FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles
Game
Game2014
US and THEM
Developer Icehole Games
Lead the CIA or KGB in a turn-based global strategy. Influence nations, run covert ops, and win the Cold War without firing a shot. From the Steam store page
84 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Sep 9, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
30
Rotten
23 positive · 53 negative
95% range 21–41%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 23 | 53 | 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).
8 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Negative
39 of 116 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 84 · most liked first“US and THEM” is Icehole’s attempt at developing a turn based strategy game based on the Cold War. You get to choose to play as either the Capitalist United States or Soviet Russia. Your goal is to deploy special agents to the various countries around the world and, through various acts of subterfuge, sway their governments to your particular political ideology(Communism if you’re playing as Russia and Capitalism if you’re playing as the US.) When your special agents are deployed, they can…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Plays like a boardgame. Needs lots of micromanaging (unless you use the auto tools, but seriously why would you do that). You need a good memory + geographical memory (otherwise youll have to click a lot between news panel and country selection). Has somewhat a steep learning curve, but this is merely cause this is not your ordinary concept pc game. I havent had the opportunity to play real boardgames like Diplomacy or Twilight Struggle. But this game keeps me entertained. I wouldnt worry…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I recommend this game for all Cold War history fans or Board Games players. It plays like a board game and goes slowly, also interface and graphics are not the best possible. That been said, this game is the best effort I have ever seen to create a serious and deep strategy game about cold war. It leaves nothing from the period and the events out. Secret Agents, Cold War heroes, Arms Race, Space Race, the need for oil, need for money, Military dictatorships… Gameplay is pretty original in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Many of these reviews are a mess and don't talk about the game itself. The game is very...interesting. I think its best to do pros and cons Pros: Good theme: The game really feels like a struggle against the enemy. What is simulated right, is simulated right: The system does a great job of simulating lots of concepts from the war, such as the domino effect, the communist sandwhich, the iron curtain, etc. Also the heroes that are simulated decently well. Cons: Horrible UI: Probably one of the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game, but frustrating at times when countries rebel and join the opponent. VERY hard to get them back in the fold. Micromanaging is indispensable to remember which agents are where. Just finished 1 compaign in 7 hours. Great price/fun ratio. Although not a big game, its not a casual game, lots of depth.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really can't recommend this game as long as it is in this state. There are tons of bugs, I can't get a resolution higher than 1024x768 (WTF), the interface is pretty awful...I really like the concept of this game, however. It just suffers from very poor production values and poor programming. If this was made by a studio other than one dude in his basement during his spare time, it could truly be a spectacular game. However, as it is, do not waste your $10.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is amazing, very understated graphics that allow you to focus moreon the fading voice of the tutoril speaker. He does a great job of explaining many things that will help lull you to sleep at night, and you get the feel that the game really WAS developed during the cold war. As a result you'll need a computer at least the size of your house to run it, and with enough computing power to do complex addition and subtraction. six thumbs up and my pants thumb way waaaaay up.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a 7/10 for me. The concept of the game is great but it suffers from a low budget production. After Patch 1.2.2 things are a lot better but there are still some interface issues. In any case the game features a unique and original gameplay that I have never seen in any other game, also is the only serious PC strategy game about cold war. The game tries to include everything that took place during the cold war era like, espionage, space race, arms race, heroes and villains, real…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The steam icon for this game is from a completely different game.... I think that says it all really.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unplayable due to graphical bugs. The game is a programming mess do not buy.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not really intuitive. A good idea that requires a cleaner / more intuitive interface and realization
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Personally I have never been able to get this game to work on any computer I own. There is no real support and if you check the steam forums you'll see that several people have gotten nowhere trying to contact any company. Wish I had my $10 back.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →☭ ☭ ☭ Awesome game ! ☭ ☭ ☭ But i took over the USA in only 6 hours :/ (you win when you make a revolution in USA or in USSR) a bit short and not that much replayability. But taking over every countries of the world should take much more time, it's VERY HARD to do. Anyways, if you're into the cold war or into communism, you MUST buy this game on a sale !
