Gaming Trend Review
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey
- Official Site
- Platform: 360
- Publisher: 1C Company
- Developer: Gaijin Entertainment
- Release Date: 09/08/09
- Genre: Sim
Pros
- Looks and sounds fantastic
- Arcade mode is fun for newbies, while more realistic modes will please hardcore flight sim fans
- Great mission variety
- Controls feel very realistic
Cons
- Occasionally vague mission objectives
- Tough to hear radio chatter, especially the important bits
- Difficulty ramps up to frustrating levels in the late-game
by Chris Miller
Let’s start this review with a big, fat, huge disclaimer right up front: I don’t play flying games. In fact, I’m pretty sure the last time I stepped into a virtual cockpit was playing Afterburner in arcades 20 years ago. I know nothing about speed stalls, flaps, props, flat-spins, ailerons, Immelman turns (even after playing this for nearly 20 hours, I had to Google those last two), or any other kind of aerial maneuvering. So if you’re looking to find out if IL-2 Sturmovik accurately recreated the altimeter on the interior cockpit of a WWII fighter, or if they correctly mapped the position of every ship during the Battle of Britain, you should probably check out some other reviews, ‘cause this one ain’t going to help you.
Still with me?
OK, good. Historical accuracy aside, I’m looking at how IL-2 fares for a complete aerial combat noob, and am happy to report that it is wildly successful on most fronts. The thought of climbing into the shoes of a WWII pilot had never really intrigued me before, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t have one heck of a good time taking down the Luftwaffe en masse.
Screenshots
IL-2 is set during World War II, and attempts to recreate many of the actual aerial missions that helped to turn the tide of battle. While there are some short voice over segments from a fictional pilot’s perspective that set up and debrief each mission, it’s somewhat refreshing to be participating in locales and events that actually have a solid basis in reality. Your campaign will take you on missions over Britain, Germany, and Russia, all with a variety of different objectives. Your goals can vary wildly from protecting your naval fleet, to taking out ground forces, shooting down enemy bombers before they can drop their payload, and good old-fashioned dogfights.
From what I understand, the IL-2 series is traditionally known for it’s ultra-realistic re-creations of dogfighting. Thankfully, developer Gaijin Entertainment created a less taxing option for us flying rookies, with a very welcome Arcade mode. This mode is viewed through a third-person perspective, with auto-targeting, a HUD that differentiates friend from foe, unlimited ammo, and none of the speed stalls that are normally associated with these old-time aircraft. That’s not to say this mode is easy – far from it, actually – but it does provide a level of fun and accessibility for those of us without a ton of flying experience. For the record, all my feedback in this review is based off the Arcade mode.
For those who want to approximate the real thing, there are also Realistic and Simulation modes available. The former is still a third-person perspective, but removes the auto-targeting, HUD, and unlimited ammo, as well as allowing for your aircraft to stall and spin. The latter is for the hardest of the hardcore, as it is locked into the cockpit view, and eliminates any and all of the helpful tools. It’s about as realistic as you’ll get…which meant I died approximately 10.7 seconds into the few missions that I attempted to use it.
One of the most impressive aspects of IL-2 is that the control scheme feels like you’re actually flying an old aircraft, rather than piloting some sort of spruced up X-Wing with lightning quick controls and responses. These planes were not known for their incredible maneuverability, and it is reflected in the control scheme. They are simple enough – use the right stick to adjust the rudder, and the left stick to bank – but take some practice to get used to, especially when you factor in air speed and altitude. You’ll fly a variety of allied aircraft throughout the campaign, and can expect each one to handle a little differently. Some are quicker and can turn on a dime, others will require wide, sweeping arcs as you line up your target. It provides a rather exciting change of pace as you get used to each new airplane, and provides some excellent variety.
Not content to just provide excellent controls, IL-2 also looks absolutely fantastic. Each plane is modeled with an ridiculous amount of detail, right down to decals on the side and smudges on the windows. I assume it’s all incredibly representative of the actual war birds, and you can tell that a huge amount of attention and detail went into creating these aircraft. The various locales for each mission – from cityscapes, to countrysides, to beaches - also look amazing and truly help to immerse you in the scope of these epic battles. You will notice some texture repetition and things lose detail when you get close, but since the only time that happens is when you’re about to crash, it’s certainly not something to lose any sleep over.
Gaijin also must have had their sound department working overtime for this one. Every battle is a cacophony of explosions, engine roars, whizzing bullets, and radio chatter (enemy chatter is in German, even), backed up by a fantastic symphonic score. It really feels like you’re playing an active role in some sort of amazing History Channel WWII documentary. The only downside to all the incredible sound effects is that it can get very difficult to hear the instructions from your ground crew on where to go or what to do next to fulfill the mission objectives. I had to either play the game with subtitles on, or risk being lost for a while because I couldn’t hear a critical piece of radio chatter.
You can choose a series of increasingly difficult missions from the main menu, or just jump right into combat with a quickplay option. These missions range from the very simple and quick (i.e. shoot down X number of enemy planes) to the incredibly complex and difficult (i.e. take out enemy fortifications, then protect your battleships, then escort your bombers, etc.) While most of them are pretty straightforward, I did on occasion find it unclear on where to go, what to destroy, or what to do next to complete the mission. You are given a radar display that does a decent job of showing the general direction of the next objective, but could sometimes be frustratingly vague. This confusion lead to some annoying missions in which I would fly around shooting at things, hoping to randomly destroy whatever it was that would trigger the next step. Maybe it’s my lack of flying game experience, but I found myself succeeding on the missions up until about halfway through the story mode, then things took a seriously difficult turn. However, even when things did start to get hairy, some patience and perseverance would typically allow me to push through to the next stage. Be warned though, this isn’t a story-driven game, so there isn’t much payoff for completing every mission, other than some black & white war footage and the ability to unlock additional planes.
IL-2 should have some great legs with the multiplayer, which seemed very robust. There’s both solo and team dogfighting modes, as well as Strike Force (destroy enemy ground targets) and Capture the Airfield (land on enemy bases without letting them land on yours) modes. I never had trouble getting into a game or finding people to play with or against, but you could tell that most of the folks playing this online took it very seriously. Most of my MP games ended up with a ratio of 1 kill to 20 deaths, and degenerated into a succession of planes rapidly whizzing by my head and shooting me down in a hurry. I’m sure the other pilots were grateful I was there to pad their stats.
For a dogfighting newbie, IL-2 Sturmovik seems like a great place to start. Outside of the occasional vague objective, the controls and mission set-up were accessible enough to be fun, without being so challenging that it was impossible to succeed without an actual pilot’s license. I doubt I’ll ever get to the point where I will play on anything other than the arcade mode, but it overall a very pleasant surprise and sold me on flying games as a genre I could return to.
