Douglas Bader, Geoffrey Wellum, Paul Richey and Robert S Johnson. These names unfortunately will not stir any memories in you dear reader with the exception of perhaps the first. These four men are a few of many who were certainly under the age of 21 years old, and whose aim was simple. Fly to their objective, search for the enemy and then engage him.
Unlike the multi million dollar aircraft of today, combat was up close and personal. To guarantee a hit, the distance between you and the enemy had to ideally be less than 300 yards, and then timed to perfection. The Hurricane for example had only 16 seconds worth of ammunition. Once that was gone, there was little the pilot could do but wait to fly home under the cover of other planes that still had ammunition left for defense.
Being a pilot could be a lonely business. Radio silence was mandatory as the Hun could be listening in, so missions would be near silent for most of the way. That meant you are high above the horizon scanning the skies, especially near the sun for that is where you are most likely to get bounced, and if it does happen and you do take cannon fire, your cockpit fills with smoke, your plane enters a 3g dive, can you pull up in time? Can you bail out before the fire begins to lick its way up your torso?
That could be a typical mission for an RAF pilot during the Battle of Britain. Harrowing as it might seem they did this day after day, week after week. How does IL2 translate these brave deeds and tense battles to the consoles? The answer of course is a little more complicated. Whilst in many areas it excels in what it means to do, it falls short in several key areas.
IL-2 Sturmovik on the PC was one of the finest sims available and has gathered a loyal following. However console gamers are not PC gamers, and their thirsts need quenching differently. Whilst on a PC, gamers are stereotypically happy to bed in for the long haul. Console gamers prefer their games in perhaps bite size chunks, and it shows that the developers have approached the translation with that in mind
The single player gameplay has a campaign made up of 20 missions, which are re-playable as single missions at any time once unlocked. Before you are trusted with a plane though, you must complete three tutorial missions that teach you the basics of flight. Optional tutorials are available and are strongly recommended to be undertaken as they will unlock the two harder difficulties, realistic and simulator. On Arcade your plane feels like it is invulnerable, and none of the planes have a problem in attaining speeds greater than MK1. Whilst technically impossible and perhaps even ludicrous, the arcade setting produces a game offering thrilling dogfights, and can be enjoyed by complete novices.
For those looking for a more rewarding experience, realistic and simulator settings are the way to go. Realistic means that your plane can stall and your pilot will black out if you pull too many G’s. Even on a realistic setting however, you still get ironically unrealistic diamonds depicting friend and foe, like Ace Combat or HAWX enabling your search for the enemy to be nonexistent as it spoon feeds you information. Obviously this is done for the accomplished console flight sim gamer, as whilst the arcade settings are too, well, “arcade”, it can be incredibly hard and frustrating having to scan the skies to spot your enemy. Patient souls only need apply.
On simulator you have to literally search the skies for the enemy and you feel totally alone, even with your squadron behind you. Listening to radio chatter will explain the direction from where the enemy came from, and then once you find them, the challenge is keeping them in your sights.
It is here the game excels. You can be one of what feels like 100s of planes, making you feel at times overwhelmed by the sheer size of the force you are either part of or fighting against. Smoke trails from damaged aircraft, belying the fact they may be ripe for an easy finish. You can fly through the clouds chasing hiding Messerschmitts or Heinkel bombers, or fly 50 feet above French towns trying to shake off a B109 behind you.
The aircraft themselves are very well rendered and whilst my untrained eye could not always discern the differences between a spitfire and hurricane, within the hanger you can view each aircraft you have unlocked to your heart’s content. Damage shown on the aircraft is done particularly well, as canvas will flutter and oil will leak from crippled fighters and bombers alike, obscuring your view if you fly through the debris.
Missions are standard fair, seek out and destroy, escort or patrol. Whilst they can be repetitive, they are historically accurate and have a few interesting variations such as landing to pick up VIP’s. Ground based missions are extremely difficult on simulator setting. Lining up a tank and scoring a hit with your 500lb bombs is a jump for joy moment it must be said. After each primary mission is complete you are given the chance to extend your stay in the air with a secondary objective, which is optional but increases the points earned for the mission, and also the number of unlocks rewarded.
The orchestral score is brilliant as can be expected from Jeremy Soule (responsible for the score of Oblivion). The soundtrack rises and descends with you as you progress through the campaign and throughout each mission. This helps build up the atmosphere incredibly well during the missions, and is worth a special mention. The cannon and machine gun fire is heavy and realistic, and the silence can be deafening when your propeller cuts out due to engine damage or overheating.
Online the masses are catered for. Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are of course present along with two more unique modes, Airfields and Strike. In Airfields you have to land at an opponents airfield to capture it, much like capture the flag in most shooters. Strike has you bombing target areas in an opponents field. Some players would be escorting and defending fighters, whilst others are in the big and slow bombers. Up to 16 players can participate in play and the difficulties can be set to arcade, realistic and simulator, so at least everyone should be of roughly equal skill and confidence!
IL2 has the basics covered and may convert many arcade players to trying the less forgiving difficulties it offers, but even if it doesn’t what IL2 does do is bring the thrill of realistic dog fighting to console gamers, no matter what the experience level and for that it should be commended. A few bugs like screen tearing and frame rate issues hamper the action in some frantic missions, it does nail home the joys and horrors of WW2 flight combat well.