IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad - the CombatAce review, part 4

[33LIMA 972]

The verdict!    

 

Before we get down to brass tacks here, as a lead-in I'm going to run briefly through another SP campaign mission, illustrating some of the features that I think are worth highlighting at this point and have influenced my own verdict on IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad.

 

This was a third effort at flying an intercept in a Yak-1, from our base north of Stalingrad to an area south of the city. Previous efforts had failed to meet my personal objectives, partly as I'd been happy to play the flight leader and see what happened when I cut the others loose on the target, resulting in them shooting it/them down (the good news) and me missing out on XP and unlocks and awards (the bad news). This time I decided to go in first and have my flight cover me.

 

As seems normal with a repeated mission, the general target area was the same but the other details had changed - time of day (it was now dusk), we had a different flight plan and height, there were four in my flight instead of three and the targets were different. So there is some variety here, if replaying a mission. Time was short so I appreciated the option to choose an air start, mission by mission. Here we are (one Yak out of shot) on the leg in to the target/Action Point, with the mini-map zoomed out. Turning the 'HUD' off removes labels from aircraft and the map, as well as turning off the instrument readouts.

 

 

In the brief run-in I experimented with formation changes which the AI executed slickly. I then gave them a 'cover me' command to ensure they didn't attack the enemy on sight, but stuck with me instead.

 

Our targets turned out this time to be two He 111s escorted by I think a single 109. I made a beam attack on the two winter-camouflaged Heinkels while to my complete satisfaction, my flight moved in to get between me and the Messerschmitt. This resulted in a dogfight after a bit of jockeying for position, with the 109 initially going wide and attempting to threaten my flight-mates from above and behind, rather than rushing straight at them.

 

 

My shooting hasn't got much better (the most recent update cuts the current lag between trigger pull and weapon firing, which will help) but it wasn't long before I had one of the bombers smoking. I took a noisy hit or two in return, but without suffering any serious damage. The visuals and effects are gorgeous, with vestigial tracer smoke trails, fantastic aircraft and lovely environmentals, like the terrain and clouds softly caught by the light of the setting sun. The finest of aviation art could do little better than this. I mean, look at the sun glinting on the props of the distant Heinkels, in the bottom pic. Beautiful.

 

 

 

Having damaged one bomber and needing only to shoot it down (or damage one more enemy) to complete my mission goals, I decided to cut the flight loose. By this time the Heinkels were rapidly receding, once more escorted by a 109 and two of my flight reported they were too far away to engage.

 

 

At this point some searchlights came on below and picked up the German bombers. After a few seconds held in the searchlights they turned left, probably having bombed whatever was protected by those lights, down there in the darkening snowscape.

 

 

 

I led the flight after the Germans and repeated the dose. This time, my flight got the 109 and I was able to put in a couple more passes at both bombers. The one I hit first started straggling.

 

 

As I was coming back for another pass at the smoking Heinkel, I saw him turn sharply. As I watched, his nose gradually went down, until he was falling from the sky, Clearly, the damage I had inflicted had become critical and he was doomed. The crew thought so too for they started bailing out. A kill!

 

 

 

Though now very low on ammo, I decided to have a crack at the last Heinkel, which I had clipped with a burst earlier on. With a bit of luck I might nail him with my last few rounds; if not, I would call in the rest of my flight to knock him down. He was now very low and I suddenly noticed that he had his gear and flaps down and that his landing and navigation lights were on. Looking ahead of him, I saw an airbase, to which the German was evidently on his final approach.

 

 

Evidently, the pursuit had taken us some way over into enemy territory! Now, it was my turn to be caught in searchlights, German ones this time!

 

 

I fired off my last rounds at the big German bomber, then broke up and away, pursued by some desultory flak.

