652nd played so far
Genre: Flight Simulator/Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2001
Developer: 1C:Maddox Games
Publisher: 1C/Ubisoft
So we’ve had another random game, and this one worked quite well – I needed another flight sim and, with two games in the series, IL-2 Sturmovik was a good one. Not that I know more of it than that you’re flying around in battle simulation, but it’s going to be interesting to play one of them again.
Our Thoughts
So I really didn’t appreciate the start of this game. Tutorials can be a bit of a problem, repeating the same motions for every game in case someone doesn’t know how mouse look worked. On the other hand, however, not having one means that it becomes more difficult to learn the game specific areas. The latter can be done through game specific introductions, but it will depend on the game you play.
For IL-2 Sturmovik, the choice feels a bit worse than normal. The tutorial basically consists of a bunch of non-interactive cutscenes that explain what you have to do, but don’t give you a chance to actually try it. They feel like videos that are in engine instead to save on space, but the lengthy explanations meant that I forgot most of it before I had to use it and skipped most of it after a while.
The game itself appears to want to be a realistic sim that’s difficult to keep up with even in the easiest mode. There are a lot of things to keep track of and I suspect the difficulty is mostly down to damage done/received when you encounter combatants. You’re still having to do your best to keep control of the plane and go through what feel like difficult motions to chase down an enemy and shoot down their planes – more complicated than I thought they would be.
Still, there’s a lot to do in the game. I’m playing from the GOG version, which merges in some different packs, but there’s a lot to be said for flying around the different areas, taking on others in combat and feeling in the middle of everything. It’s difficult, but feels realistic.
Final Thoughts
I think I was probably too overwhelmed to get fully into this game. It’s difficult to learn everything, but it shows there’s a lot to do in here and a lot of depth that feels like it would be great to get into. It’s just been too much of a challenge for me to get everything out of it yet, but I didn’t quite have the time…
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