World War II seems like it’s been done to death, but there’s still a ton of material just waiting to be explored. Operation Jedburgh is one of those areas that hasn’t really been covered in games, in movies, by endless specials on The History Channel, etc., but it helped pave the way for the ultimate success of the D-Day invasion. For our purposes, “You command a small team of special forces guys making contact with and building out the Resistance in Occupied France” is also a hell of an idea for a game.
Classified: France ’44
Developer: Absolutely Games
Price: $35 USD
Platform: PC (reviewed), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
MonsterVine was supplied with Steam code for review
I used to work in marketing–yes, I am scum in many senses!–and “surprise and delight your customers” is a touchstone for us marketing dorks. Classified: France ‘44 gracefully unfurls the entire concept of the game in a way that is incredibly surprising and delightful. At first, it seems like it’s going to be a classic World War II turn-based tactical strategy game, which I am always up for, but seems a little overdone. But as you start to progress, you realize, oh no, there’s a whole lot more going on here.
Because it’s not just the tactical battles with a plucky crew that loves explosions and collecting Nazi scalps. See, you were parachuted into Occupied France to make contact with the Resistance…but there are different factions of the Resistance. You’ve got the Radicals (your communists, your students, etc.) and your Gaullists (followers of Charles de Gaulle, tend to be more conservative) and your Criminals (Le Mos Eisley Cantina denizens), and all of them want different things from you.
And then there’s a territory control aspect where you want to build up the Resistance in various parts of occupied France. But the Nazis are dickheads–it feels crazy I need to specify this in 2024, but I am going to–and they also react to what your plucky Resistance crew is doing, so if you get too rowdy rowdy, they may respond and make missions more difficult. So you may want to go somewhere else while the heat dies down, but the Nazis, as stated before, are massive dickheads with zero redeeming qualities, there were precisely 0 good Nazis and they should all be fed into woodchippers (it does need to be said), so they may enact reprisals on the civilians and that affects your support in the areas, so you may want to stand and fight.
Unfortunately, this is not the Command and Conquer series, so you cannot time travel, so your dudes can only do one mission at a time. And that’s another wrinkle: What mission do you want to do? Missions earn experience points to progress your operatives, supplies to buy things from the various factions (and leveling up with those factions means better goodies!), and you may be able to rescue more operatives. But! Your various operatives may get damaged and fatigued, so you may want to let them rest. But! The clock is always ticking. The invasion is coming and it may not succeed if you don’t prepare the way.
So yes, what seems like yet another tactical strategy game in World War II is actually “XCOM but with the French Resistance in World War 2,” and that made my metaphorical hat explode off my head in the manner of a cartoon when it finally clicked. And that’s down to things like: Everyone has initial classes like Leader, Support, Scout, Marksman, and Heavy, but they can specialize, so your Support character can wind up being an awesome medic or a shotgun wielding maniac. The Germans are also interesting: You have the usual German Army (the Heer), but you also have the Feldgendarmerie (German Military Police), Gestapo, the SS, and Luftwaffe and Naval personnel. They also have specialty units like snipers, explosives guys, and leaders, all of which with their own unique powers and gimmicks.
The missions themselves manage to capture the vibe of watching movies like The Dirty Dozen or The Guns of Navarone on TNT. You are usually outmanned and outgunned but your team is tough and sneaky. When a patrol wanders by, you want to be thoughtful about how you take everyone out. When you want to rock and roll, you want to think about how you’re opening up and who gets taken out first. There are some “video games” concessions, like bushes are basically impenetrable unless enemies are alerted, but then again, we all know the stealth powers of a good cardboard box.
Sometimes, they can feel like the designers wanted you to go through a mission in a very specific way, so it plays more like a puzzle game with guns than a strategy game, but that’s always a hazard with these. While I’m covering downsides, I will say, for those who prefer this approach, I did not notice any “rationally and logically debate the Nazis” buttons. Mainly you just blow them up and shoot them and stab them. I assume it’s coming in a DLC.
While I can gripe, overall, I’ll say this: While I was playing this, I kept grinning because I kept having “commando movie” moments. Like “Oh, the guy wasn’t dead, he was just badly wounded, and he staggered to his feet and stabbed the Nazi that was going to kill everyone, saving the entire mission at the last minute.” Or “Oh god we’re surrounded and all is lost, but let’s try and solve this problem through superior firepower…HOLY SHIT WE DID IT!”. Or “We’re sneaking through the enemy base, we just shanked the sentry, but the other sentry we didn’t notice just raised the alarm, oh god it’s all going to hell.” Even the soundtrack fits the vibe of “World War 2 movie about misfits behind enemy lines doing commando stuff”. I would be shocked if the team didn’t spend a ton of time watching old war movies while making this and drinking beer.
Once you’ve played the campaign enough times, and this is another “it feels crazy to say this”, there are also Special Ops, which are single one-shot missions, both official and support for user-created missions. And yes, there’s a mission creator, though it’s in beta right now. It’s still nice to see companies supporting users making content. Talk about innovation!
The Final Word
Crawl through the ditches and hide in the bushes and stab a Nazi in his throat-u-la!
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