 

 

 

 

Out of rounds at last, I climbed up and turned away, calling my flight back into formation. I wasn't going to risk our virtual necks in low-level operations over an enemy airfield, for the sake of finishing off one damaged bomber. The searchlights lit me up one last time as I banked around. Last I saw of the Heinkel, he had decided to execute a go-around and perhaps fly on to a less dangerous airfield. I left him to it.

 

 

 

Darkness was creeping in on us and I didn't want to dally. Heading back towards friendly territory, a headlight on the ground to my left drew my attention to what I could see was a train (visible just above my canopy, in the pic below). This might have made a good opportunity target for my wingmens' remaining ammo, had I felt like risking them. Which I did not.

 

 

A little further on, back over what I took to be friendly territory, a town was burning, perhaps the target of the He 111s earlier. If so, we had avenged our comrades!

 

 

Soon, we were over the town of Beketovka on the Volga just south of Stalingrad, providing an excellent reference point for my final leg home and confirming the the fidelity and attention to detail with which BoS has recreated the battlefield's historical landscape.

 

 

With the burning city itself below my left wingtip and looking down to my right, I got a shock to see some enemy aircraft wheeling about, low down over the frozen Volga. They looked to be single-engined types, possibly Stukas. Whatever they were, they did not molest us and with ammo low and in my case gone, I decided that honour had been satisfied and that we should all continue back to base, just to the north.

 

 

The scale of this sortie had been small, but it was beautifully formed. The superb visuals; the sounds, the radio comms; the tactical handling of my flight; the air combat; the activity on the ground including searchlights and trains; the credible behaviour of the AI; the barren landscape with its battered towns rolling beneath us; the chance near-encounter with another German flight going about its own business...this mission alone was proof positive for me that BoS delivers a combat flight simulation that is deeply engaging on every level. And at the end of the mission, I actually could not wait to run through the results and check out what points I earned and what I might have unlocked!

 

 

 

I would love to see flight results - kills and losses - added into the little sequence above which would be just enough to elevate BoS's mission handling to a much better level. But I have to say that the sim's distinctive approach to the player's role and his or her progression is something that, as a steadfast simmer, I can not only learn to live with, but to appreciate. Even if it were otherwise, to answer the question I left hanging at the end of Part 3, the depth and richness of the flying and air fighting experience delivered by BoS missions is really first class, worth coming back for more and the price of admission, on its own.

 

Before I move on, just to cover briefly a couple of loose ends, below are the screens which show (top) on a 'Pilot card', your game profile's vital stats and (bottom) on a 'Plane card', where you stand with the unlocks for a particular aircraft, which shows both what you have unlocked, and what's left to unlock.

 

 

 

And finally, while I haven't done any level bombing yet, here is the view from the Heinkel's Lofte bombsight, and what you see from the bombardier/navigator/airgunner position, looking back into the cockpit...which incidentally, famous test pilot Eric Brown disliked as contrary to appearances, pilot visibility was poor, dangerous in bad weather and producing a 'hall of mirrors' effect in strong sunlight.

 

 

 

And just to be clear, missions aren't always as small-scale as the one described above. Two missions later, still flying my trusty Yak, four of us escorted six Sturmoviks on an exciting and successful low-level strike on German motor transport, ignoring a formation of 109-escorted Heinkels which were level-bombing some of our guys just over the front line.

 

 

We fended off some intercepting Messerchmittts, one of which was my next kill after a difficult chase as, damaged by an early hit, he manoeuvred desperately to avoid me. That and at least one kill by a wingman was compensation for the one of our own that I knew we had lost

 

 

Out of rounds I was chased towards Stalingrad by a German fighter, who gave up when a wingman rejoined me. Together we flew north back to base up the Volga, past blazing ruins in Stalingrad and the famous grain elevator, ignoring the Stukas buzzing angrily over the river.

 

 

The BoS skies can be busy as well as dangerous. Perhaps only Russian developers could have recreated the time, the place and the combat so well.

 

And so to the reckoning...

