 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
friend commented recently, innocently enough, that he had been flying the
recently released demo version of IL-2 Sturmovik for a week,
and hadn't been able to put it down. The mention of this game brought up a
memory of reading glowing reviews a while back which were written by the
lucky few beta-testers who had a chance to fly this new combat flight
simulator from Maddox Games and BlueByte. At the time I thought it was a
very odd choice of subject matter for a full simulation. After all, for
those of us who grew up in North America or Western Europe, the battle on
the Eastern Front was a little known and seldom discussed topic. My
thoughts of this theater of WWII, when I had them at all, were of snow, mud
and tanks - lots of tanks. But the air war? I'm not sure I even knew there
was one. It just goes to show that no matter how much you might think you
know, there's always room for a new learning experience. Thank you, Oleg
Maddox, for being my instructor - it has opened up a whole new world for
me.
|
|
So I downloaded the demo myself, curious to see what the fuss was all about. That was three weeks ago, and I still haven't been able to bring myself to fly any other sim. I don't want to get into comparisons between this sim and the other high-quality offerings available, but I simply became consumed with the world Maddox has created and I can't let it go. In attempting to articulate why I've become so fascinated with this game, I've decided that the best word I can think of is "immersion". When I'm flying my lend-lease P-39 over the steppes, I am there, totally. Likewise when I'm pounding columns of German armor as the pilot of an IL-2 - a flying tank if ever there was one. One dogfight in a Bf-109 against a flight of Airacobras, and you really start to feel the quick responses of this plane that made it a legend of the war. And it goes on and on...
If you've read any of my previous reviews, you know that I'm an unabashed junkie for high-quality graphics. Yes, a good and accurate flight model makes a game more challenging. Historical accuracy is important, too. But if I'm going to feel at home in a digital world, it has to look and "feel" as much like what I imagine the real thing to be as possible. Maddox has outdone every sim, combat or civilian, that I've ever flown in this respect. This is truly a next-generation game and the graphics really show it to good effect. The terrain modeling is first rate, with rolling hills, plains and forests through which wind lazy rivers. This alone isn't ground breaking, but it's the details that make it work. Forests in this sim aren't textures of trees - they are trees! Trees complete with shadows, multiple layers and a sense of depth that's unrivaled. And I should know; I've crashed into the forests on several occasions, and had a chance to see the world from under that canopy of green as I listened to the fire burning in my cockpit. Ah, so relaxing!
|
|
The rivers in this demo version are hands-down the best representations of such that I've ever seen. Oleg has managed to give them depth, with the riverbanks dipping into the water and disappearing into the murk just as they should. It took me a couple of flights to notice that the sun also reflects off of the surface of the water, the reflection following you along as you fly.
At altitude, atmospheric haze begins to dim your view of the ground below, while the air above you becomes more clear and crystalline. At extremely high altitude, you are covered by a deep azure sky through which can be seen stars winking. The earth takes on a more pronounced curvature, and you almost feel like reaching for a jacket to brace against the bitter cold.
Then there are the planes. Of the many that the final game will offer, this demo has only three flyable versions: a P-39 and the eponymous IL-2 for the Russians, and a Bf-109 for the Germans. But they are enough to get a feel for what combat in this are must have been like. The cockpits of all three are highly detailed, each a masterpiece of 3D modeling. I was put off at first by the lack of ability to click flight controls with my mouse, but then found that the mouse has been reserved for looking around, much as in first person shooter games. Once I got the hang of this action, I was hooked. Now I can just pan around naturally in the cockpit, directing my attention to the exact spot it belongs at any given moment.
|
|
The exteriors of the planes are well modeled and nicely skinned. I can't say in all honesty that the visual quality of the models tops that of some of the better CFS2 add-ons, but neither do they suffer by comparison. However, the damage modeling is beyond fantastic. On one of my first takeoff runs in the IL-2 I managed to ground loop it (something that isn't too hard, by the way) and watched in delight from the exterior view as one of the wings was sheared off in the crash, exposing the underlying struts and superstructure. On another occasion, I was dogfighting when I felt a bump from a shrapnel hit through my stick. Suddenly I couldn't work my elevators and was trying to figure out what the problem was when I stepped outside for a look. There, to my amazement, was the tail of my aircraft, or rather what used to be the tail. It had been reduced to a jagged tear just forward of the rudder, with wires and twisted metal hanging where my control surfaces had been, pouring smoke. Needless to say, I punched out of there in a hurry!
|
|
One of the things that have always bugged me about other combat sims is that the action on the ground seemed like an afterthought. Things like grounded planes, hangars, trucks, etc. were labeled as "scenery" - as though they were as static as the hills surrounding them. This is another area in which IL-2 will knock your socks off. Because the battles in Russia often had large armor components, it was only right that the IL-2 and P-39s be utilized doing what they did best: tank busting. I set up a quick mission with the goal of blasting my way through some rolling stock, and took to the air in my Sturmovik. Imagine my surprise as I dove low over rows of trucks winding their way down a dusty road, only to see the occupants leap from the trucks and dive for cover on the side of the road! The column included trucks, tanks with billowing dust from their tracks, cars and even motorcycles. The AI engine is so refined that it becomes tremendously fascinating to just strafe a column of vehicles and then replay the track (yes, you can save anything you do as a "track" and view it again later or send to friends) just to watch the ground traffic react. In addition to the humans seeking shelter, the moving line of armor will stop when one near the head of the line is blasted to a smoking shell. Then they will back up a bit, and will re-route around the wreckage and continue moving. It all adds up to a feeling that there are actual opponents down there that you are after, not just scenery to blow away.
|
|
As I said earlier, my aim in this preview is not to compare IL2 to any other flight simulation program available today. To be sure, it would stand up well to anything the competition could throw at it. However, it differs from offerings by, say, Microsoft in a key way. Although the quality of the aircraft models is fantastic, and the cockpits more detailed than you've ever flown before, it comes at a price. The developers have decided to create an essentially "closed" game. There is no interface in place for adding aircraft on the part of users or third-party developers. Likewise for scenery and other key elements. However, that does have the advantage of assuring that all aircraft in game are of the same extraordinarily high quality. There will be some 31 different German, Russian and American planes to fly, with many more available as AI opponents, so you won't run out of options any time soon. The developers have also alluded to the fact that they've already got some add-on packs in the works themselves, so it looks like they won't be resting on their laurels.
Okay, that should be enough to whet your appetite. Let me just throw in a couple more phrases to start you downloading the demo, phrases like:
 
|
See you over Smolensk!
Bill Womack
Official web site:
bw@spottedantelope.com
www.il2sturmovik.com