Great game, gone under the radar
IL-2 Sturmovik is the flight-sims first debut on consoles. And I must say, it did a good transfer from PC, keep in mind good not great. IL-2's graphics are superb, the planes are as realistic and historically accurate as can be. Not only do the planes themselves look fantastic, but for a flight-sim, the ground texture was beautifully done. Though focusing on the "flight" aspect, the developers did a wonderful job on making the terrain look accurate to the area you are at. The controls may take a second or two to get used to but after you get the hang of it, you'll be flying like a pro! Each plane handles exactly as it should in real-life, meaning you don't have fighter-bombers keeping pace with a fighter, or jets out maneuvering a prop fighter. The sound quality of the game is average, I was neither stunned nor disappointed with the audio. The planes sound good, but could've used a little more power behind the sound. The story is rather bland, re-enacting original World War 2 battles in an almost rote manner. "Attack this convoy, bomb this bunker, shoot down 25 enemies" these are commands you will hear time and time again, and even though the campaign is short they do get tiresome. The online capabilities of the game are fantastic, but are downtrodden due to poor sales of the game. With the possibilities of 8v8 team battles, free-for-all, Capture the Airfield (basically landing on an airstrip and waiting for it to upload, or shooting enemies waiting on the tarmac), and Strike (destroy x amount of enemy bunkers). I feel that if this game could've sold better, the online would've been a fantastic addition. But with poor sales comes the fact that the online is now dead, I have not come across a single person online in the past month. For you the reader, I would recommend this game as a rental, or borrow it from a friend. There's no point in buying it now, it's just too bad it went virtually unoticed.