Classified: France ’44 - French Resistance turn-based tactics

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2085370/view/4121427534074386961

Classified: France '44 is OUT NOW!

Your fight starts now. Your mission? That’s Classified.

Absolutely Games and Team17's new WWII strategy game has landed on Steam!

An original take on the turn-based tactics genre,
Classified: France ’44
authentically captures the challenges of World War II firefights, shining a light on a lesser known war story. Take charge of the Jedburghs: a group of special forces dropped deep in the heart of Nazi-occupied France, working with the Resistance to disrupt and sabotage enemy forces in the lead up to D-Day!

Strike from the shadows, don’t let them see you coming:

KEY FEATURES

• Unique morale system:
  Every shot counts. Even if it misses, firefights wear down enemy forces’ morale and can turn the tide in the heat of battle.
• Tactical stealth action:
  Infiltrate enemy positions; set up ambushes, and choose your overwatch targets wisely. Friendly fire can shape the battlefield, so position your squad and pick your marks carefully.
• Engaging and replayable campaign:
  Define the success of the historic ‘D-Day’ battle with a replayable campaign with 15 different endings. Form a specialist team, court the Resistance factions and aid them in building their strength, and make decisions that lead to game-changing outcomes.
• Historically authentic gameplay:
  Mirroring real-world military tactics, missions are a thrilling, varied experience. Use your tactical toolbox of stealth, ambush, morale and flanking to outwit the enemy and aid the Resistance.
• The Classified System:
  Built on the ‘Classified System’, access in-game tools to create your own missions to share with the community.

For more information on
Classified: France ‘44
visit the official website, like us on Facebook, and follow us on X.

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

The only reason I found out about this game is because my dad read an article on his phone and he found it interesting.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Played this and finished it this week, thanks to one of my friends who got the game early.
It's really XCOM 2 in WW II France. Stealth gameplay is better, got lots of destruction but not on Silent Storm level (not even close). Morale system is cool but nothing ground breaking.
It starts really easy (we played on Elite difficulty, the hardest) and become even easier on the run, I snowballed even harder than XCOMs.
It is also really short for this kind of game, we missed some missions due to a bug but finished in 25-26 hours.
Game captures WW II mood really right BTW, the dread is in the air and in some mission enemies feel really endless.


Edit:
Also beware, this game has French humour in small bits. Deadlier than MG42s...

Edit 2:
Also, IMHO, Silent Storm looked better than this game, dunno why but they failed on graphical part. Looks like hastily copied and altered XCOM 2 assets

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Played this and finished it this week, thanks to one of my friends who got the game early.
It's really XCOM 2 in WW II France. Stealth gameplay is better, got lots of destruction but not on Silent Storm level (not even close). Morale system is cool but nothing ground breaking.
It starts really easy (we played on Elite difficulty, the hardest) and become even easier on the run, I snowballed even harder than XCOMs.
It is also really short for this kind of game, we missed some missions due to a bug but finished in 25-26 hours.
Game captures WW II mood really right BTW, the dread is in the air and in some mission enemies feel really endless.


Edit:
Also beware, this game has French humour in small bits. Deadlier than MG42s...

Melee y/n?

 

[Cyberarmy]

Well, you got shotguns :D And stealth kills are melee.
But no barbarians eventhough we are playing as French.

Edit: Melee mostly done via trench knives, like XCOM 2s swords. There are some talents that you can upgrade your melee damage but this game is not suited for melee except very few situtations.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Well, you got shotguns :D And stealth kills are melee.
But no barbarians eventhough we are playing as French.

I guess this is too far away from that little village in Gaul.

 

[Alienman]

Played this and finished it this week, thanks to one of my friends who got the game early.
It's really XCOM 2 in WW II France. Stealth gameplay is better, got lots of destruction but not on Silent Storm level (not even close). Morale system is cool but nothing ground breaking.
It starts really easy (we played on Elite difficulty, the hardest) and become even easier on the run, I snowballed even harder than XCOMs.
It is also really short for this kind of game, we missed some missions due to a bug but finished in 25-26 hours.
Game captures WW II mood really right BTW, the dread is in the air and in some mission enemies feel really endless.


Edit:
Also beware, this game has French humour in small bits. Deadlier than MG42s...

Edit 2:
Also, IMHO, Silent Storm looked better than this game, dunno why but they failed on graphical part. Looks like hastily copied and altered XCOM 2 assets

Since you mentioned Xcom. Does it have base building?

