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Number 03 - IL-2 Sturmovik and add-ons

Plane sailing? Hardly

1C: Maddox Games, 2001

Sometimes IL-2 Sturmovik, the World War 2 flight simulator of choice, is not a tough game. Sitting at the controls of a Messerschmitt 109E as you fly bomber intercept missions against rubbish Soviet light bombers during the early days of Operation Barbarossa is not going to cause a capable player too many problems. IL-2 is a very realistic flight simulator, but if you’re flying the better machine against slow moving planes in formation, that’s all good, right?

Well it would be, except that those moments of ease are few and far between in IL-2. This is a game, after all, that’s dedicated to the Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik, the legendary Soviet flying tank. Of the huge array of campaigns in the 1946 edition that can be selected by the player there are many in which the player can be considered to be in a state of advantage, either technologically or strategically. However by that same rationale there are many campaigns which are breathtakingly difficult to survive, let alone complete with any distinction.

If you pick a campaign as a German Stuka pilot, or as a Gloucester Gladiator pilot flying for Poland in 1939, or as a Japanese carrier-based bomber pilot you are entering a world of pain. Unlike generations of flight simulators showcasing the latest ultramodern killing machines, IL-2 allows you to play as the victim of technological innovation, as well as a smugly grinning cadaver junkie lording his superior machine over his opponents. In literally dozens of campaigns you can find yourself dogfighting against enemy aircraft that can out-turn, out-climb, outgun and outrun you.

Not only is IL-2 difficult due to the potential for you to be overmatched mechanically, World War 2 is also a tremendously difficult era to fly and fight in anyway and the game is hugely realistic in how it handles combat. For instance, trying to shoot down the lumbering Sturmoviks which the game is named for can be a nightmare, as you see machinegun bullets literally bouncing off their armoured bodies. You often find yourself having to get close to ensure you do any damage, but this in turn means you fall into range of your quarry’s rear gunner. Flying against fighters is even harder, as you have to chase them down and get close enough for a kill shot as they weave all over the sky.



An IL-2 Sturmovik player who can complete even the easiest of the campaigns with aplomb is clearly a capable simulator pilot, but anybody who can take on the challenge of an inferior aircraft and defy the history of air warfare demands respect.



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