REVIEW - IL 2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey
- Written by Randy Wallace |
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Grab your flight gear, put on your helmet, and strap yourself in as you take to the skies in IL-2 Sturmovik. Developed by 1C Company and published by 505 Games, IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey immerses you into some of the most famous confrontations seen during World War II. With so many other WWII flight games available on the market, what makes this game stand out? Well, over the next few paragraphs, we’re going to take an in depth look into why this game stands out above others.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is based around large scale aerial combat over the ground based military operations of World War II. In this title, you can participate in war’s most famous confrontations piloting fighters, battle planes or heavy bombers through a range of thrilling missions set over stunning landscapes – from the patchwork fields of Southern England to the smoking ruins of Stalingrad. There are six different theaters with a combined total of over 50 missions for players to pilot their way through.
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When first starting the single player campaign, you are required to run through a few tutorial missions in order to help you pilot your plane to the best of your abilities. After playing through the 3 relatively short tutorials that are required, you then have the option to continue your training with some optional tutorials, or if you feel that you are ready, you can go to war. Once you’ve decided that you have had enough training, you get to participate in the Battle for Britain.
When it comes to gameplay, there are 3 levels of difficulty to choose from. For those that just enjoy the aerial games, there’s the classic adrenaline filled arcade mode. The arcade setting allows players to jump right in and take part in the biggest aerial battles of WWII with minimal knowledge of the various combat aircraft. For those up for a bit more of a challenge, the Realistic difficulty boosts the challenge by making the game more of a sim. Automatic weapon corrections are turned off, airspeed corrections are turned off, and deflection is now determined by the player rather than computer assisted. This is good for those who really want a challenge. Now for the true aces out there, there is a Simulator difficulty selection in which even more automatic corrections have been turned off. You have total control of the aircraft from inside the cockpit using the flaps and trim. In this mode, you must fly and fight using only what your eyes can see. Flight controls are relatively simple to learn, however with the harder difficulties the controls do get more in-depth. When it comes to collisions in the game, here’s a tip, don’t hit anything. A single clip of a wing against another plane will send your plane spiraling out of control and your pilot will bail out. |
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Once missions have been completed in the single player campaign, they can be replayed at any time by going back to them in the campaign or by choosing the single missions option from the single player menu. Now keep in mind that any theaters from the campaign are not available until you play in that theater during the campaign. Also, some individual missions are not available as well until you play them in campaign mode as well. In addition to the missions from the campaign, there are additional missions that you can choose to play. Some of these may be a simple inspection of the airfields, but others may require engaging the enemy.
In addition to the single player campaign, you can take your piloting skills online and battle against pilots from all over the world. On Xbox Live, you can choose to participate in dogfights, in which players all battle each other earning points for each plane they you shoot down. Along with dogfights, you also have the option of participating in a team battle, a strike, or capturing airfields. Team battles split the players into two teams, and those teams then go head to head. The strike mode puts players onto teams where the primary objective is to destroy as many of the enemy’s ground targets as possible, while at the same time defending their own. And the final mode in multi-player is the capture airfields mode in which players attempt to capture and hold as many concurrent airfields as possible.
Visually, this game is just amazing. Upon first starting the game, you are shown a video from World War II, but the video does not just include actual footage, some of the gameplay is shown in the video as well to give you a taste of what you are in store for once you start playing yourself. The landscapes have been painstakingly recreated to give you the most authentic experience available. When it comes to taking damage while in combat, you can watch as bullets rip through your fuselage. The planes themselves are highly detailed, and for the planes in which a cockpit was modeled, the cockpit view is rendered as closely as possible to what the original cockpit looked like in the actual plane. |
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The soundtrack for this game fits the game perfectly. The original score was written by Jeremy Soule, and just puts you in the mood to take to the skies. While flying through various missions, the in-game radio chatter sounds exactly like radio chatter. Everything from the sounds of the plane engines, to the weapons firing, and even the explosions were done with extreme care in order to bring to you the most authentic and exciting flyer from that era.
Overall, this game ranks up among the best of the World War II era flyers. Everything from the sound, to the visuals, and the gameplay itself all come together nicely to bring you a top notch game. So if you’re a fan of the genre, or even have an interest in trying a flyer for the first time, then this is definitely one for you to check out. |
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SUGGESTIONS |
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While the game itself is great, the only thing that I can personally suggest to improve upon it would be more multi-player modes for players to partake in. Also, the ability to incorporate multi-player into the campaign would add even more to the replayability of this title.
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Release Date
9/8/2009
Publisher
505 Games
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OVERALL |
86 |
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GAMEPLAY |
83 |
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SOUND |
88 |
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GRAPHICS |
87 |
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REPLAY VALUE |
85 |
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