Each CombatAce reviewer will have their own assessment but for me, this is a difficult one. It’s hard to avoid comparisons with other combat flight sims, especially with the original IL-2, which BoS's branding naturally invites. We do need to remember here that the original IL-2 is a product that's matured over almost exactly thirteen years of development and modding. And I think we need to take a deep breath and count to ten, before we rush to judgement on BoS's unconventional approach to some of the basics.

In the developer blog, they point out that the unlocks are content that's been made available freely (albeit after 'grinding') rather than as Down-Loadable Content payware, as in RoF. It's also apparent that 1C/777 hoped or believed the unlocks would actually appeal to some players, likely including people used to 'grinding' from playing those 'other genres'.
 
Like it or not, the BoS SP campaign approach - the unlocks, the pilot levels and awards and the lack of pilot and squadron identities - doesn't mean BoS can't deliver a solid, convincing air combat simulation experience. I find that BoS does exactly that, with considerable polish and flair in very many respects.

Are the unlocks et al a show stopper for die hard fans of the combat flight sim genre?  Your call, but not for me, absolutely not.
 
The relatively recent tank sim, Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942 (SF) has no role-playing elements worthy of the name, in sad contrast to say, Panzer Elite. And SF's stock campaigns are just sets of scripted missions (with some replay variability), covering but a few weeks in May/June 1942 in a single area of operations. But once you've made a plan from the map, loaded the appropriate ammo and ordered your driver to advance, while the rounds begin to fall and the tracer starts to fly, the experience of playing the mission itself is actually very engaging. It puts you right there, leading a tank platoon into battle in a small-scale but reasonably convincing simulation of a WW2 all-arms, company-level operation. What SF does, it does more than sufficiently well, to pass muster as a top-notch tank sim, in my books and for many others. Despite limitations elsewhere.
 
So let it be with Ceasar. Or said of BoS, in my view. Like SF, BoS lacks some features I would like to see, including some I consider quite important. Some of the features it does have, nicely implemented though they are, I'm not crazy about. However, for me, in the round, and judging first and foremost from the experience BoS delivers, upon release, of flying Eastern Front air combat in WW2 (as opposed to simply 'flying WW2 planes') this is a great new addition to the combat flight sim genre.
 
We have a decent set of superbly-rendered aircraft (soon to be joined by an AI Ju 52) with a great feeling that you're actually flying or fighting from them. We have an historic battlefield rolled out before our very eyes, with adequate levels of ground activity, pleasing to the eyes and recreated in a depth and to a level of detail which more than compensates for the limited breadth of a single area of operations. We have the opportunity to fly small-scale but reasonably challenging and generally convincing sorties over this battlefield, as the battle itself unfolds, in its successive phases, where history, not the player's actions, determines the course of events. The air-to-air and air-to-ground action can be as visceral and exciting as any I've experienced. Sure, a little more suspension-of-disbelief-building in mission presentation (and less 'gamey' objectives and terminology) would be nice...but when you're up there in BoS, over that white-frozen but beautiful virtual landscape, in that nicely-rendered virtual cockpit, fighting for your virtual life while the war goes on around you, all other things seem somehow less important.

Back down to earth, here are my pros and cons.
 
Pros
Beautifully-rendered aircraft, especially externally
Great feeling of flying combat aircraft
Beautiful (if snowbound!) environmentals
Generally very good combat experience

Good developer support & exceptional engagement
Good aircrew animation
Good planeset
Good set of well-presented on-screen aids
Ability to fly, gun or bomb
'Complex Engine Management' adds depth (if you want it)
SP campaign follows the main phases of the historical battle
Crisp, clean easy-to-use interface and high 'production values'

Mostly, decent AI
Mission Editor is opening up additional SP campaign possibilities
 
Cons
No real pilot persona or historical squadrons in stock campaign
Unlocks could be handled in a more historical fashion (or opted out of)
No padlock in campaign  Edit - padlock IS now functioning in campaign, as of the pre-Christmas 2014 update
Limited ground control/tower presence
'Gamey' terminology in some places
Wingman command windows large and centred
Near cloud effect interferes with aircraft rendering
 
And since life's not all black-and-white, just to expand on the above assessment...
 
