FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles
Game
Game2010
Theatre of War
Developer Fulqrum Publishing
Theatre of War (Russian: Вторая мировая) is a real-time tactical strategy game centering on the decisive battles in the European Theatre of World War II 1939–1945. The game allows the player to control armed forces of France, Germany, Poland, The USSR, United Kingdom or the United States (combined in actual campaign) in over 40 missions. Players will command a special task force composed of different kinds of units,… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
134 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Jun 16, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
55
Mixed
73 positive · 59 negative
95% range 47–64%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 73 | 59 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
2 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
230 of 377 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 134 · most liked firstThis, is a game for Die Hard Strategy fans, and I mean DIE Hard, the kind that will micromange and face extreme Difficulty and Realism, wait hours for anything to happen, and still be entertained. Well, I come from this point of view. This Game is not for the faint of heart, so if you've only played basic, or no RTS games, you really should steer clear of this one, and try some more popular titles. As for those who are experienced, this review is for you. Theatre of War is a very advanced…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Steam must upgrade ToW because sell it without warning that the game doesnt work in Windows 7 or 8 I bought ToW - the first - wich I consider a masterpiece of its kind, better than ToW2 Africa & Kursk, but I'm not able to play... The game seems doesnt work with Windows 7 & 8. Moreover I've wasted so many time to find a solution or even a explanation for it without success. I dont understand the Steam support team omission in this case!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Some tips: -Those who don't understand reverse slopes for placing artillery units will have a hard time in this game. Place AT guns on the reverse side peering just over the edge. Doing so will provide much needed cover. -Units zero in on enemies with each missed shot, move a tank or retreat a gun down a slope thats under fire to throw off enemy aim and force them to zero in again. -Caveat: Moving your own units, messes up their aim as well, trade-off accordingly. More experienced crews can…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is what I expected the Codename Panzer series to be (which was an huge disappointment beyond the graphics) and it is everything I have been looking for in a RTS/RTT type game. The level of realism is well beyond any other game of this type out there. Improper planning and use of tactics are punished over and over again by a good AI. Hundreds of units are modeled and at your fingertips and variants within each vehicle type are meticulously researched and detailed. Elements such as range,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am a veteran of Blitzkrieg (Blitzkrieg 1 and Blitzkrieg 2) and Sudden Strike (all games) series. One of My friends recommended Me this game, but it's gameplay is too slow for Me... Half an hour to rotate the tank; 5 second waiting after any of Your command to see any unit reaction... awful 3D... This game is really "waiting simulator" and patience training. Possibly, this game should be played 10 years ago, and for that time, it was good, but now - this game is awful. 3/10
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I would really like to recommend this game: it is quite cheap now, it still looks good and it covers most of the European theatre of WWII. There are a lot of different units and it tries to be realistic. However there are so many issues that it turns into a definitely no: Aiming is unrealistic. If your tank crew is not exceptionally trained, they can't hit the enemy even from 20 meters. Fortunately it goes to the enemy as well. Same for penetration rules. Even when there is a hit from 20…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Excellent game to play, especially at the price now. Challenging strategy, not for those stupids though
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Me like...lots of thinking involved. Strategy does play a part in the mechanics of the game. the AI does seem to deduct to the best course of action once it gets going. That said, the opening moves of each map are obiviously scripted. But this game does have all the cool tanks and all the cool things to do, and to get this game and all the other ToW games for under 15 bucks, hey, what a deal!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For fans of strategy, history, and realism - should try: (9 out of 10) Pros: ✅A huge amount of equipment. ✅A huge number of nations, as well as the opportunity to play for France and Poland. ✅Quite realistic battles (rifles fire from about 500 meters, and tanks shoot more than 1000 meters, realistic behavior of artillery and equipment) ✅The damage to Tanks and other equipment has been well worked out (things on the equipment fly off, and penetrations completely affect the damage to the crew…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game runs fine for me don't know why everyone was complaining about it not working. A bit difficult first time you play but after that it gets alot easier and feels rewarding every time you win a battle
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game itself is good, with a fairly deep amount of strategy and foreplanning, but it's so utterly plagued by crashes that it turns up not worth it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have tried all the shades of wargames, from hyper realistic to full arcade, and would place ToW between Combat Mission and Men Of War. However, it falls into that middle ground where only compromises, and no good qualities come to live. The realism: you get the impression of full control, but some key features are gone. For example complex pathing with different behaviors is not possible - advance, scout, retreat if engaged, with clear wayponts on screen. You must always be in manual control…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Classic ground level rts, a little dated now but still very nice
