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Classified: France '44:
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Your name is Captain Willard Cassidy. You and two other daredevil soldiers have been parachuted into Picardie, France, in 1944, deep behind enemy lines. Your first goal is to contact the French Resistance. Then you and your men, with the help of the Resistance fighters, must create havoc across the North of France to the German army and installations. Your team must confuse and weaken the enemy so they are on the back foot when Operation Overlord is launched two months from now. Good luck, Captain; we count on you in Classified: France '44.

Classified: France '44 is a turn-based strategy game developed by Absolutely Games and published by Team17 on the 6th of March 2024 on the Steam Platform. The game is also available on PS5 and Xbox One Series X|S.

What an elaborate strategy game Classified: France '44 is; I was sucked in from the start. Why elaborate? Well, there are a number of things you can do in the planning before launching a new mission. I also like the moral character attributes within the combat phase, which can determine how much pressure your characters are under and their effectiveness in combat. But before you do that, you must choose which of the three difficulty levels you'd like to play the game in. I strongly recommend starting with the regular difficulty, which is how the game is supposed to be played. You can also add the Ironman option, but you won't be able to quit or restart a mission or manually save your progress.

Then, you'll have a great introduction through live sketching accompanied by great voiceovers. These illustrations will reappear after completing each of the missions, where the story of these men unfolds from Captain Cassidy's perspective. The first mission will be a solid and comprehensive tutorial before you get to the Northern France map.

The map is a significant aspect of the game. There are ten regions, and each is divided into three parts. Each region will be occupied by one of the three resistance cells: the Criminals, Gaullists and Radicals. Each region will have a specific ability, and every time you complete a mission in that region, the tie with that resistance faction will increase, and you'll also be able to receive additional benefits from that part of France. For example, in the Nord Pas-De-Calais, there is a hospital. If you acquire one out of the three areas, it might take four days to heal a character's injuries, but if you have all three areas, it will take only two days. Each region has a specific ability to unlock, and yes, you must have all three areas in each region to acquire these benefits. After a few missions, German figurines will appear on the map. At first there’ll be one, but as you progress, you’ll find four figurines scattered around the map. These units will eliminate the connection with the resistance faction that is operating within that specific area. The only way to counter this is to send an FFI (French Forces of the Interior) unit to stop their progress. To be honest, it will be tough for a while because you need to complete a specific mission to be able to recruit these units. Although some missions will have an FFI token as a reward, reaching the highest relations with each Resistance group will also give you a free FFI token. But to be honest, that won't be enough, as it will only sideline each German unit for three days. Ongoing FFI recruitment will be needed as soon as they are available to you.

The basecamp tab is where two of your characters will chitchat, adding more substance to the story and giving you more insight into your characters. It will also boost the morale of both characters and heal one fatigue point.

The loadout tab is where you can swap weapons, customise outfits and upgrade skills for your characters. After each successful mission, your team will receive supply and experience points and rewards, including weapons and uniforms. The maximum level your characters will reach is level 25, and they will slowly progress toward it. There are usually one or two levels per mission, as long as you have selected them. Even if you have eight characters on hand, you can only select four at a time for each outing, leaving the others to perform alternative operations on the map. The skill tree per category unit is cool, with four paths to follow and 36 skills upgrades each. For the marksman category, you get to decide if that specific unit will become a sniper, huntsman, veteran or defender unit. It’s the same for the leader, scout, support, and heavy units, but with four different paths. Most skills cost one point, but some of them cost two experience points. The last tab is for the three resistance factions, and as your relationship grows with each faction, you'll be able to purchase more weapons and gears with better combat values. Remember that anything you do or anything you purchase will require supply points. On top of that, events will happen here and there, requiring you to choose what to do.

In terms of the gameplay within the missions, it’s typical of the game genre, and I particularly enjoyed the morale aspect that can interfere with each of the characters during battles. So, let's say you are shooting at an enemy that takes cover behind a tree trunk. If your character is positioned in front of the trunk, you might not hit him, but the fact that bullets are hitting the trunk will unsettle his morale gauge, and if the gauge is fully depleted, the enemy won’t be able to do anything the next turn. It's well done. I think that the difficulty progression of new enemy units onto the battlefields is pretty fair on the regular level of difficulty. I also like that you can plant bombs on tanks, planes, brides, V1 launch ramps and armoured vehicles, but I am a bit disappointed that buildings can't be destroyed during combat.

There are three types of missions: ambush, assault and stealth. Ambush will allow you to kill from three to eight soldiers with stealth ability – melee weapons. During the assault mission, you will be in combat immediately, and in the stealth mission, you'll be able to sneak and kill most of the soldiers on the map until one of your units is detected. The maps are small to medium in size, which is fine.

THE FULL REVIEW CAN BE VIEWED IN IT'S ENTIRETY HERE[www.zeepond.com] AS IT WAS TOO BIG TO POST HERE.

Positive:
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+ Great Graphics and voiceovers
+ Good character skill tree
+ Good character customisation
+ Implementation of difficulty progression in combat is fair
+ Three levels of difficulty
+ Good tactical implementation in map and combat phases
+ Excellent game encyclopedia
+ Achievements

Negatives:
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- Few issues with screen flickering and one crash after loading a saved game
- The screen went black for a few seconds while moving the camera in one mission
- No trading cards as yet

Classified: France '44 is well-presented and provides good tactical pre and in-mission gameplay. It is dangerously addictive and shouldn’t be missed by the fans of the genre.

