When War Thunder is too casual but can't play DCS because you still go outside

60 year old man, this flight sim could possibly be the most fun I have had. How many fathers get to fly with their son? Truly a fun and educational experience. I rate this game a 10 out of 10

10x more real than war thunder, 10x less misery than DCS warbirds

Im 16 years old. My dad has been into aviation his entire life, he worked on Restoring P40 Warhawks at Curtis Hawk. I was raised of off the original IL2. Taught me the basics on how to fly and about different airplanes. I have always had a passion for Airplanes and the only reason I did not get this game sooner is because I was worried I would not be able to fly anything because of how advanced i thought this game was. So about 6 months ago during the summer sale I bought the basic Battle Of Stalingrad within 30 minutes of playing the game i saw there was a P40 and I bought it instantly I then got my dad and we played this game for hours. I learned about all sorts of things I never knew such as cowl flaps, gun convergence, and engine managment. after 6 months I have saved up with my own money and got every plane and expansion except Tank Crew and Flying Circus.. The one thing I want people to understand is that if the Developers made everything free but the base game they would not make any money, It takes months of Studying and flying and interviewing pilots and Modeling and sound mixing and hundreds of other factors to make a single plane, Let alone a map. This is a Expensive game, Not gonna lie, But if you really just want to fly a huge assortment of planes then get 1946. The developers have every right to make new planes cost money. It just is not possible for them to make a living expanding there game for free. After learning as much as i have from this sim my dad is taking me on my first real flight lesson. I Really enjoy this game and i highly recommend it. and i hope they will be expanding this sim for a long time as they will always have my support!

"hmm... lets see what this button does"
*Turns off breathing apparatus*
*Plane noses down*
*Controls don't work*
*Goes from a nosedive to a flatspin*
*Radio switches to an Argentinian music station*
*The sun turns black and the moon cracks open*
*The earth itself starts rotating in the opposite direction*
*I can hear the voice of stalin himself screaming as I beg for mercy before my plane smashes into an open field*

If you're coming from War Thunder and think that this game is just like it, guess again. IL 2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad is a true flight simulator with realistic aerodynamics, wind, bullet trajectories, bullet velocities, engine management, etc. You don't necessarily need to be a pilot to be able to do things in this game, but it'll take you some time to understand some of the basic flight physics that are modeled into the game. However, that first lift off that you accomplish will feel like a real accomplishment, and that's what this game is about.

Before I get into my review session, let me clarify why there are a lot of negative reviews for this game. I'm a founder, and bought the game while it was in early access. I then had the key transferred over to steam so that I could have all of my games in one place. When the game first came out, there was a lot of things lacking. The flight models still needed some work, and the grind to get camos and modifications was pretty hard. However, the studio has fixed the problems with the flight models for the most part, and they're very active within the community on their own forums.

There are two versions of this game: the standard and the deluxe version. The only difference is that the deluxe version comes with two more planes: the Focke-Wulf 190 A3 and the La 5 series 8, and it also gives you all of the unlocks for the planes right off of the bat. Neither of these planes are the best of the best. I find that the skill level of the pilot is what decides who wins what engagement. I've had countless of battles with the FW 190 and the La 5 and still came out on top.

The campaign in this game is pretty lackluster, but this is more of a multiplayer game, anyways. There are two parts: the initial part of the Battle of Stalingrad where the Germans are forcing their way in, and the second part where the Russians use a pincer maneuver to encircle the German forces. Within each part, there are three sections that chop the part up into smaller pieces to give a sense of advancement. You select a section which then brings you to a map. You select an airport where you want to start from. You have the option to choose either normal or expert mode and also whether you want the mission to be short or long. Normal mode is basically arcade mode. You don't have to worry about your engine management; the game will throttle itself for you and manage the radiators so you don't kill your engine in mid flight. You also have a HUD on your screen that shows you a map, gives you your indicated air speed and alitude, and marks everything friendly with a blue dot above it and anything enemy with a red dot. It also shows you how far out you are as well. In expert mode, everything is gone. You have to look at your gauges to see how high you are and how fast you're going. You have to look at your coolant temperature and oil temperature to keep from overheating your engine. If either ones gets too high or too low, you have to open or close your water and oil radiators. There are no markers that show where your enemy is, so you have to scan the sky for black dots or scan the ground for smoke trails that come from trains or tracers that come from artillery positions. The main difference between a short and long mission is that you have to take off and land on a long mission, while a short mission will start you up in the air pretty close to your target. You don't have to land on a short mission, but you have to fly through an "exit point" to clear the mission.

Each plane has its own flight model that is very accurate. Each plane has different stall characteristics, engine management characteristics, etc. A good example is the Stuka. Its engine can't take sudden throttle changes, so if you cut the throttle really fast for a dive bombing run and then shove it back up when you go to climb, your engine will sputter and die. In the BF 109, if you run the throttle at 2600 RPM at 1.4 engine manifold pressure for over a minute, the engine will start to choke causing the plane to shake, sputter, and die.

Damage models are pretty realistic as well. You can't shoot down a bomber from its six o' clock (why would you?) because the gunners will shoot you straight in the engine with their machinegun. Depending upon where it hits, you'll either have a critical oil system failure which will cause your windshield to get coated in oil and the engine to eventually die, you'll fly off safe and sound, and anything in between. When it comes to this game, one bullet in the right place is all it takes to take down a plane.