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I currently don't recommend this game im running into to many errors with the game trying to open. it will work for a hour or 2 at first then it will go into Runtime error 3#(trap) and from what i've read its not a easy fix to get it running agian. I have tried many things to get it to work but nothing works.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Does NOT load. Waste of money. Useless.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I thought this was going to be a fun an enjoyable game, but nope. The AI is the worst I have seen yet. The men can't even hit an armed car with their bazooka within 10 meters. That is if they decide to use the bazooka in the first place, most of the time they will just use their machine gun to attack an amored car. The other probelm is the men just won't attack they will just stand there doing nothing at all. Did I mention how bad the AI is?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game wants to be realistic and it is, but is boring and tedious too. The main problem is that the units feel very unresponsive to orders. Theatre of War Korea feels more intuitive and responsive. I still have to try Theatre of War 2.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you own anything with Windows 8* I can't recommend getting it, it is bugged and won't run unless you want to go through the entire process of coding in anti-bug codes in the files, besides paying $10.00 for a 4 year old game of this caliber is less than ideal, so save yourself the $ and pass.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very difficult and very good Strategy game in World War 2, with several Nations along with their separate Campaigns. Needs a decent Computer as it seems to calculate every projectile,and Line of Sight in a naturally flowing landscape. Simulationlike Realism unsuited for casuals. Tankcrews hit by HE rounds get stunned.Infantry in Trenches overrun by tanks get crushed. Infantry hiding in Bushes with Hold fire are almost invisible.Most guns have ranges of several Miles with armor penetration…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its like Men of War, but it does a better job in the armored warfare dept :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Frustratingly fun game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is an amazing game. If you like realistic RTS, such as Wargame, Blitzkrieg, Company of Heroes, etc, I recommend you to try this. In spite of some flaws (pathfinding) is a joy to play. Get only if you enjoy "realism", micromanaging your troops, and screaming anxiously to your computer. Game runs great on Linux via Proton. Disclaimer: I played this game before the steam version, maybe some 20 hrs.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Surprisingly fun with a lot of weird, useless mechanics. Its a really interesting blend of Men of War where you can grab individual soldiers and make them do stuff and Combat Mission where the battles happen on pretty big areas with tanks, artillery, planes, infantry and the way the infantry moves, spots, shoots, misses, aims again, hits reminds me a lot of Combat Mission. However while its an interesting mix of these two games its not a great mix, the game isn't necessarily bad but if you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Someone said the game would not run on modern Systems with NVIDIA cards. I have a Geforce 3070 and the game runs fine, not a single crash so far. I recommend playing the game on NOVICE difficulty for the first campaign.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So, normally, in my reviews, I like to go taxatively. Point-by-point, breaking down every element of the game. Instead, I think this time I'll just tell you what just happened to me. Poland, 1939. The fascists are advancing, and I am defending desperately. Out of a surfeit of bravado and early luck, I store most of my heavy guns on the crest of the hill, (foolishly) believing that my sole position is going to survive a sustained assault. One by one, my tanks fall, like dominoes. Each of them…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Retarded AI and mechanics, coupled with repetitive missions ruin the entire game. Whoever claims this to be a realistic game clearly never played it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Theatre of War is way too slow for my taste. It's also very hard, even with in-game tutorials. Like some other review said - it's for "Die Hard Strategy Fans". I'm not this big fan of it and I got bored with this game really fast. If you like difficult strategies and you enjoy every game with World War II setting, you might like it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This has a lot of bad reviews doesn't it? Quite unusual really..... normally Steam review pages are dominated by false ultra-hyped review by raving bands of fanbois who a55fock mob anyone who disrespects "their game". So I installed this with great concern indeed - if even a STEAM review page is full of bad reviews, and nary a fanboi whinger in sight, it really must be bad. (Actually, that's wrong, there are still a lot of whinging fanbois, most whinging about it's only "brainless taards" that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very Good and realistic Game! PROS very realistic lots of options fun lots of vehicels CONS glitchy (but playable)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can't start the game or if the game starts i get an error.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Too hard to beat Germany as Poland. Very unrealistic.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I’m making a game called Theatre of War. Your character is 5’3” and wields a katana to behead that tall person seated in front of you blocking your view of your favorite musical.
