This is the best current WW2 flight sim, but it is
not perfect.The whole premise of the sim is quality and
detail. Proper flight models which instruct you
and force you to learn. Initially there were few
flyable planes, but the numbers have grown
continually with each patch and with each new part
of the game.
Initially this game was offerred as IL-2
Sturmovik. This was set on the Eastern Front. That
was replaced with IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten
Battles, which added extra maps, extra planes, and
a partly new game engine. After this came Aces
Expansion Pack, which brought Western Europe -
Normandy and the Ardennes. Most recently released
is Pacific Fighters.
Pacific Fighters, brings us the pacific theatre,
and with it many American and Japanese planes.
There is even a flyable floatplane version of the
Japanese Zero fighter.
Positives:
There is a wide range of planes you can fly,
including a number of twin engined and multi crew
planes. This includes what-if planes which never
flew in real life but which are still fascinating
to explore.
You can usually flit between crew stations in
flight to man other positions. You can fire
flexi-mount machine guns. In some planes you can
become the bomb aimer and use the bomb sight.
Each plane has its own flight model, with a
serious attempt to model its own unique handling
charateristics.
The cockpit of each plane is a proper model of the
original, and varies by sub-type where
appropriate. As you make control inputs, the dials
and levers move to reflect what is happening.
There are plenty of difficulty options you can
set, including torque and gyro effects (engine
steer), difficulty of landings, etc.
There is no easy "hit bubble" around your target.
In order to hit it and do it some damage, you have
to actually hit it.
You can take off and land from carriers (Pacific
Fighters), grass strips and concrete runways. For
Brits especially, this is, I think, the first
flight sim with a British carrier and British
carrier planes to fly.
You can fly with the cockpit on or off. You can
set the gun convergence distance. There is usually
a variety of armament options for each plane.
You can create complex missions of your own with
the Full Mission Builder.
There is a Quick Mission Builder if you just want
to jump in and fly.
There are third party add-ons which will give
extra missions and campaigns, and they are good
quality and integrate well with the rest of the
game. Many good add ons are free. (eg:
www.uberdemon.com)
There are many third party aircraft camouflage
schemes which you can apply to any plane in the
game. (il2skins.com, when there, plus others.)
Third party modellers have also supplied warships
(Bismark), and merchant ships.
You can fly on-line against human opponents.
Support from UbiSoft/1C:Maddox is pretty good.
Really glaring faults are fixed by periodic free
patches.
Negatives:
The enemy planes use a lightweight flight model
which allows them to do things which you can't
always follow, and which the prototypes couldn't
necessarily do either.
The enemy AI rear gunners are ridiculously
accurate, and there is no way to "turn them down".
You can adjust the AI level of the pilot, but it
makes no difference to the gunners.
Ground fire is also quite deadly, and again there
is no way to turn it down. Flak from ships can be
made to fire more slowly, but not less accurately.
The code which keeps a tally of the planes you
shoot down can't actually count - you can shoot up
an enemy plane, and if it crash lands onto sea or
land gently enough, you don't get a kill.
The enemy AI magically understands what you have
set your gun convergence distance to. You can
approach a single seat fighter from behind, and
just as you reach your best shooting position, the
enemy plane suddenly begins to manoeuvre
violently.
The enemy AI can see through clouds and can't
become disorientated inside them like you can.
Enemy planes can be induced to manoeuvre
themselves into the ground. When this happens, you
don't always get a kill, it depends on how much
damage, if any, you have already done.
There have been persistent allegations of
pro-Russian slant to aspects of the game. It is
alleged that the Russian aircraft guns suffer
hardly any bullet drop at all when shooting.
It is alleged that the view from the cockpit of
the FW-190 is much worse that it should be, that
this plane doesn't accelerate properly, and that
recently its guns have become much less lethal.
Overall Conclusion.
Many things about this game are a big step forward
on flight sims which have gone before. It doesn't
have the one-eyed American nationalism of many
other sims, but it may be suffering from a Russian
version of the same complaint.
Worst of all, in this category, some decisions are
justified on the basis of "secret Russian test
data" from the State aeronautical test body,
TzAGI.
The flight models vary significantly from plane to
plane and do give a good impression of how planes
differed in their handling characterstics. Problem
is, you can't be sure how authentic these handling
characteristics are.
I've said nothing so far about graphics. This is
because you can take them for granted. The
graphics are very good. The best of the third
party artwork to use on the planes is simply
beautiful.
Flying in this sim is not a walk over in any
sense. The more background reading you do about
air combat in this era, the better you will get
on. You will almost certainly have to practice
everything before you become proficient.
In my case I bought the Civil Aviation
Authority(UK) pilots training handbook to discover
how landings are meant to be done, and since then
I crash much less.
But it isn't perfect, either. The faults put a
very big dent in the immersiveness.