 

[Serus]

Well, you got shotguns :D And stealth kills are melee.
But no barbarians eventhough we are playing as French.

I guess this is too far away from that little village in Gaul.

Asterix and company really weren't barbarians. Celtic people (a least on southern side of the channel) were quite civilised even before Roman conquest. They don't even kill the Cacafonix the bard. They tie him up every time he wants to sing. What true barbarian could stand bad music and not be enraged? Germanic tribes, or Picts, those were more to your liking.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Played this and finished it this week, thanks to one of my friends who got the game early.
It's really XCOM 2 in WW II France. Stealth gameplay is better, got lots of destruction but not on Silent Storm level (not even close). Morale system is cool but nothing ground breaking.
It starts really easy (we played on Elite difficulty, the hardest) and become even easier on the run, I snowballed even harder than XCOMs.
It is also really short for this kind of game, we missed some missions due to a bug but finished in 25-26 hours.
Game captures WW II mood really right BTW, the dread is in the air and in some mission enemies feel really endless.


Edit:
Also beware, this game has French humour in small bits. Deadlier than MG42s...

Edit 2:
Also, IMHO, Silent Storm looked better than this game, dunno why but they failed on graphical part. Looks like hastily copied and altered XCOM 2 assets

Since you mentioned Xcom. Does it have base building?

Kinda. You have main base of operations where your squad gathers and team bounding happens. You can upgrade it some but it is not like XCOM base building. Main thing in here is about factions and organizing resistance networks.
There are 3 factions to help (Radicals, Gauls and Criminals), each mission rewards some supplies, weapons and reputation for certain factions. Factions unlock new things as their trust level increases.
Completing missions in areas "libarate" them a little, lowering German influence and fully liberating a map section rewards you XCOM like bonuses, more supplies after missions, less recovery time and etc.
Game has a time limit before D-Day 52 days so most you'll have to be picky with the missions. There are some special timed events as the end approaches.
Enemies also get stronger as the time progress, so if you fuck up and be slow to progress probably you'll lose the game.

Combat is copy&paste XCOM 2. Ambush thing is a bit different, mostly to prevent us to vipe out the map with stealth. After a few number of stealth kills, ambush triggers and every enemy knows that you are in there. At least triggering ambush gives you 1 extra round and there is no "pod activation" on that round, leaving most enemies in open. Careful planing can clear more than half of the map.
There are timed missions, VIP rescue missions, full stealth missions that don't have ambush and terror missions where we try to defend supplies or such. Those missions were the hardest ones because enemies go for the supplies like berserkers. Also most missions have limitless enemy reinforcements, effectively becoming another type of timed missions.

Actually game feels more like Gears Tactics than XCOM 2 most of the time.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Well, you got shotguns :D And stealth kills are melee.
But no barbarians eventhough we are playing as French.

I guess this is too far away from that little village in Gaul.

Asterix and company really weren't barbarians. Celtic people (a least on southern side of the channel) were quite civilised even before Roman conquest. They don't even kill the Cacafonix the bard. They tie him up every time he wants to sing. What true barbarian could stand bad music and not be enraged? Germanic tribes, or Picts, those were more to your liking.

Yeah I know, but in France these are the closest we got.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Played this and finished it this week, thanks to one of my friends who got the game early.
It's really XCOM 2 in WW II France. Stealth gameplay is better, got lots of destruction but not on Silent Storm level (not even close). Morale system is cool but nothing ground breaking.
It starts really easy (we played on Elite difficulty, the hardest) and become even easier on the run, I snowballed even harder than XCOMs.
It is also really short for this kind of game, we missed some missions due to a bug but finished in 25-26 hours.
Game captures WW II mood really right BTW, the dread is in the air and in some mission enemies feel really endless.


Edit:
Also beware, this game has French humour in small bits. Deadlier than MG42s...

Edit 2:
Also, IMHO, Silent Storm looked better than this game, dunno why but they failed on graphical part. Looks like hastily copied and altered XCOM 2 assets

In the Demo the stealth and stealth kills (kinfe) felt super OP to me, you could stab guards left and right and guards 10 feet away would not even aware and you could go back into hiding and take out endless Germans with just your knife. I don't have a problem with the idea of stealth kills necessarily, its just that it felt like guards could be killed right next to each other and other guards would not be alerted. But maybe that was just in the Demo. How was it in the actual game?

edit: I guess it did have that 'ambush limit'. It still felt like you could stab people and have guards not be alerted, but the game crashed on me part way through the demo and I stopped playing. I did not play it all that much, so maybe I am not remembering exactly right.

