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.

Hard but fun, the unlocks are annoying and the campaign is underwhelming, I usually stick to multiplayer

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

-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

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.

A very good flight sim that continues the IL-2 legacy. Recommended despite some quirks with the unlock system.

Great game but over my 77 year old head. I hit one truck in many hours of play. I highly recommend it for the more agile and smarter gamer!

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.