Close Menu
GamesHorizonGamesHorizon
  • News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Platforms
    • PC
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series S
    • Nintendo
    • PS4
    • Xbox One
  • Anime
  • Game Hubs

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get the latest gaming news, guides and reviews from GamesHorizon to your INBOX!

WHAT'S HOT
CS2

Unlocking the Thrill: Hidden Gems among the Best CS2 Case Opening Websites

May 28, 2025
Onimusha 2 Remastered feature image

Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny Remastered: All File Locations

May 24, 2025
all-mother shrine feature image

Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon: Offering To The All-Mother’s Shrine

May 23, 2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
  • XDefiant
  • Wuthering Waves
  • Destiny 2
GamesHorizonGamesHorizon
  • News
    Xbox Series X and Series S placed together on a table.

    FTC Challenges Xbox Game Pass Subscription Changes

    July 19, 2024
    Star Wars Outlaws Forgoes Traditional Leveling System in Favor of Exploration and Reputation - - News | | GamesHorizon

    Star Wars Outlaws Forgoes Traditional Leveling System in Favor of Exploration and Reputation

    July 18, 2024
    Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 to be Free for Select Kickstarter Backers - - News | | GamesHorizon

    Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 to be Free for Select Kickstarter Backers

    July 17, 2024
    Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 Developer Responds To Leak - - News | | GamesHorizon

    Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 Developer Responds To Leak

    July 16, 2024
    Video Game Leak Investigation Explained By Former Pokemon & Bungie Developer - - News | | GamesHorizon

    Video Game Leak Investigation Explained By Former Pokemon & Bungie Developer

    July 12, 2024
  • Guides
    Onimusha 2 Remastered feature image

    Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny Remastered: All File Locations

    May 24, 2025
    all-mother shrine feature image

    Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon: Offering To The All-Mother’s Shrine

    May 23, 2025
    pain relief quest feature image

    Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon: How To Save Keeper Lanzo From Toothache

    May 23, 2025
    sea of stairs rail forest feature image

    Sea of Stars Throes of the Watchmaker: Rail Forest Puzzle Solution

    May 22, 2025
    deliver at all costs feature image

    Deliver At All Costs: How To Solve The Port Belle Shipping Crates Puzzle

    May 22, 2025
  • Reviews
  • Features
    Why Clair Obscur Is Shaping Up To Be A Highly Anticipated Release - - News | | GamesHorizon

    Why Clair Obscur Is Shaping Up To Be A Highly Anticipated Release

    April 9, 2025
    Clair Obscur Expedition 33: All Voice Cast Details - - News | | GamesHorizon

    Clair Obscur Expedition 33: All Voice Cast Details

    April 8, 2025
    Promo for Clair Obscur

    Clair Obscur Expedition 33: Release Date, Platforms, System Requirements

    April 5, 2025
    Top 10 Games 2025

    Top 10 Games Of 2025 So Far

    April 3, 2025
    Naoe in action in Assassin's Creed Shadows

    AC Shadows vs. Ghost of Tsushima: Which Title Handles Ancient Japan Better?

    April 2, 2025
  • Platforms
    • PC
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series S
    • Nintendo
    • PS4
    • Xbox One
  • Anime
    All About Baruka In Solo Leveling

    All About Baruka In Solo Leveling

    March 21, 2024
    9 Strongest Mashle Characters, Ranked

    9 Strongest Mashle Characters, Ranked

    March 21, 2024
    Mashle Season 2 Episode 11 Release Date Details

    Mashle Season 2 Episode 11 Release Date, Time, And Where To Watch

    March 20, 2024
    Solo Leveling Episode 11 Expectations

    Solo Leveling Episode 11: Release Date, Time, And Where To Watch

    March 20, 2024
    Solo Leveling Episode 10 Release Date Details

    Solo Leveling Episode 10 Release Date, Time, And Where To Watch

    March 16, 2024
  • Game Hubs
GamesHorizonGamesHorizon
Home»Reviews
Classified France 44 review
(Image via GamesHorizon)

Classified: France ’44 Review – If XCOM Was Set In WW2

Junaid ShaikhBy Junaid Shaikh8 Mins Read Reviews February 28, 2024
SHARE
Facebook Twitter Reddit WhatsApp Telegram Tumblr

Turn-based tactical games are a dying breed since most gamers just prefer real-time combat. These days, a turn-based combat has to blow away expectations to be good (like Baldur’s Gate 3). Most other games in the genre that do not meet the high expectations often fly under the radar.

So while my expectations were low for the new, generic-looking WW2 title Classified: France ’44, I was genuinely surprised after giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Dropped Into No Man’s Land

The story starts with three soldiers from different backgrounds dropping into France over Nazi territory. Two soldiers, Willard Cassidy and Tom King, manage to land nearby while Vincent Tremblay gets separated.

