You can pit your (virtual) flying skills against other players online. While the missions may start off simple (go to X, attack Y) there is a gradual increase in difficulty and randomess in the campaign, which might see the player stumble across friendly flights being attacked during their main mission. This can be jarring, but is does allow the player to experience the battle from multiple viewpoints.
Indeed the player can not only swap aircraft (such as switching to a bomber from a fighter) between missions, but even sides if they so wish. Here the developers have broken with traditional flight sim campaigns which see the player as a named ‘persona’ in a specific squadron or unit and instead opted for a approach of dropping the player into single dynamically created missions, each linked by a certain phase of the battle. Meanwhile single missions give a more crafted, immersive experience, such as dead-reckoning navigation in a snowstorm in a Sturmovik conducting armed recon, night strikes on enemy truck convoys or take-off practice. Quick missions allow the player to quickly set up dogfights or attack missions with varying enemies at any time of the day.
Those familiar with the Rise of Flight GUI will be right at home with the interface. The vast map of Stalingrad has been painstakingly researched - however there is no linking of squadrons and aircraft with particular bases. The game itself has been available to play for a while now under an ‘Early Access’ programme, with it gradually becoming more complete until the release last week. One drawback here that the campaign (see below) is playable only at either Normal or Expert - denying players to mix and match realism settings (for example, icons off, CEM on, but external views on to capture stunning screenshots). The sim can be configured to two main difficulty levels - ‘Normal’ (icons, map on, automatic engine management) and ‘Expert’ (all icons and helpers off) for the campaign or customised for quick missions or online. As well as single-seat fighters, the pilot and crew positions are modelled in in multicrew aircraft like the He111 and Pe-2, allowing players to switch into gunners roles to defend the aircraft. There is also a ‘premium pack’ option that adds the La-5 and FW190A-3 (the latter not historically present at Stalingrad). Il-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad (il-2 BoS) focuses on a specific narrow period (winter of 1942/43) in the critical struggle for Stalingrad, allowing the player to fly any of up to 10 aircraft during the battle – the Yak 1, Me109F/G, LaGG-3, bombers such as Pe-2 and He111 and of course the Ju-87 and Il-2.
Now rebooted by the makers of WW1 sim 'Rise of Flight', can the latest entry in this combat flight sim series live up to the Il-2 name? The settingĬockpits of the ten flyable aircraft (here a LaGG-3) are on the whole excellent - despite being non-mouse clickable.
Over ten years ago, a PC flight simulator arrived that raised the bar for WW2 combat sims - the now iconic Il-2 Sturmovik, which spawned official add-on packs, third-party mods, paint schemes and, in 2011, a flawed gem of a sequel - 'Il-2 Cliffs of Dover’. Does it live up to the legendary Sturmovik sim name? TIM ROBINSON reviews the latest WW2 combat flight simulator for the PC - IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad. The reboot of the IL-2 WW2 flight simulation series sees the franchise return to its roots on the Eastern Front