Steel Fury succeeds in overcoming its obvious problems with an immersive and historical campaign.
Steel Fury is all about fighting it out on the "Ostfront" or Eastern Front in WWII. Here you have a immersive tank simulation that adds a structured campaign tp play from either side of the conflict. The difference is you have historical missions as they had in battle. Your looking at a historical story that presents the horrors of war and the struggle from both sides. Kharkov was a battle between the Germans and Red Army in the former Soviet Union - 1942. The Germans had to retake the areas they lost from the pervious year during their initial attack on Russia -Barbarossa. The Red Army countered attacked that winter forcing the German Armys to retreat to the west.
The Germans then decided to attack the Russians and they retreated to the east but found themselves cut off and fought for their lives to break out of the German incirclement.
Steel Fury manages to capture all this with detailed graphics, explosions and sound effects. It also adds something I've never seen before in a sim which is useful AI. You can work together with the infantry to take objectives. Since your are in a tank you will be in the lead of the attack. When you start a mission your given a objective and can use the interactive map to help command forces under your control. The interface was impressive by listing way points and enemy placements. It is also extremely interactive.
In Steel Fury you will lead not only a tank but a AI element. You can command them in several ways. One way is to flag them down if they are close enough. Another way is to call them by radio but this can have a limited effect due to radio chatter. I found its better to work as a team though than to ignore the AI and go solo. The reason for this is when your playing the campaign missions especially for the first time you don't know where the unit placements are until you spot them if its not too late. The map does not show you in detail these locations but this is how it would be in real war.
The main objectives are usually marked on the map as a blue square you can toggle to show you which direction to attack. The controls take some time to learn but if your familar with other sims then you should be able to quickly learn them or change the key configurations.
The campaigns both German and Russian are composed of individual missions that usually have two mini objectives each. I did not like the fact that you could not control when these objectives were accomplished. The friendly AI would often complete these for you either rushing ahead and caping a area or destroying placements. When you witness the battles you will understand why it is important to work as a team with your friendly AI mates to accomplish these objectives.
The battles in the game are huge in scale. You will see diverse units on both sides for example half-tracks, panzers, T34's and infantry rushing to meet the enemy. The audio effects in the game do a great job in giving you a sense of immersion in the battle. Graphics are detailed but are a little dated for 2009. If you can run it on high settings you will see grass, trees, flowers and small Russian villages.
There is however, no multiplayer to speak of but with the mod tools released users can create new missions to play or download. Many of these mods can be found on the games forums. The campaign will take you several hours to complete from on both sides and you can replay the missions as well for different results.
There are some problems to note with Steel Fury. The interface is user friendly but for a new player may be a little overwhelming with a steep learning curve. There is a tutorial you can play to learn how to drive, command, shoot in your tank. You will need to learn where these positions are and how to jump quickly in between them to be successful. The view points are the most important aspect and give you ability to locate your enemy in battle and destroy him. The games difficulty settings start with novice and work up from there. There is even a option to become invincible so it can help a new player learn the game without the frustration of reloading the levels.
If you have interest in tank sims or a fan of games such as Panzer Elite then Steel Fury will likely satisfy you but not without a few game issues. If you can look passed the steep difficulty and the fact it has no \multiplayer give the game a try. Steel Fury will surely become that tank sim you've been longing for.