Willard and Tom decide to hold up in a small house in the fields nearby, which is where the tutorial begins after Nazi’s come looking for them. Right off the bat, the game prioritizes teaching you stealth kills, which makes sense as it is just two soldiers outnumbered by multiple enemies.

Classified France 44 review
Ambush explanation (Image via GamesHorizon)

Here the game introduces its Ambush mechanic. Once you defeat a certain number of enemies in stealth without detection, you get an Ambush turn where you can open fire on them without them getting a chance to take cover. Meanwhile, you also get an accuracy buff on your characters.

I am a big XCOM 2 fan and will go as far as to say it’s one of my top 5 games. But the one thing I genuinely miss having in that game is proper stealth mechanics and missions. Some of the DLC stuff in XCOM 2 added some degree of stealth stuff, but Classified: France ’44 does this surprisingly well right from the get-go.

The tutorial was quite linear and literally pointed out the exact tile I needed to move my soldiers to. I prefer when games just drop you into the world and let you figure things out with the use of intuitive design and UI. The more obvious approach can only be excused if the game has some unique mechanics that require proper explanation.

The Overworld Of A Classified France

Once the tutorial mission was done, I was thrown into an overview map of France and its territories. I could see which territories are controlled by which allied factions and how many days are left until D-day occurs. This is very similar to the overworld of XCOM 2; it even had the imminent doomsday timer that you had to manage.

Classified France 44 review
Overworld screen (Image via GamesHorizon)

You can also head to Basecamp, which is simply a place for your soldiers to hang out around a campfire. Here you can choose to listen to their conversations, and doing so gives your soldiers a boost in morale. The conversations have nothing to do with gameplay other than the reward after it, but it adds a sense of immersion when hearing the banter between American and British soldiers.

Voice acting being present for each character rather than a generic voice for every soldier brings even more immersion as you start to recognize the voice of each of your soldiers. The sounds of the guns being shot when in combat and the nazi soldiers calling out danger are also pretty authentic and believable.

The game also has a Loadout screen where you can your soldiers’ inventory. You can change the primary gun, sidearm, grenade, knife, and more. You can also change the outfits for your characters, from jackets to helmets.

Classified: France '44 Review - If XCOM Was Set In WW2 - - News | | GamesHorizon
Faction shop (Image via GamesHorizon)

The next and final tab on the overview screen is the Factions tab. There are three factions in the game: Radicals, Gaullists, and Criminals. Doing missions inside the territory of a given faction increases your standing with that faction.

In the Factions tab, you can buy guns and equipment from the faction leaders. The more standing you have with them, the more items you are able to buy.

Deploying Into The Warzone

Classified: France '44 Review - If XCOM Was Set In WW2 - - News | | GamesHorizon
In combat (Image via GamesHorizon)

The game features three distinct types of missions:

  • Assault drops you where the enemy has full knowledge of your presence
  • Ambush drops you undetected and allows you to use the ambush mechanic to make yourself known.
  • Stealth is a full stealth-kill-only mission where detection can cause you to be heavily outnumbered.

On top of this, in the mission briefing the game also tells you the type of tactics that will be required. These can differ between retrieval mission, rescue mission, bomb planting mission, etc. along with the corresponding environment, like urban, fields, etc. This means planning is key and allows you to perfectly chart your approach. You can select the best possible soldiers for the mission and the right pieces of equipment that you would need.

You also get to choose between multiple missions, each with its own rewards. This adds replayability to the game as you will not see all the missions in one playthrough. Sometimes you have to be forced to select a certain mission because the soldiers required for the other one are injured. This is a great mechanic that gives emphasis to your decisions as well as your mistakes.

Once you are on the mission and fighting against the Nazis, a neat thing you can do in Classified: France ’44 is that you can break your enemy’s morale. Enemies have a health bar and a morale bar; any type of attack on them, even if it misses, still lowers their morale.

Classified France 44 review
Getting up-close and personal (Image via GamesHorizon)

Lowering an enemy’s morale below 50% makes them Suppressed and unable to move. Completely bringing this down to 0% puts them into a Broken state where they cannot take any actions whatsoever in their turn.

This gameplay mechanic works really well. One way I used this was by putting down an explosive satchel charge near an enemy with low morale. I then put him in a broken state by firing at him so that he won’t be able to run away from the satchel charge that explodes after 2 turns.

Other gameplay mechanics are similar to what you would find in XCOM, like putting your soldiers on overwatch behind a cover, shots having a percentile chance to hit based on distance and cover, etc.

