Steel Fury is a forgotten gem of a game and one of the best tank simulators around. For the longest of time, the game had only been available on GamersGate and I personally never thought to see the day when its' available on Steam.

What I like about this game

+ Unlike the version offered on GamersGate, Steel Fury on Steam runs natively at 1080p with almost zero issues.

+ One of the most in-depth consumer tank simulators around. It's not exactly Steel Beasts Pro, but it does the simulator part well enough. The tanks feel right, the controls are easy to use (with manual at hand) and the game offers all the standard adjustable simulation options from armor penetration to AI panic rate etc.

+ Combined Arms action similar to Graviteam Tactics RTS games or this game's spiritual successor Steel Armor: Blaze of War. Infantry brings a lot to the tank sims in form of atmosphere and danger. Take a note, IL-2 Tank Crew.

+ This is a personal plus for me, but compared to Steel Armor: Blaze of War that is more focused on commanding a tank battalion, Steel Fury focuses on commanding your own single tank and feels a bit more enjoyable to me.

+ The game still looks and sounds quite alright and runs well. It uses older version of the engine that all Graviteam's games run on, so fans of those games feel right at home.

+ Even though the game is old, it has a dedicated community. There is a lot of custom scenarios online, as the game has a Mission Editor. The modding scene is also quite dedicated and offers options from enhanced graphics, weathers & seasons to new tanks to play with.

What I don't like about this game

- As the game went to semi-limbo and support was cut short thanks to the publisher going under, the game shipped with a lot of bugs and some of those are still present. For example, turning out of the tank is bugged for me. Also, even though the 1080p support is fixed, some parts of the UI like tutorial messages run in different resolution and get cut off. Game is still enjoyable and playable, but to new players I'd recommend printing out a manual online as the tutorials are useless.

- The UI overall feels quite weird, with the Graviteam Tactics stylish grey blocks tacked on the sides.

- Sadly, the modding scene is mainly based on Eastern Block countries (language barrier) and its' privatized or pay-walled behind shady sites. Most of the old links are also dead.

I don't know how I would score Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942. On the other hand, it is a great tank simulator that was screwed over by unfortunate circumstances. On the other hand, it still has bugs that should be fixed. The price of the game is cheap and it comes with content, but it feels old in some aspects compared to Steel Armor: Blaze of War when un-modded. For me personally, the good of the game outweigh the bad, so I'd recommend the game to all people interested in tank sims or who have been curious about this old but gold product. Big thumbs up for fixing the 1080p support over GamersGate release and hopefully we'll see another great tank sim from Graviteam at some point!

The game's geriatric in its graphics and some of its UI, but it still looks and plays enjoyably enough. I try not to negatively judge something because it's old. I'm in my mid-50's and I don't think myself less because my body is aging. Actually quite the opposite, I'm a much better person now than I ever was. Steel Fury Kharkov 1942 is like that. The youthful flesh has wrinkled and aged but underneath is some solid gameplay.

I own IL-2 Tank Crew (I love IL-2:GB) and Steel Fury should be the example of how to make it more enjoyable. Tanks with infantry support, historical missions, sounds of war all around. SF feels like you're in an important battle to fight in the "Meat Grinder" in and around Kharkov.

From the starting line you've three choices of tanks, but if you take a few minutes to add the mod, STA (Steel Tank Addon) it'll add many more tanks and missions, and give a minor facelift to the graphics.

This's a simulation so you'll be able to take whatever tank position you desire, give orders as the commander, or drive it, or load the shells, or look down the sight searching for armor and infantry as the gunner. This's a tough game and it'll require patience and strategy.

A few folks have complained of the resolution on newer computers, so be aware of that. However there's a fix. I had that issue from the Gamersgate's Steel Fury edition I bought ten years ago, and I found a fix. SF works just fine for me on the Steam edition.

If you can step aside from wanting the shiniest toy that doesn't have much substance, to the worn, but true, toy that does, SF will give you many hours of difficult but very fun tank battles in a unique setting.

The game itself has really no flaws, and I am very disappointed that I just can't play it. Don't take this negative review as a statement about the game itself. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work as it should. Game devs were ripped off by the publisher and thus never made an official fix, so this game is forever stuck in 2010. Resolution is broken, the game won't register most modern graphics cards (and thus forces itself to run on the lowest setting) and there really is no way around this except, as I said, extensive modding. If you're dedicated enough to fix this, it is a great game to play for sure. But I just don't have the patience or skill to mess with the files like that.

Attention, to get the full Steel Fury experience follow instructions in this community guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2211816110

Get mods as suggested from Japanese wiki. 4 shared is scummy but you can use it without
giving anything by just putting obviously fake email when registering. Unfortunately it's the
only place to get the needed files easily right now.

Also I had to change starter.exe in kharkov folder. Right click - properties- compability -
high dpi settings - override. Because I couldn't otherwise enter any tank position properly.
(black screen, sky box, etc) except external view.

As for the game, when it came out it was absolutely wonderful tank game. This has not changed.
Especially infantry doing their own thing is immersing and adds a lot to gameplay. Graphics have
suffered as you might expect, but if you can roll with it you have one of the best tank games
still after all these years.

It was a shame it was in publisher hell for so long and very hard to get as a result. Otherwise it would
have been much more popular as it's newbie friendly game too with right settings.

great game would be nice if they put a workshop in

The game looks so fun its such a shame half the game is broke. You could probably fix it with mods yea, too bad the mod that fixes everything at once has been purged from the internet, i cant find the mod everyone suggests anywhere. You can probably fix one or two things with other mods but overall its just not worth it to get a completely broken game for 20 dollars.

(played extensively since 2009 or so, this is third time I purchased this title)

arguably best WW2 tank sim still standing strong 13 years after release with thrilling gameplay and still appealing somewhat unique visuals; what it needs is steam workshop so we can have all the best modifications in one place

hope Graviteam will follow this with their newer Mius-level tech and assets sequel

Base game boring as ♥♥♥♥, didn't play game for like a whole year until discovering the JCM mod amazing ! Absolutely amazing with this mod, simple and easy to follow instructions on their website I'll post a link here fellow Tank commanders! Enjoy! https://wikiwiki.jp/pzfr/Steel%20Tank%20Add-on Translate to english if you speak it lol

Best WW2 Tank Simulator, i wish to see a remake or some updates for this game, one of my favorite tank games, i have a lot of gameplay videos with this game.

Just like Silent Hunter 3 is the best WW2 Subsim out there, Steel Fury is the best WW2 Tanksim.
But this is, for both games, only true if you install overhaul mod packages.
For SF you need to install the STA/ITM mod. Otherwise the vanilla game is, due to the age of the game, unplayable.
It might be tricky to get it running, but if you manage to achieve that you will be rewarded with an atmospheric and realistic game where you can really enjoy to ride phantastic looking WW2 tanks and feel the power of Panzergranate 39.
The AAR system emphasize the claim for realism as you can exactly see what damage your shells did to the enemy...a really unique feature.