This game currently sets the bar for WWII combat flight simulators. With amazing graphics, large scale maps, real world aerodynamics, instrumentation and physics. It's an aviators dream come true. The learning curve is steep, requiring you to invest some time to learn how to fly. Really, learn to fly! This is not an arcade game!!! Learning how to manage your aircraft systems including fuel loads, engine manifold pressure, RPM, water cooling and weapons load outs is essential. Single player is a lot of fun but the games truly becomes amazing online in multiplayer where flying with your friends will lead to some amazing moments and put your jaw on the floor. Online multiplayer consists of a good mix of servers that provide different scenarios from Training to Tactical Air War. You won't run out of missions to take part in. If you are interested in this game I recommend getting a good joystick and throttle with a lot of programmable buttons. Read the forums for instructions then join the BOS/BOM team speak server and ask a seasoned player for a little dual instruction to help you get started. Continue to practice and play, because once you learn. It will become the most epic WWII combat simulator you have ever been a part of. This game is essential for real world aviators looking for a good WWII flight SIM.

Recommendations:
1. Play single player to program your joystick and settings, rank up and learn the basics.
2. Get on Team Speak and ask a player to help. There are plenty of good player willing to do so.
3. Online - play training servers and “Wings of Liberty” to learn basic tactics with friends.
4. Playing on"fighter dual / Dogfight" servers will teach you to handle your aircraft in air combat and practice against real players.
5. Don't play “Tactical Air War” until you have a good handle on things. This is a 24/7 online war where losing you aircraft really mattersand once they are lost they are hard to get them back. Losing aircraft effects side you are fighting. Read the forums for Tactical Air War game rules.
6. Track IR is very helpul. Situational awareness is essential for survival in this SIM.

Visit the Tactical Airwar details and statistics page for further info:
http://taw.stg2.de/index.php

I'm a bit of a veteran as far as flight sims go and let me tell you, I wish I had found this gemn a lot sooner. I have Rise of Flight as well and 777 Studios has yet to disappont. Great realism, great graphics, phenominal multiplayer connectivity, smoooooooooth as butter gameplay. It's truly everything a flight sim should be. I highly recommend a HOTAS and possibly an extra control quadrant for engine controls and such. TrackIR or a similar program for head tracking would also greatly help but I don't really use them anymore. I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a legit WW2 flight sim.

Anemic singleplayer
Spotty multiplayer
seckrit documentz and proofs :)))))))))))
Pretty visuals
A developer that doesn't want to address issues the community has with the game and only does so, kicking and screaming.

Way too expensive. WAY too expensive for what's there.

-Premessa ho attivato il gioco su steam anche se lo possiedo dall' agosto 2013-

Sim made in Russia, tralasciando il discorso FM questo gioco è chiaramente bilanciato, aerei russi modello gruviera che volano senza risentire dei danni subiti a differenza del 109 che basta guardarlo che va in mille pezzi o del 190 dove con le ali danneggiate diventa inguidabile e altre schifezze che solo online saltano fuori come i Yak più veloci del FW190,
E proprio questo aereo probabilmente deve stargli proprio sui coglioni visto che già in alpha è stato oggetto di pesanti critiche da parte della community con tanto di prove cartacee e filmati, problemi corretti in parte dai dev ma con la solita scusina del "ci siamo sbagliati scusate"

A differenza di Rise of Flight qui abbiamo un sim dove offline non offre nulla se non una noiosa campagna a missioni offline introdotta da filmati da bimbominkia quando ci sono migliaia di filmati storici in giro, cosa ci voleva a buttargli un misero filmato di 30 secondi? e invece c'è una schifosa scenetta in computer grafica, nessuna modalita carriera e le classiche quick battle

Online si assistono a scene assurde dove i IL2 sono più maneggevoli del Würger, armi laser devastanti sul lagg3 quando storicamente era proprio il contrario, aerei russi che volano quasi tranquillamente anche se fortemente danneggiati nelle ali, i flap degli aerei russi perennemente giù nei dog anche se sono stati in parte corretti, per contro abbiamo gli aerei tedeschi che sono superiori nelle prestazioni pure ma soggetti a strani fenomeni di ondeggiamento stranamente assenti sui russi, ali di metallo che sono più fragili di quelle in legno e così via...
Ancora adesso nessuna possibilità di ostare coop.