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The worst game in a while. You can't adjust the video. Shoud have spent more money on the graphics than the movie.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Horrible interface, tedious gameplay. Entirely unfun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pros: - Interesting topic - Some good mechanics behind the actual political situation in the various countries. Cons: - Not a lot of chrome. There are events or special characters in certain countries, but in general trying to influence or take over France as the communist feels very much the same as trying to take over Thailand. - Countries in europe taht were historically very firmly set in one alliance or the other are far too easily taken over by the other side. For example in 1966 the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a pretty terrible port/update for one reason: It's not really designed to be played on different-sized monitors. This means the text doesn't fit into the boxes it's supposed to fit into, and frequently bleeds out past the edges of the screen. Since this is a spreadsheet-style strategy game, this makes the game pretty much unplayable. Shame. Hopefully this will be fixed at some point.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good concept. But the end turn management of each... individual... freaking operative REALLY breaks my focus on the game. If there was a single menu for each major event.... "New spies detected", "Lost spies", "How your spies feel" then it would be FAR more manageable, faster paced, and can enjoy it SO much more. But it breaks my entire immersion experience.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game runs at a resolution from the 90s. Interface has bugs. Text running out of label areas. Unskippable intro movies. I was really interested initially, but this game doesn't live up to modern standards.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game definitely had potential and i was looking forward to some cloak and dagger strategy while using my knowledge of the history during this period to my advantage, but the shotty game mechanics really ruined it for me and others. My review is simple, don't buy it. Since its release no other form of patches, upgrades, or communication has been posted. the 3.5 hours I have logged into the game were frustrating and included many resets.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it took a while to really know how to play but i got use to it (thanks to youtube) its really fun even though I always lose xD
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Until they fix the interface, this game is not playable. It's like the images and templates are all formatted for 4:3, the text for 16:9.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought it on sale. Clunky interface, but good concept. Where else can you assassinate Henry Kissinger for two bucks? Worth a look.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Like HOI but different, this game is a strategy-themed game that takes players into the intense geopolitical landscape of the Cold War era between the USSR and the USA. With careful attention to historical detail as well as gameplay mechanics that are somewhat lacking in my opinion, this game has something to offer both history buffs and strategy lovers. Ensures hours of addictive gameplay, whether you're maneuvering diplomatic relations, engaging in covert operations, or navigating delicate…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a game with a few major flaws, but for 2 dollars, I got more than my monies worth out of it. It plays as a board game, it's turn based, and your goal is to influence a set number of countries over to your ideology. You have a bunch of agents you can put in countries which can make it easier to spark a revolution, and some countries are more important than others, which helps you flip other countries as well. The game isn't super deep, but I think there's enough there to make it fun. I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it is a wonderful game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting game, but I wish someone would remake it and fix the terrible interface so that I can enjoy it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Though it looks extremely fun, the fact that it doesn't adjust to fit screens, and you have no graphics adjustment controls... This game is altogether unplayable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →♥♥♥♥♥♥ game. Its not finished. The UI is really bad. Interesting concept, but its generally unplayable. I think they finished about 80% of the game and then just decided to publish it. Very sloppy.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a International Relations major: Best Idea Ever As a Gamer: Difficult UI makes it near impossible to play
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Completely unplayable. Glitched to the point I can't even read all the options. The gameplay I can participate in is still terrible. Full of pointless black and white video clips of people marching I can't skip. This game is garbage.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Border Riding is a GM-less collaborative map drawing game. Create two communities, Us and Them, and follow how both evolve, change, chafe, and grow together as generations come and go, and leadership pulls in new directions with every round. UK / EU / INTL - www.stoutstoat.co.uk/products/bor...
unlabelledView post →The hilarious thing about this, is Steam has the wrong thumbnail for this game so I thought I was going to be playing something else entirely. In any case, the game doesn't actually seem to run correctly on my Win 11 system. After the intro video I've got nothing, so I just sat around listening to the sounds for a bit thinking about dinner.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This one couldnt hold my attention. Just wasnt that interesting and difficult to keep track of where things were, how I was advancing, and seemed very cumbersome. An excellent attempt though.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →WIth bug fixes, graphics updates, a better tutorial system, better controls, less micromanagement, more events and better sounds this would be a great game, but at the moment it appears to be a flash game with crippling issues. If you are looking for something to put about one hour into then this is it. But for anything else it doesn't really perform to any standards. If you get it on sale then it maybe worth it at but full price this game is terrible, and when something like FTL is the same…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →interface is terrible. game play is marginal. too much going on and no way to properly track it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a great concept but it was too ambitious for itself. The inferface is clunky and archaic. The gameplay and game mechanics are difficult to grasp, and the amount of number crunching involved is enough to give Spock a headache. There are better games out there! Waste your money somewhere else.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Broken application that messed my settings.