 

[Nortar]

In the Demo the stealth and stealth kills (kinfe) felt super OP to me, you could stab guards left and right and guards 10 feet away would not even aware and you could go back into hiding and take out endless Germans with just your knife. I don't have a problem with the idea of stealth kills necessarily, its just that it felt like guards could be killed right next to each other and other guards would not be alerted. But maybe that was just in the Demo. How was it in the actual game?


edit: I guess it did have that 'ambush limit'. It still felt like you could stab people and have guards not be alerted, but the game crashed on me part way through the demo and I stopped playing. I did not play it all that much, so maybe I am not remembering exactly right.

They started to add armored enemies, enemies that explode on death and even enemies that "can not be taken down silently" outright as early as 3rd mission.
This feels like a lazy fix, but it does make stealth-clearing whole maps impossible.

 

[Cyberarmy]

As Nortar said, some heavy enemies are "immune" to backstabs. Some of them can be killed that if you have a powerful knife and some +melee damage talents but thats kinda waste.
Also killing someone makes noise unless you are using a scout with silent assasin talent, can alert nearby enemies though their hearing range is short.
Funny part is you can get away without killing most of the map in some ambush and stealth missions. Enemies can't see you while they are moving even if you are right in their faces and this can be easly abusable once you remember their sight areas.

 

[Alienman]

As Nortar said, some heavy enemies are "immune" to backstabs. Some of them can be killed that if you have a powerful knife and some +melee damage talents but thats kinda waste.

You need one of these powerful knives.

 

[Cyberarmy]

That is a bloody short sword

 

[Luka-boy]

You're both wrong. That's a Knoif.

 

[taxalot]

My grandfather was in the resistance. One day he was ranting and casually told me. "I'm always late. Always have been in my life. Always. Even during the résistance. One day I was supposed to meet with my resistance cell. I was late. I arrived there was no one. The German got to them but not to me because I was late. I'm always late."

This is what I owe my life to : one dude being always late.

 

[Grunker]

 

[Serious_Business]

What's going on e v e r y b o d y !!!

Jesus fucking christ man

 

[Baron Dupek]

EY yo waddup giddi giddy bopper poggers fuck off with that YT garbage job dodgers mentality

 

[Alienman]

Great Italian.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Great Italian.

Is it Florenzo de'Medici?

 

[Atlet]

Why the fuck you weirdos arent playing and discussing this game? Seems like it has all the tacticoolness many dexers crave in their gayming.

Fk it, im buying it and will slowly play it in my spare free time

 

[Nortar]

Why the fuck you weirdos arent playing and discussing this game? Seems like it has all the tacticoolness many dexers crave in their gayming.

Fk it, im buying it and will slowly play it in my spare free time

It's an OK game, but nothing special.
It does not even suck enough to make it stand out.
Cyberarmy has posted a good summary of it.

Strategic layer is pretty shallow.
Partisans 1941 had it implemented better.

Different factions do nothing but provide you access to their shops with pretty much the same stuff.
Management of your guerrilla squad does not go beyond selecting 1 character who would go for training/healing or for "assisting a faction" that would give you a few faction points.
I had one guy (my 3rd leader) who did not participate in the field duty and spend the whole game on these background tasks.

Character progress is ok-ish.
All classes have their place to shine.
Each class has 4 "specialisations".
But by level 25 you can max out 3 out of 4 of them.
And given that specialization one is always clearly inferior to others, there are no real dedicated builds - you get all the skills you want anyway.

Morale system is what helps the game to keep one bit of individuality.
Breaking an enemy's morale so he would skip a trun is a valid and often essential tactic.

Another good thing I liked is how the game teaches you to not kill the first enemy you see.
Sometimes (that is most of the time) it is far more efficient got get deeper into the area and start working from there.

On the opposite side game lacks sense of progress in stakes and complexity.
Yes, the enemies get better equipment and are harder to kill, but mission layout stays pretty much the same.
My final D-Day mission (plant explosives on V-2 rocket launching site) was not much different from anything in early game.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Why the fuck you weirdos arent playing and discussing this game? Seems like it has all the tacticoolness many dexers crave in their gayming.

Fk it, im buying it and will slowly play it in my spare free time

Eh not that cool of a game sadly. Looking back now, I think Gears Tactics is a lot better than this one, at least your men can die in that one.