Per usare l' editor ci vuole una laurea e infatti campagne online, non ce ne sono ancora, grandissima mancanza che a distanza di anni dal rilascio di BoS non può più essere tollerata, la mappa di Mosca online? finora mai vista.

Altra grave mancanza la distanza visiva che è limitata a 9.5km, in soldoni se si vola a 11km di altitudine a terra non vedrete gli aerei perchè non vengono renderizzati, quindi si vola nel deserto per poi imbattersi improvvisamente nei dog.

Non esiste varietà nelle munizioni, e CloD qui fa storia, inaccettabile la sola definizione AP e HE... che tipo di HE o AP? no non ci siamo

Il bombsight dei bombardieri è più adatto a War Thunder

La questione degli sblocchi e delle skinn poi... ridicola e assurda allo stesso tempo

Peccato davvero perchè questo gioco funziona senza impazzire con mod o patch, offre una grande immersione per via della grafica e della fisica e ottime sensazioni "closhe alla mano" ma i problemi di giocabilita piano piano prendono il sopravvento anche sul giocatore più neutrale, non è un caso infatti che questo prodotto è criticato da una buona parte della community online.

Insomma, cambia la faccia da IL2 (Oleg e co.) ma il succo rimane lo stesso

This flight simulation is AWESOME!
The feeling of speed as you fly through clouds is unsurpassed.
The flight models are so demanding, in combat, that you barely notice the landscape.
The feeling of being in a war zone is well simulated, with columns of smoke, vehicles, and ground AA fire.
The planes are magnificient and the air to air combat is outstandingly portrayed.
It's amazing when a true love comes back better than before.
Welcome back IL2.........Wow.

You that don't understand my review, this game is AWESOME!
Maybe that helps.

Well i love this game and i am suprised at how it works.

if you have an i5 and a intel intagrated graphics no problem it runs fine and still looks buety full

Its a really fun game to fly with friends in the turrets of your bomber online while you try getting past two fighters. Beautiful graphics too. If you enjoy flying games this is worth it. It's not a hardcore sim, but its not basic either.

Even though 1C GS claims BoS to be "The next generation of the legendary IL-2 Sturmovik series", the game has very little to offer for its hefty 50€ price tag.

In every aspect that the game seems to have something good going for it, the flaws set it back atleast two steps and severely hamper an enjoyable experience.

The focus on a single, major event of the war had promise for an immersive, story-driven campaign, but instead, the game is broken into five chapters of the same copy-pasted, "random" generated quick missions, of which there are five to choose from (Intercept, Escort, Ground Attack, Ground Support and Bombing).
These chapters all include a short intro cinematic, giving you a brief history lesson by recapping the most crucial moments of any operation or such at the time, but these are rather easily forgotten because everything is thrown at you in the 30 or so seconds these clips last.
But in the end, you'll just be flying the same missions, over and over again, while the tactical map looks a bit different each chapter.

Even worse is that since the campaign has nothing to offer on top of what the other gamemodes already don't (Quick mission builder and pre-made missions, no difference to the campaign), in a desperate attempt to draw you in or give you some sense of accomplishment, they opted for unlocks.
Yes, you actually have to grind the same scenarios over and over again in order to use some of the available weapons or mods, some of which were even the standard factory setup for the planes. Not very... simulationy.. is it?
This is excellent way of 1C telling you that they did not have anything to offer for a proper campaign, and instead force you to take the free-to-play design of slow grind for small progress.

With that said, the campaign atleast works in its own way and AI behavior is not outright ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, although your flight will often take the route of attacking a bomber directly from behind, and you'll most likely be dive-racing PE-2's at +600km/h in order to even have a chance to shoot them down.
Other gamemodes are similar to the campaign, though quick mission builder allows for more customization. Do note that you cannot "grind your unlocks" in any mode except campaign.

