When I was younger, one day in 1994, my older brother came home with a copy of UFO: Enemy Unknown for the Amiga. From that day to this, I have loved turn-based strategy games. When Classified: France ’44, from developer Absolutely Games and publisher Team 17 came up for review, I knew that I had to get my hands on it.

“Command an elite team of allied special operators in Nazi-occupied France wreaking havoc in the run up to D-Day in this ambitious turn-based tactics game. Take on the might of Germany’s war machine and launch daring raids in occupied territory. Can you do enough to ensure Allied victory?”

If you have ever played a turn-based strategy game before, then you should know what to expect here. Very slow and very strategic gameplay where using your noodle is just as important as using your gun. Careful planning and foresight are key here – if you don’t want things to go very badly wrong. Set during World War II and days before D-Day, you control a small group of Allied soldiers looking to take out and cause as much damage to the Nazi regime as possible. The game mechanics are as simple, as they are complex, as they are familiar. Move your soldiers around by using AP (action points). Use cover when needed, and try not to leave your men out in the open for when the bullets begin to fly. Save some of your AP to attack and take out the Nazis.

There is mission variety here that will have you switching tactics often. Maybe you’ll have a mission that is an out-and-out assault, with you gunning down as many Nazis as possible. Maybe it’ll be a stealth mission where you need to be quick, quiet and (usually) unnoticed. Even so, a mission can change tact as you play. Let’s say that you are on a stealth mission and you do give your position away, it’s not game over, the mission will just change to an assault one when things go awry, and often have you on the back foot. Sometimes a mission will purposely mix things up, and maybe you will start on a stealth mission and an objective may be to reach a certain place without being noticed and then, all hell breaks loose, and you need to even the odds as you try to fortify the area and fight to survive.

As you play, you can recruit new members to your cause and each character is just that, a character. They’re not just avatars with a name, they are characters with backstories and everything. In between missions, you can spend time around the campfire (literary) and listen to your squad tell stories. This isn’t just a bit of background info either, as taking time to get to know your soldiers will result in earning buffs to make things a bit more ‘interesting’ out on the battlefield. Along the way, you’ll unlock new weapons and clothing options, which aren’t just there for cosmetic reasons. You can customise each of your soldiers, and doing so will increase their stats. Then, each soldier has their own skill tree where you can learn new ways to get into the Nazi killing business.

Between the missions, you have a strategic map that you use to plan your next move. There are three different factions and depending on which mission you choose to take on, your reputation within these factions will change. Get in well with a faction, and you can unlock new and unique abilities and many other bonuses. However, the Germans aren’t going to take your shenanigans lying down, and causing too much of a ruckus in one area will see you being hunted by the Feldgendarmerie. You really do need to think before you act to ensure that you are able to liberate Nazi-occupied France region by region, but still try to stay under the radar and try not to put too much heat on yourself.

The turn-based combat is really well done too and offers up some interesting mechanics. Each soldier has a morale meter and the more they are attacked, the more that meter will drop. They don’t even have to get hit by a bullet, even close misses will see a drop in morale. If that morale drops to zero, your soldier becomes ‘broken’ and will miss a turn. You can also become suppressed, which will give you fewer AP to fight back and this is where tactical team-play comes into force. Let’s say that you have a soldier being suppressed and his morale dropping like a stone, try to get one of yours to flank the attacking Nazi to free up your suppressed one. This morale/suppression also works against the Nazis, and you can turn the tide of a fight in your favour with some strategy and skill. Sometimes it is a smart idea to take a low % shot that you know will miss, to cripple a Nazi’s morale, than it is to break cover and try to go for a more accurate shot that could leave you open to attack. You really do need to think before you act.

Just to stop you from constantly taking your best soldiers out on every mission, they can become tired or wounded and their total AP will drop. So, you will need to rest up soldiers regularly and this means swapping them out, allowing the opportunity to see others earn some much-needed experience on the battlefield. This is a great way to stop you from spamming your best men on every mission, and it adds another layer of strategy to the game as you need to pick the best man (or woman) for the job, often when the best man (or woman) isn’t available.

Available to buy now on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox for around £35. There’s a lot to take in with Classified: France ’44 as it is crammed with information and detail and unless you are used to the turn-based genre, you’re going to get lost pretty damn quickly. But, if you are a fan of the genre, then you are in for a wonderful treat because this game is fantastic. You can play and re-play this multiple times and get something different. No two missions will ever play out exactly the same way, as there are so many variables at play here. Plus, there are fifteen different endings to the game too. Plus, you get multiple difficulty settings and even the dreaded Ironman mode to test your skills to the maximum. I’ve not even mentioned the user-based content as Classified: France ’44 comes with a mission creator and the devs are promising future updates and expansions.

There are some rough edges, but nothing that made me think that I needed to bring them up in this review, just very minor niggles that I forgot about after a few hours of play. Classified: France ’44 is a brilliantly realised turn-based strategy game, and dare I say it? I even enjoyed this more than the recent XCOM reboot. The World War II setting adds some hard-hitting realism, and the days counting down to D-Day just help to ramp up the tension and horrors that you know are coming. Classified: France ’44 offers up a deep and interesting take on the turn-based genre and one that had me wanting to play through multiple times and try different tactics. I know that it is only March, but this is my favourite game of the year, so far.