8/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance:
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The highly advanced A.I. “Legion” scared its creators to the point they were about to pull the plug on it! But the A.I. algorithm beat them to it, and the Earth was suddenly sent back to centuries past. And that was only the start. Legion began the human genocide by launching Nukes on its citizens, then erecting a massive army of machines to finish them off. Soldiers from what was left of the American army fought the machines bravely but had to pull back. And here you are in Atlanta with a fragment of your troops, one month after Judgement Day! It will be brutal and relentless in Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance.

Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is a real-time strategy game developed and self-published by Slitherine Ltd. on February 22, 2024, on the Steam platform.

The game consists of a campaign, skirmish and multiplayer modes. The last two modes, which I haven’t tried yet, will give the game longevity and replayability; I was more interested to see how the campaign mode would hold up. After 20 hours of gameplay, I am astonished at how excellent this game is – it’s brutal, and that’s playing on the medium difficulty level, the second out of four difficulty levels.

The opening narrative is well done and leads to an excellent tutorial or first mission in command (in Atlanta), where you are familiarised with the interface and will probably start to realise how tough this game will become. The game is heavily focused on ammunition, fuel supply and keeping your units in good shape so you can upgrade them with new perks and weapons as you move through the levels. However, keeping them healthy will become more complex and challenging as the mission progresses, and some will vanish due to your lack of tactical expertise, or from overwhelming enemy attacks. The trick is to keep one member alive per infantry unit until the end of the mission, where you can not only resupply them with ammunition and better weapons, but also restore the unit with new blood and implement upgrades to give them more chance in the next mission. The vehicle units are similar but can sustain more damage, and the infantry units operating them can jump out of the vehicle to repair it. However, if the same Humvee, tank or truck is continually hit after having been repaired a few times, it will become unusable. Be careful with the tanks, with Humvee equipped with rocket launchers, and also with large wirehead units equipped with plasma cannons, because one hit can be enough to destroy vehicle units. And that is fighting against other human factions. Some wirehead units are cool – they’re strong and deliver tremendous firing powers. I find them deadlier to infantry than vehicles.

Before starting a mission, you’ll have to select your units, which can vary in quantity from one mission to the next. You can also resupply all your units with ammunition, refuel vehicles and repair damaged ones, all of which will cost you supply resources. If infantry units reach the needed experience points, you can upgrade them with new perks. You need goodwill points to purchase new weapons and armour for vehicle units. Goodwill points can be converted into supply and manpower resources. Yes, you must have available manpower points to restore infantry units. So, if three of your infantry units have lost three men each, you’ll need a minimum of nine manpower points to fix all three units. You’ll receive goodwill and supply points after each mission, depending on how many objectives (especially second objectives) you successfully completed. One thing you must do regarding vehicle units and turrets is to dedicate an infantry unit to operate them, such as technicians, RPG, heavy weapons and sharpshooter squads (units between two and four members). These units can be allocated to vehicles, whereas militia units of eight members cannot. When all is ready, you can launch the next mission.

Some missions will be about securing multiple objectives one after the other. Others will include specific positions to discover new factions and characters that unfold the story. Yes, you’ll be fighting at some point within these missions, but it might not be straight away, and depending on what second objectives you can complete, the battle might be different. It’s good stuff, I must say! I really like the fact that the game autosaves when you reach significant points within each mission. However, I strongly recommend saving at your leisure, especially if you make a tactical breakthrough. Again, try to keep as many of your units alive as possible, you’ll thank me later on.

All structures in-game can receive extensive damage and that you can post infantry units within them for cover or to ambush enemies, which is great. If you see any supply or fuel trucks near your units, try to secure them and take them out of enemy range. To resupply all units, these trucks must be deployed, which means they must be operated by one of your infantry units at any given time and, if possible, out of the range of enemy units, which can be difficult. It is vital to master the fuel and ammunition supplies in this game, otherwise you’ll be stuffed. It can be frustrating at times. Try to get any other vehicles too, such as tanks, humvees, vans with turrets or large mobile turrets with powerful weapons laid on the map, and ensure you have enough firepower to cover the units you send to them. You can use EMP grenades on larger wirehead units and then hack them to take control. The sharpshooter units are the experts for that kind of attack but are not as well equipped in terms of protection. One tactic is to throw smoke grenades all around those wireheads' large units and try to get close to them. Then use the EMP grenade and hack their system. Don’t expect to be successful all the time, and make sure to keep your sharpshooter units alive. Remember, you want one member left per unit (infantry) at the end of the mission so you can upgrade and restore them. It is so easy in theory but super hard in practice.

THE FULL REVIEW CAN BE VIEWED IN IT'S ENTIRETY HERE[www.zeepond.com] AS IT WAS TOO BIG TO POST HERE.

Positives:
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+ Great graphics, voice-overs and sound effects
+ Campaign, skirmish and multiplayer modes
+ Several different factions with their own units
+ Four levels of difficulty
+ Easy to play but hard to master
+ Good mission variation
+ Achievements

Negatives:
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- Needs to balance some units
- Issues ordering units to leave buildings here and there
- No trading cards as yet

Terminator: Dark Fate—Defiance surprised me! This title is in the running for the best RTS of 2024. You’ll be back for more!

8/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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