Plane selection is pretty much what you'd expect from such a title, Luftwaffe sports the ever-iconic Bf 109's, models F-4 and G-2, the Ju-87 "Stuka" divebomber, He-111 medium bomber. Soviet airforce has the less enticing selection consisting of the LaGG-3 and Yak-1 fighters, iconic IL-2 Sturmovik ground attacker and Pe-2 light bomber.
Both sides also have a special DLC fighter plane available, Fw 190 A-3 for the Luftwaffe and La-5 series 8 for the Soviets. And no, the premium DLC planes do not come fully unlocked, you still have to "grind the unlocks".

Each plane has it's unique characteristics; the 109's are fast and easy to handle, with cockpit layouts simple enough to learn fast, while the LaGG-3 is a tumbling mess, most dedicated into driving you to the ground while you try to make sense of the gauges, with the Yak staying far more competetive with the superior German fighters.
The Stuka and Sturmovik attack planes are both slow and steady, with very different methods of attack. The Stuka will mostly dive from above with its nose pointed almost directly down to bomb accurately, only airbrakes to slow the descent, while the IL-2 will attack almost level with rockets, bombs and big cannons for widespread destruction.
The bombers fly level, and bomb, when they're not just for target practice. Really, what else is there to say?

Commenting on flight or damage models is the hardest thing, but while the planes fly and get shot down like planes do (I guess), one can definitely say a lot of the arcade-like simplicity the mechanics and maintaining have.
All of the planes do their start-up routine with a push of a single button, with crucial actions remaining automated, or optionally, under manual control in a very simple way. This takes away a lot from the potential immersion, with "detailed aircraft systems modeling" being mostly text on the screen and few animations.

Multiplayer works well, with no larger bugs around, although the lack of servers and even the amount of max players per server is disappointing.

While the gameplay is definitely lacking, is there anything the AV department can salvage?

BoS does have decent lighting to complement the snow-covered potato fields and the clouds aren't low-resolution mush, gun and engine sounds are enjoyably powerful with models representing accurately their real-life counterparts.
But besides that, what can a game of such limited sensual experience give?

Sadly, this is again where the game falls short. Planes otherwise being well-detailed, their textures are low resolution, with blurry and blocky normal maps reflecting the sun off your wing in a gringeworthy glare, and jagged, low resolution shadow maps looking like they're about to cut your cockpit into half as they pass.
Sounds are incredibly bugged as well, with sound latency up to the level of you hearing your gunfire hits on the enemy plane, and it being impossible to hear your plane being hit.
Despite the seemingly low amount of graphical detail at any given time, the game has issues with low framerates, suttering and overall poor performance even on a modern, mid-end PC (i5-4690k, R9 270).

This is most likely due to the ancient DirectX 9 renderer the game uses, and very limited graphical customization, being limited to resolution, four presets of Low, Balanced, High and Ultra, with an added MSAA option.
Not even the v-sync is properly implemented with triple-buffering, so you'll most likely have to choose between massive tearing, or being locked to 30FPS on the slightest framedrop.

After all this, who is this game really for?
With its simplified systems and gameplay, I wouldn't recommend it for people looking for the most authentic simulation experience, it offers too little for the price.
But the same thing is true for the more casual player or enthusiast, it offers too little for the price and there are games out there that do most of what BoS offers, better and for less.

I can't help but feel this game was released crippled and is simply trying to ride the IL-2 name to simply break even. There's potential to this, but as it is currently, I can't recommend it to anyone.

Rating: 5/10 at the time this is written. Mostly for the working multiplayer, although many of the issues creep into there as well.

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.

Written in December 2014, the game is in contant development and I expect it to be geting only better. *Year after this was written, I'm adding some comments to keep it up to date*

I wanted to start by saying it's unpolished gem, but it's not. It's a highly polished gem, fitted into cheap mass produced jevelry and wrapped in gift bag bough on discount last January. If you want realistic flying experience, don't miss it. If you want to treat yourself seriously as a simmer, you may find out-of-cockpit parts of game not dignified enough *Still mostly true, although quality of jewelry is much better*.