Some room for improvement?
In campaign, no ability to view your flight's results post-mission, just player's solo achievements
Difficulty organising flight in making effective ground attacks

Formations are sometimes small, even for the Eastern Front

Aircraft could be visible further away, without icons/labels
Formation-keeping - there's a certain amount of straggling
Laden bombers seem a bit too agile

Aircraft lack individual/unit markings
Stock SP campaign mission briefings rather bland

Landscape perhaps a little too bland, even for 'snowbound'

Own pilot is invisible, in 1st person view
Greater ability to fine-tune on-screen aids, within presets, would be useful
Limited flexibility of graphics adjustment (presets)

And the score? I make no allowance here for longer-term potential or the desirability of 'supporting a new product in a niche market'. Nor am I having any regard, either way, to any (sometimes rather fraught) discussions of, or opinions expressed about, BoS, elsewhere. However, I am making some allowance for: the fact that a manual is coming; the prospect of user-made campaign mission sets, which have already begun to appear; a facility to incorporate user-made 'skins' which is I believe coming; and the fact that an AI Ju 52 is definitely being produced, filling the big planeset gap. The mission editor is reported to be tricky to use and we may never get pilot logbooks; but sets of scripted missions, able at least to give the player an identity and an historical squadron, will likely see the arrival, over time, of a decent supply of at least adequate, and possibly very good, 'conventional' if not 'dynamic' Single Player campaigns, which will boost longevity.

So, remembering that I'm rating only the Single Player element here, on this scale.....

5 - Must Buy - Delivers a consistently outstanding experience with minimal flaws that do not detract from the gameplay in any significant way.  

4 - Highly Recommended - Delivers a fun and enjoyable experience well worth your time and money, despite some room for improvement.

3 - Recommended - Delivers a solid gameplay experience with a few irritations that occasionally disrupt enjoyment.
 
2 - Difficult to Recommend - Delivers some of the promised fun, but not without significant problems in the gameplay experience.

1- Not Recommended - Delivers a sub-par gameplay experience; doesn't fulfill its promises; offers more bugs than fun.

...this reviewer's final score is: 4 - Highly recommended
 
As things stand, with a few non-critical reservations, I would recommend the new sim to any air war enthusiast and in particular, to those with an interest in the Eastern Front or in the Soviet or German warbirds which fought there. BoS should also appeal strongly to those who relish the extra realism of being able, if they choose, to manage their airscrew pitch, mixture, radiators and all the other stuff the real pilots had to handle.

 

I have found IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad to be a detailed, well-produced, enjoyable, effective and rather beautiful evocation of the air war over and around one of the decisive battles of the Second World War. Which, I guess, is about what it set out to be.

But - unlike the Stuka below - we're not quite finished here yet!

 

 

Coming next - the view from the other reviewers' cockpits...including Multiplayer!

[+Dave 2,322]

Wonderful review, very in-depth and insightful. Maybe I might just pick this up after all.  

[33LIMA 972]

Thanks Dave! And in case anyone is wondering, the air gunner made it out of that burning Stuka:

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Wow there s a ban fest over at the BOS forums. I guess they do not like people opinions. 

[+Dave 2,322]

They are over at SimHQ talking about it. Its amazing. People who I have known to be long time supporters of the IL2 series are getting banned because (even said it politely) things they dislike in the game. Sheesh.

[33LIMA 972]

I believe one of the volunteer mods became impatient with what was seen by him and some others as increasingly tedious and/or repetitive negativity. Some were caught in the crossfire, as it were, once the rounds started flying. The devs stepped in to cool it down. I think a cease fire has been ordered, though intermittent sniping may go on for some time.

[+Dave 2,322]

Revvin was banned...REVVIN!!!!!!!!!!! There is too much fuckery going on there that is for sure. 

