Endless scenarios are available here for quick and thrilling action. This feature is pretty understated, and has immense replay value. Similar to Rise of Flight, the Quick Mission Builder lets you select a map, one of a few different types of engagements at specific locations around the map, and then tweak the details (type of planes, targets, load out, time of day, weather, etc.) to suit your tastes. The Quick Missions (aka Quick Mission Builder) and single-player Missions library are available offline. A rationale for this decision is that aircraft modifications and features can be unlocked during Campaign play and forcing an online connection ensures an original experience and fair progress for all players.
The sim does have an offline mode, but in addition to not being able to play multiplayer, the single-player Campaign mode is disabled. A trend that seems to be slowly growing across the gaming industry, IL2:BoS requires you to be connected to the internet to access most of the features. IL2:BoS launches into a log-in screen, asking you for your registered login credentials. Unlike the detailed options menu of the Rise of Flight launcher, IL2: BoS‘s launcher has very basic settings – a good thing, in this humble author’s opinion. Love with the launcher graphics is a good indication.Īlthough pretty, a quick look under the menus reveals the minimalistic approach applies to the settings as well. My engineer-brain wants to call it “minimalistic”, but I hope my artsy counterparts reading this article can give a better description in one of the comments. The launcher application has a special graphical style to it that I can’t exactly explain but I certainly appreciate as the result of a deliberate attempt to look cool. Note: this article is not a thorough review of IL2:Battle of Stalingrad, but I will be looking at aspects of the simulation as I fly through some of the single-player campaign missions.įrom the start, the visuals are impressive.
Seeing the IL-2 in action again a few videos on YouTube rekindled the desire enough to update my install and give Battle of Stalingrad a test flight or two. Unfortunately, Life™ and that age-old enemy “Too Many Projects” sapped at my free time and I temporarily put IL2:BoS up on the shelf. When 1C Game Studios / 777 Studios announced their joint project, I was excited to see new life coming to this epic simulation series. My flight simulation roots include a lot of time in IL2:1946. Bumped up to official release status back in October of 2014, the devs have been hard at work adding new features and hinting at a greater path forward. Released as a pre-release alpha in 2013, 1C Game Studios and 777 Studio‘s IL2: Battle of Stalingrad was a visual masterpiece that promised to be a worthy successor to the IL2 Sturmovik simulation series.