The good: The sim part (simulating planes and their enviroment) is very good - the game is great stick and rudder experience, the planes have mass and inertia, when flying them on the edge of flight envelope you feel them sliding from course, rather than being pushed to the side along set vector with randomized shaking added. The AI planes use the same physics as player, so they don't take breaks from reality and pretend they are jets when pressed to hard. Par the course, some people find flight models unrealistic or simply not what they expected. There are no clickable cockpits like in CloD or DCS, but after automated engine start you get to control most of plane systems (IMHO the biggest missing part is no manual fuel tank selection). To me it has the best feeling of "being there" of all WW2 planes, but I'm stick and rudder fetishist, not clickable cockpit fetishist. There are no stability problems, unfinished plane systems of weird flight behaviour.

The bad: There are ten flyable plane types in the game (*Battle of Moscow will bring ten more, five already done, that BoS owners can meet in air even without owning BoM*). More are in the works, but because of sim part being detailed like I said above, making new planes is slow process. Do not expect to see tens of flyables soon, or variants of the same model (like all Bf-109F variants) made by small modifications of existing plane. There are *no* AI-only planes (one *has been made since review was written*) because, as they use realistic flight physics, they are not easy to make, either. You won't see tens upon tens of computer-controled planes in misisons, either, they are to CPU-hungry for that. The number of players in MP missions is limited (*much less now than year ago*) , devs still work on optimising support of more players in mission as I write. The single player part, or campaign, is something in between proper career from IL-2:1946 and mission generator - you pick stage of the battle, airfield you take off from, plane, mission type (intercept, escort, ground attack, bombing, close air support) and off you go. Missions are generated randomly with variety of weathers and targets, but they aren't as immersive as real career missions - maybe because you get no background on what your target is and why it's important beyond "go and bomb that bridge". There are difficulty settings in game, but in campaign you can use only two presets, normal (icons and automated engine management) and expert (realistic). Instead of adjusting realism settings before mission, you disable unrealistic aids in flight by key command (say, I bound a key that turns all engine helpers off and hit it at start of each mission, to fly with manual engine management but icons on). *The third party PWCG, a full blown career generator, is coming and already playable*.The mission editor is quite complicated so there isn't flood of user-made content and multiplayer servers - but what community made so far was of very good quality.

The ugly: The most hated part, which caused many people to give up the game as arcade: the plane modifications (bombs for fighters, bigger cannons, armoured windscreens etc) are unlockable - you get them by flying the plane in question in single player campaign. Most of these mods are non-standard, experimantal, or one-off modifications, but few are standard-issue systems that you can't accss from the start. *Owners of Premium edition - all 10 planes - can now disable the dreaded unlocks with one mouse click*. Also, the campaign includes game elements like experience and player "level" (the higher it is, the more dangerous becomes opposition and flak fire in campaign. I suppose it is meant to make game easy for new sim players and progress as they succeed and learn). Then, you can start the mission in the air, half way towards the target, and abort it on reaxching "exit" waypoint - takeoff and landing are optional - and on lower player levels thare is little action outside target area. So the first impression is that missions consist of going to action point, doing your job, going back. It's not the case, but you have to bother playing through simpler missions to make things more interesting. These are pointless additions to otherwise purebreed sim, and many people can't get past it - some play multiplayer only and don't want to play campaign at all, some call it pointless grinding, some are so experienced they want difficult missions from the start and give campign up as to easy before they rise their pilot level and get to difficult stuff. Make no mistake, once you sit in the cockpit you get a proper sim experience, and once you get your unlocks and rise level to get interesting missions you just have a good mission generator to play with forever, no limits - but the awards that are supposed to motivate players to play are something out of console game.

There are smaller bad decisions, like locking most of graphics options to four preset settings - you don't get to set manually drawing distance for objects or super sampling, you choose high, low, medium, ultra setting and that's it. You have manual control of resolution and antialiasing, though. It made some sense in development, but is pointless now * and has been made more workable with more options to customise your settings some time after review was written*.

All these are *were* pointless design decisions that nobody i know likes, but the developers stay by them *until they fixed them*. This stubborness earned them lot of enemity and made many people abandon the game *still true*, but I have to say dev team is very cooperative with community in most other respects, adding elements requested by players and listening to suggestions of flight model changes. There was some rush to release the game on deadline, so maybe they will replace it with something better once team catches they breath *they did*. Or not. *Or they add option to drive tanks*.