By the way, if your soldier’s bullet trajectory has a friendly soldier within or nearby, then the friendly soldier will also have a chance to get hit. This means you have to carefully position your soldiers to avoid friendly casualties.

Is France Really This Small?

Now that I have gushed over everything that I like about Classified: France ’44, let’s get to the more disappointing parts.

The levels where you deploy for a mission feel quite small. The enemies and even the objectives are often right in front of you where you spawn. It gave me little to no room to set up and get a hold of my surroundings.

Here’s yet another comparison to XCOM: That game has way bigger levels that allow for a more open approach. I could choose which angle I wanted to come in from and set up my units in multiple advantageous positions on overwatch as I found out where the enemies were.

That is not the case with Classified: France ’44. There aren’t too many different ways to complete a given mission. I wish it was more open-ended to make it more challenging. The game often makes it incredibly obvious what you need to do, like having one enemy face away right at the start near you, just begging to be stealth killed.

Classified: France '44 Review - If XCOM Was Set In WW2 - - News | | GamesHorizon
Predictable gameplay move (Image via GamesHorizon)

If that is how the mission starts, then I am sure 9/10 people did the exact same move of using melee on the enemy in their first turn. Turn-based games are often challenging because you could make one wrong move and lose a lot due to it. But Classified: France ’44 is not as challenging, at least on the normal difficulty.

Games like XCOM 2 or even Baldur’s Gate 3 absolutely owned me in the first few combat encounters. They forced me to come up with a strategy and tactic rather than making it obvious what needed to be done.

Visually, France ’44 is decent, but it isn’t the best-looking game. Sometimes my immersion would be broken because of simple bugs like an enemy body disappearing as soon as my soldier melee killed them.

The audio design is done well, from the gunshots to the dialogues of the characters. But a lot of times my soldiers would keep repeating the same line over and over again. The game can also do with some more ambient sounds, but the soundtrack is fitting and works well.

Verdict

Classified: France ’44 takes a lot of inspiration from the likes of XCOM 2 and packages it in a World War 2 era. It does a lot of unique things that are missing from other games and brings a fresh new take on how a game with guns and soldiers can be done in a turn-based format.

If you dislike how challenging some of the turn-based combat games are, this one is the one for you.

7.5 Good

Classified: France '44 takes a lot of inspiration from the likes of XCOM 2 and packages it in a World War 2 era.

The Good
  1. Good unique gameplay mechanics like the Morale and Ambush systems
  2. Actual full stealth turn-based combat missions
  3. Good voice acting
  4. Replayability with multiple mission choices
  5. Good customization elements
The Bad
  1. Small Level sizes
  2. Less open-ended combat design
  3. Subpar graphics
  4. Not very challenging
  • 7.5
Classified: France '44
Share. Facebook Twitter Reddit WhatsApp
Junaid Shaikh
  • X (Twitter)
  • LinkedIn

Junaid is a Game Guides Expert & Review Writer at GamesHorizon. He spends his time playing and absorbing information from all the latest games and providing detailed explanations to everything within it. If not that, he is probably racing JDM cars on his sim racing wheel or fighting bosses in an RPG.

LATEST POSTS

CS2

Unlocking the Thrill: Hidden Gems among the Best CS2 Case Opening Websites

Onimusha 2 Remastered feature image

Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny Remastered: All File Locations

all-mother shrine feature image

Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon: Offering To The All-Mother’s Shrine

pain relief quest feature image

Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon: How To Save Keeper Lanzo From Toothache

sea of stairs rail forest feature image

Sea of Stars Throes of the Watchmaker: Rail Forest Puzzle Solution

deliver at all costs feature image

Deliver At All Costs: How To Solve The Port Belle Shipping Crates Puzzle

featured image sea of stars DLCS

Sea Of Stars: How To Access The Throes of the Watchmaker DLC

artifacts and relics palia feature image

Complete Guide To Artifacts & Relics In Palia

infected essence elderwood feature image

How To Get Infected Essence In Palia

sacred flowers feature image

Palia: Where To find Sacred Flowers

FOLLOW US
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get the latest gaming news, guides and reviews from GamesHorizon to your INBOX!

MOST READ
15 Best Game Trilogies Of All Time, Ranked - - News | | GamesHorizon
15 Best Game Trilogies Of All Time, Ranked
RPG genre
The Best RPGs Of All Time – Updated For 2025
30 Best PS5 Games To Play In 2025 - - News | | GamesHorizon
30 Best PS5 Games To Play In 2025
40 Best PS4 Games You Shouldn't Miss (Ranked) - - News | | GamesHorizon
40 Best PS4 Games You Shouldn’t Miss (Ranked)
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2023 GamesHorizon.
  • About Us
  • Editorial Standards
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Contact Us

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

GamesHorizon
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!