unlabelledView post →the game crashes on start, every single time.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://youtu.be/g0RZShBXJYU Many years post release this game is currently not functional on the version provided by Steam.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun tactical game. Pretty difficult though, the game lets you chose any campaign for the start (listed in chronological order) and the Polish campaign is pretty hard if you play in historical order. (Allegedly it's even the hardest.)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Better than MoW and an absolute gem. Holds up really well, believe or not. It's just hard to get this to work on modern machines, and if you want to run it on a integrated video card, you SoL
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sadly, as of 6/2021, this game will not run anymore on a modern PC with NVIDIA card. This game uses OpenGL for it's graphics, and since the implementation is almost 10 years old, the API used is extremely out of date. I tried every setting possible, from lowest to highest, to Windows compatibility modes to no avail. Theatre of War 2 and 3 went to a DirectX API, so hopefully the issues keeping this title from being able to run on modern systems won't exist.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Runtime Error solution (maybe work for some people): https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2039388866 Tips: This game only works in the PC with only one graphics card. If your PC has two, you need to disable one or use Nvidia Settings Panel and make a special rule that to run this game with only a single graphics card running.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Clicking Options in-game froze the game and trying to close it from Task Manager got my resolution switched to 1024x768. Dat quality.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it just gives me a black screen can some one help
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't buy it, got the infamous error 3 trap.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DONT GET ANY OF THIS GAME WEDT OF MONEY
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love strategy games, and this game does perfectly balances the strategy. For those who couldn’t opened the game, just add me I will try my best to help you.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Still the dog’s ******** and worth every penny.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Arhagorn 101 on Jan 19 gave these instructions and they worked. To make this work on current game settings 1. Go to your NVIDIA control center. 2. Manage 3D Settings 3. In the tab "Global Settings", Under preferred Graphics Processors, Change from auto-select to High-Performance NVIDIA processor and press in the corner "apply" 4. In the tab "Program settings" , under "select a program to customize" menu, select theater of war. 5. Make sure "Select preferred graphics processor" is set to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it is fun but has some issues like loading into a battle it will sometimes crash and the tank combat is a little messed up in my opinion.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of wargame for the money with multiplayer ability if you can find other players.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game feels like a Men of War game without the graphics or good game play. It's fun for a bit until you realize that the excitement level isn't going to improve. To compare this to Men of War is not fair - because it's not even close. I realize it's a different game and should be appreciated for what it is but after you've played the MOW games, it's almost impossible to play this and not think it's a very bad copy.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is those type of game you either like it or you don't. It is a combination of combat Mission and codename panzers but with realistic range and large operational Maps that are based on the European theater of war. You can play most of their respective Nations such as Poland France Germany and the allies, The game is no means perfect.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tried to install it the two times I bought it and it never worked, only a black screen
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Step One. Set up your forces on the battlefield. Step Two. Click start battle Step Three. Order your forces to move forward Step Four. Watch your forces spot an enemy tank or AT gun on a nearby hill Step Five. Watch all your tanks suffer track or main gun hits that render them utterly useless in the first two minutes Step Six. Watch all your soldiers die horribly or panic and run away as they try to take a hill full of tanks and heavy weapons with no support. Return to step one. It looks…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →GREAT GAME FOR ITS TIME AND NOW THAT IT COMES WITH A MOD TO ADD MORE UNITS IT'S A 10/10 FOR ME. UN JUEGASO en pocas palabras y en spanish btw you can creat customs maps and missions so great.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this game because remember playing it on my nan's old office laptop when I was younger (14 now) and I wanted to play it on my computer for old times sake, the problem is that you can't. it only runs on the older computers...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It works! Great game that will keep you occupied for hours at a time! The graphics are not the best, but the gameplay is just great, same as the challenging AI.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Limited UI, campaign control, etc. A very basic barebone game with an interesting engine left to rot due to lack of imagination on the developers part.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great game sure the graphics are bad but gameplay is great lots of diffrent countrys to play as and is very very worth it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →dont know what happened to you guys but my problem is that, everytime i try to play this game, it always crashes all the time, if anyone has an advice please write it.....
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cant get any of these to work on my system. I have tried so many things. It's just broken for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Amazing game for WWII enthusiast.All Military Vehicles are realistically maded and I must admire the real ballistics of all weapons used in this fantastic game.I highly recommended this game for those who love WWII tank battles and maybe for plastic modelers like me. Second,what I dislike-mistakes in mission generator and sometimes very strange things,like in one mission soviet BA-10 destroyed my Pzkpfw.IV Ausf.H with one shot from far away distance-that is unrealistic and very stupid.In WWII…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is too outdated for me to recommend it too anyone. If it was updated it could be a decent game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
Posts are quoted from public profiles with links to the original. Want yours removed? Contact us.