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Us and Them is a good game. Icehole didn't sell many digital copies of it and received mostly negative feedbacks from users, but I can assure you that I've seen a lot of worse (and overpriced) games here on Steam. In this game you run URSS or USA and try to extend your political influence around the globe, just as happened in real life. You deploy your spies and other kind of experts (economical and political agents) to convince populations that your ideology is the best. Of course you can…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This was one of the games I hesitated twice on... all the people giving negative comments did influence my decision, and I did wait until it was on sale. Yet, something drew me to look at the comments deeper. I love cold war games, I see it as one of the most interesting periods of human history and I love to play it out in an alternate history. The good: It's fairly simple to learn, even if the tutorial misses a few points. The tutorial covers some basic UI items and some concepts,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of those unique strategy games that can only come from small companies and low budget projects. It features a simulation of the Cold War period where the worse versions of Communism and Capitalism clash. Under the appearance of democracy and respect both parties undermine each other through subterfuge, breaking their economy to break support in the ruling party, gaining political support and finally provoking a revolt. No difference between ones or others. As in good strategy…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →okay i would like to say that i really gave this game a fair chance but i am actually so annoyed that i have taken the time to write a review: here are my problems 1) This game does not work on the proper resolutions 2) There is no tutorial for this game, it constantly tells you to read the manual... which does not contain any additional information either. i tried to look up some youtube videos but i could find only one person explaining the game... 3) The chance system makes no sense... i…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Does not work well and no option for 1920x1080
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is basically unplayable. The interface is buggy and locked to non-widescreen tiny resolutions, and the way the game plays does not feel very well thought out.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't buy this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Actually a very interesting concept allthough not perfectly executed (even considering it's based on a board game). I bet if there was a second game of the series it would be way better and vary enjoyable but considering it's a game from a Canadian publisher and Greek developers, yeah that's quite unlikely. PS: If anyone knows the name of the movie that plays at the soviet victory, please tell me, I'm SO gonna watch it !!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really like this game because it has a simple design and a depth in the gameplay as you need strategy in order to win.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is awesome. For €2 i got my desktop rearranged from 1280x720 to 1024x768 and this awesome message: Unhandled Exception in your application. If you click continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. Font 'Arial Narrow' does not support style 'Regular' After that, the game wouldnt let me exit it and steam started acting up about the game was alread started. I can't wait for a sequel. (seriously, why is a piece of horrible ♥♥♥♥ like this allowed on Steam?…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →before i go on to a full blown rant the game or steam has a glitch that say u still on game when u not
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unbelievably broken... I manage to barely get to the menu screen, but it wont load the campaings. I imagine the game (If it works) is pretty good though...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Way to complex! There are too many things to keep track of, and for the love of mercy Cuba is impossible to click on!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This might actually be the worst game on steam. It's the least fun that can be had with a computer. The gameplay is deeply unplesant, the graphics are ugly to the point of hurting my eyes, the forced resolution is absurdly low and makes everything fiddly and awkward, and the interface is possibly the worst ever concieved Oh, and I get that Europe is the main focus, but there are so many things on such a tiny part of a map that it's impossible to see what you are doing there becasue it's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →⣿⣿⡻⠿⣳⠸⢿⡇⢇⣿⡧⢹⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣾⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⡐⣯⠁ ⠄⠄ ⠟⣛⣽⡳⠼⠄⠈⣷⡾⣥⣱⠃⠣⣿⣿⣿⣯⣭⠽⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣟⢢⠏⠄ ⠄ ⢠⡿⠶⣮⣝⣿⠄⠄⠈⡥⢭⣥⠅⢌⣽⣿⣻⢶⣭⡿⠿⠜⢿⣿⣿⡿⠁⠄⠄ ⠄⣼⣧⠤⢌⣭⡇⠄⠄⠄⠭⠭⠭⠯⠴⣚⣉⣛⡢⠭⠵⢶⣾⣦⡍⠁⠄⠄⠄⠄ ⠄⣿⣷⣯⣭⡷⠄⠄⢀⣀⠩⠍⢉⣛⣛⠫⢏⣈⣭⣥⣶⣶⣦⣭⣛⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄ ⢀⣿⣿⣿⡿⠃⢀⣴⣿⣿⣿⣎⢩⠌⣡⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠄⠄⠄ ⢸⡿⢟⣽⠎⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⠄⠄ ⣰⠯⣾⢅⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠄ ⢰⣄⡉⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠄ ⢯⣌⢹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄ ⢸⣇⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄ ⢸⣟⣧⡻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄ ⠈⢹⡧⣿⣸⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠗⣈⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⠄ ⠄⠘⢷⡳⣾⣷⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⢀⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⠄ ⠄⠄⠈⣵⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄⠄ ⠄⠄⠄⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠘⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⠄⠄
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a pretty low budget game but is absolutely ridiculous to pay 10$ for this. The right price is at most 5$.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a bad concept f the game, however it was very poorly executed. There, are no directions, help or depth to the game. There is no Instructions that tells what it is that you are doing, or what you are trying to achieve. I would not recommend to anybody, espically for $10. UPDATE: I have just found the game manual and the toutorial video on the store page, It is not a very hard game to play, however there is still no depth or exciting game play. This was a low budget game that tried to make…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The UI is pretty bad. THis looks good but very difficult to play
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As much as I'd like to recommend this game, the concept is great, but the game is buggy as hell. It is constantly crashing for inexplicable reasons, and gives little to no explanations on anything, simply expecting you to know how to play and what to do. In general, it's a terrible implementation, though it had some good ideas in it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Although a cool concept, its UI is terrible, it cant run on native screen resolutions leaving some of the Ui offscreen!!Also although you can edit which messages you want to see, you still have 132503 popup messages all the time since if you close em you ll miss important pop ups.NOT reccomended.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →wont even ♥♥♥♥♥♥ start 0/10
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Imagine if you will, the least fun you've had playing a board game. Now subtract from that experience the ability to share it with others and you'll have this videogame. There are plenty of strategy games which couch their difficulty in fantastic design and technique. This game fell quite short of that. The half hearted attempt of the game to even try to elaborate on its internal dynamics is hard to follow as the tutorial isn't interactive but a video. A video which crashed my computer with…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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