The multiplayer is really what this game is about. Unfortunately, in America, I don't seem to be able to find many players playing on our servers. Instead, I have to go to European servers to play with people. However, I don't experience any lag or rubber banding.

There is another game that is coming out soon in March called IL 2 Sturmovik: Battle of Moscow. Like this game, it's centered around one specific battle. The Battle of Moscow occurred earlier than the Battle of Stalingrad, so you'll be flying earlier versions of the aircraft such as the BF 109F2, I-16, BF 110, MiG 3, etc.

I am a solo player so this review is aimed to my peers.

As a long time simmers (began with red baron on i386), i tried every single sims since then. I just love playing a carreer, following the life of my virtual air squad, be involved in tactical events... Il2 BOS does that, you get very nicely done carreer context, with nice war map, briefings...

BUT

You also get one of the worse AI i ever seen :
- wingmate will seldomly follow order
- will never help you
- will crash into the ground (whole squad) for no reason
- will not attack ground target AND air target (ending an intercept mission with 6 personnal kills while my AI teamates ends with 0???? yeah they were too busy circling around!)
- will circle around while you are left alone to deal with the whole enemy squads
- will fire thru you if you had the bad idea to attack the same target as your wingmen (seen 3 AI attacking the SAME target while others enemy AI were freely aiming at me)
- enemy AI will just circle right or left while under attack while seldomy trying others tactics (bad for energy fighters)
- bombers or attack planes carreer are not playable : AI wont drop bombs, you get no fighter cover, no more than x2 time compression while having to travel 120km => sorry i have a life and have other better thing to do than to wait before my screen.

While the flights models, the damage models, the graphics are very convincing, the AI issues just break the game.

For solo players, it's a very frustrating game and i don't recommand it.

Don't get me wrong, there is a colossal work put into this sim but unless developpers gave top priority to AI and you are a solo player don't buy this game.

As it stands now, it's a multiplayer focused game. While there are moves to enhance the single player experience, there are, at the moment too timid/not enough.


28/12/19 update :

To update my review...

A big work has been done on the enemy AI. Now they are quite capable and will give you a very decent fight, in veteran and ace AI. This is a very good step in the right direction and deserve to be pointed.

But

Friendy AI aka wingman are just totally useless. They won't cover you, will sedomly engage enemy, turn around endlessly, won't drop their bombs just turning around the target... It is unbevilable as the enemy is quite agressive so why friendly AI are so incompetent? It just break immersion and is unacceptable in a 2019 simulation.

Again, there is a colossal work on AI, but it is still lacking on the friendly side. AI should priority numberone, forget about air marshall and other multiplayer features, next to noboby uses it (reminder : 95% of users are solo only) and focus all ressources on single player. Then this game will be the ultimate WWII air sim.


04/11/20 update :

another update...

Nearly a year since my last update, nothing as changed about wingman AI!!!

They are still uterly useless when they simply don't shoot you down if you chase the same plane as them : they will fire true you! How can it be possible in 2020?

Simply put : i have had several flight in quick mission builder; EVERY time ALL my wingman (in ace as the enemy) get shoot down in less thant 30 seconds! Why? because they screwed up? beause bad luck? NO, because, they just keep flying in straight line ignoring the enemy and my order to engage. And so whatever the plane they are in.

It is just unbeliable to see such a gap between friendly AI and enemy one (wich is good and fun to fight with).

AI gunners (AAA or bomber gunner) are still completely broken. They are able to put extremely accurate fire at extreme range and with nearly no aiming time. Usually the first bullet/shell will hit you just like if they had some kind of precognitive device coupled with laser rangefinder and radar directed fire...

All of this just break the realism and fun if you are a solo player like me and it's sad as again, the rest of the game is quite good. I just don't understand why devs don't fix those issues just like they did with enemy AI?

Easier than DCS, better than War Thunder.

I cannot, in good faith, recommend this game to anyone. Not because the game is bad, it's actually a spectacular game. The issue lies with the company behind the game. In what I can only assume is an overzealous attempt at anti-piracy, they succeeded in locking me out of all of my DLC for 2 weeks while I struggled with their support team (even having to go so far as to send a video of me logging into the game via Steam), only to be followed by being unable to play any quick missions. When I contacted them again through the same support ticket to try to fix my quick mission issue, (after ~5 days of waiting) I was asked to send a screenshot of the main menu. After doing so, their advice was to erase the data\swf\il2\userdata folder, and verify the files, which resulted in the game asking me to link accounts... again... which failed... again (email/password incorrect after I JUST used the same email and password to login on their web page). At this point, I've lost most of my patience with the game. I understand wanting to avoid piracy, I really do, but shafting paying customers and making them wait up to a week for a support reply that may or may not leave them unable to play at all is unacceptable in my opinion. Instead of linking accounts, I'll just play through Steam, and if I can't access my DLC, I'll just stop playing the game. To be honest, this broke my heart, as I love the game, and was planning to get the rest of the DLC... But I just can't justify that now, as I don't know if I'd even be able to play the DLC after I buy it.

First ever review. I am a real pilot and an ex US Navy fighter pilot. This is the most realistic flight modeling for WWII aircraft I have seen (I have not yet tried them in DCS however). The gameplay is great. There is a bit of a learning curve but worth learning. And if you have a VR headset, you're in for a treat! Makes a flight simulator much more realistic, especially in a dog fight!