Strap on your silly leather helmet and googly goggles with Bennett Ring.
Olex Maddox. Not only does this guy have a cool name, he’s also the Russian aeronautical engineer behind the finest WWII flight simulation available -- IL2 Sturmovik.
Who’d have thought an engineer with zero game development experience could pump out a sim light years ahead of any similar product? Sim jockeys rejoice, because his best just got better -- IL2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles, the official sequel to IL2.
The original IL2 broke the mould for WWII flight sim locales, based over the Russian front as opposed to the billion and one titles set over Germany and Britain. Forgotten Battles takes an even more obscure route, this time placing the battles in Hungary and Finland, which include more mountainous and coastal regions than the original. There are now four countries you can fight the good fight for; Russia, Germany, Hungary and Finland.
Over 80 flyable aircraft wait to be thrown around the skies, but this isn’t quite as many as it first seems. This figure is actually based around 14 aircraft, with many variants available of each. Notable newcomers to the series include the reliable Hurricane, the incredibly fragile Me-262A (throttle up too fast and it’s deep-fried engines), as well as several bombers.
That’s right -- those of you who like to fly in straight lines, inviting enemy flak to rip you a new one before bombing some poor innocent factory worker into oblivion, are going to be more than happy with Forgotten Battle’s implementation of bombers. The three bombers you’ll be salivating over are the Ju-87 Stuka, with its sirens from hell, the nimble HE-111 and the archaic TB-3. As you’d expect, the targeting systems on these are 100% accurate to those used on the real world aircraft, making hitting your target an incredibly difficult task. Which is just how hardcore flight simmers want it. Rookie pilots however will be grateful for the huge range of options that allow them to tailor the flight engine to their level of expertise.
Forgotten Battles also introduces the Holy Grail of flight sims -- dynamic campaigns. There is a massive range of these available for every aircraft type at various periods throughout the war, so you’ll never fly the same mission twice. These work very well but are lacking an engrossing storyline. The nature of a linear campaign makes it much simpler to tell a story, while Forgotten Battle’s dynamic campaigns tend to feel like a string of sterile missions roped together. This isn’t so bad for pilots of a high enough rank, as you’ll be trusted with squadron management. This basically involves choosing which pilots to take with you to develop their experience and skills, and which to leave at the base to enjoy tea and scones, helping to give the dynamic campaign a little more personality.
The original IL2 has the finest flight model ever seen in a WWII sim, and the sequel’s is even better. As someone with a little flying experience, I can vouch for the accuracy of the physics-based flight model, with aircraft handling exactly as expected. The damage model has been tweaked to include up to 40 different damage zones on each aircraft, and it now seems a little easier to take bogies down. The graphics engine has also been touched up a little with new water and contrail effects, as well as gorgeous spotlight effects on night missions. The graphics didn’t really need much more work, as the original IL2 is still by far the best-looking flight sim around. Thanks to the rapid march of technology, the machines that people play on today are around two to three times faster than those the original IL2 players had to use, so Olex has increased the number of aircraft in each mission by a factor of at least three. It’s not unusual to see sixteen or so allied aircraft going up against ten or more enemy aircraft, creating truly epic aerial battles. As a result you’ll need at least a 2GHz+ beast with a GeForce3 or better to get the most out of IL2. Multiplayer support is as comprehensive as the original, with support for up to 32 players in both co-op and head-to-head mode, and the Ubi Soft servers are already busy 24/7.
Once again you can have several people in one aircraft, allowing you to man the defensive guns to do the fun, shooty bits while a buddy does the flying. The buggy sound effects of the original have been fixed, and beg investment in a decent surround sound setup to get the most out of the audio.
There is one problem that holds Forgotten Battles back from being a perfect game; the AI is brilliant for the most part, but every now and then does something incredibly stupid. I’ll never forget the time my seven Me-262 wingmen decided that the best route to the target would be to hoon along the grass at 100 miles an hour, instead of taking off. Knowing Olex’s prior commitment to IL2, you can expect a patch to rectify these occasional AI glitches very soon.
IL2 was a groundbreaking game, yet Forgotten Battles somehow manages to improve on this magical recipe. If you’ve ever wanted to live the daredevil life of a WWII pilot, it’s the only game worthy of your attention.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012