determine how likely you are to succeed or pick up your bonus rewards. You can certainly charge in guns blazing and hope for the best… or you can sneak in, silently eliminate as many enemies as possible before either sneaking off with the goods or setting up an ambush etc.
These different methods for approaching the missions and the fact that you can choose what sort of missions you prioritise gives the game a decent bit of re-playability. You might play through one time and favour one group of partisans and another you might choose another group. You might choose to focus your efforts on stamping out any Nazi increase of patrols in an area rather than securing more help in other regions… it all changes how well you will achieve the overall goal of making sure the allies have the best chance of success on D-Day.
Overall I had a lot of fun with Classified: France ’44. The only real issue I had was some of the voice acting is on the nose… the Aussie couldn’t be more textbook stereotype and I’m sure the other nationalities are just as cliched. But it’s not so bad you can’t handle it for the small snippets that pop up here and there.
Final Thoughts?
If you enjoy a bit of tactical squad based action from a slightly different perspective to normal then grab a copy. I can’t think of other games that have put such a focus on the work behind the enemy lines before the main assault and Classified: ’44 does a great job of instilling that sense of danger at every corner and the notion of just how important it is that you do a good job so that the main force have the best chance of doing their job.
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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