[33LIMA 972]

Fortunately, the 'real' war is much more interesting...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Do335 382]

Atm I feel their buiz decision is to tap into the War Thunder arcade crowd. It could be a good move to stay financially viable. But it naturally attracts flak from the sim community... Time will tell if it really matures into a kickass sim.... Cliffs of dover anyone?:D

[33LIMA 972]

 Time will tell if it really matures into a kickass sim....

 

BoS is already there, in my book, despite all the gnashing of teeth and tearing of raiment. Next point on the Progressive Scale of Posterior Punishment would I think be 'Truly Whop Ass'; time will indeed tell.

 

 

I don't know if there's a point on that particular scale after 'Truly Whop Ass', but if there is, it probably involves fire...

 

[Revvin 1]

Revvin was banned...REVVIN!!!!!!!!!!! There is too much fuckery going on there that is for sure. 

 

 

[+Dave 2,322]

You're always welcome here to vent, throw stones at their Johnson's, whatever you feel like doing. 

[Revvin 1]

Thanks Dave but I wouldn't disrespect you or this site by just venting. I have posted my criticism and thoughts based on what I've seen and it was enough it seems to end up on Jason's 'haters' list :)

[33LIMA 972]

Speaking of 'haters' lists, Heinkels are now on mine. This one refused to get out of my way quickly enough, and look what happened:

 

 

 

 

The BoS 'unlocks' were mostly to blame, though. I mean, I had just unlocked this 'ace' skin for my Yak. How was I supposed to know that flying with an ace's skin would make me press my attack much closer, before I broke away, too late in fact? I mean to say...!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+Crusader 2,101]

Its all about elevators...

grain elevator

silk elevator

...

 

 

Great review,  enjoyed reading all parts.

[33LIMA 972]

Thanks Crusader; my pleasure!

[33LIMA 972]

Hey, I'm now a Red Falcon, as the Germans sometimes called supposedly elite Soviet fighter units...

 

 

...but not for long. All good things come to an end...

 

 

This of course is one of the unlocked skins for the BoS Yak-1.

 

In part 1 of the review I recommended William Craig's 'Enemy at the Gates' as a general history of the battle. Here's a taster so you can see if it's for you. If you like your battle histories in the style of Cornelius Ryan and Alexander McKee, that is, re-told from the experiences of those who were there, you should like this:

 

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CWOygH6xjIoC&pg=PA3&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

[FalconC45 162]

Um. A question. Why no padlock in campaign?

 

Falcon

[33LIMA 972]

Beats me, Falcon. Devs say it's a design decision. Maybe they want it locked out of MP and there's some server-level tie-in between MP and the SP campaign (which you need to be connected, to play).

 

The three modes - Quick Mission, SP campaign and MP - have different, Wordpad-editable files which record player option choices but hand-editing the SP one didn't seem to work. Maybe I need to make it read-only after editing or something. If not I'm hoping they change this as, having spent time getting used to padlock in sims, I now suck at using hatswitch and mouselook...though I am slo-o-o-owly getting better. The pilot of this 109 was lucky to get out, after my 23mm cannon removed his tailplane:

 

[33LIMA 972]

A recent (pre-christmas) update has made padlock available in campaign!

 

Also now available is the facility to have a custom, user-made 'skin' on your aircraft, which don't need unlocked. Here's a sample of what's already available. Details are here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FalconC45 162]

Ah good about the update! With my disability I need the padlock.

 

Falcon

[33LIMA 972]

Yeah I'm also very glad padlock's there now. With that, the recent FM tweaks and maybe because I'm getting the hang of BoS gunnery with Soviet fighters where 'spray and pray' is more like 'twinkle and pray' and you have to aim more carefully, I'm doing reasonably well now, even against fighters...

 

 

 

...while my wingmen seem to do okay too, with or without padlock...

 

 

...and the steady stream of 'skins' is continuing, too...