I must preface this by saying that I do enjoy Il-2 Sturmovik, I always have. My relatively low hours do not mean I am unfamiliar with flight simulators or the broader World War II wargaming experience. When I was getting further into gaming during the pandemic and, more specifically, got a machine that could run it, Il-2 was very high on my list of acquisitions.
Unfortunately, I cannot currently recommend the game.
Il-2 suffers from many problems, both inherent to the genre and unique to the game in particular. Chiefly among them is a lack of accessibility at the very beginning. For a game that released in 2014 (independently in 2013) and continues to see major updates to the present, there is still no tutorial series or real sense of welcome for new players. Yes, the game manual exists, but that should at this point be a secondary reference rather than the primary source of game learning, especially for a simulator as robust as Il-2. Because of the lack of tutorials, one's first experience with the game is chaotic and frustrating, a two front battle against both the game and its controls.
Il-2 is a game built for realistic controls and is best experienced with a joystick, pedals, throttle quadrant, and, if within one's price bracket, TrackIR or virtual reality. I am fortunate to own a simple Logitech joystick, but it leaves much to be desired. With so few control surfaces on the stick itself, large swathes of the game still need to be controlled on the keyboard and, because the control hat on Logitech sticks is quite inconvenient, head movement is best done with the mouse. This means that on my tiny desk I have my laptop, joystick, and mouse next to each other all needing equal access to make the game playable by default. Controls can be fixed, of course, but to truly rebind everything takes over an hour, so do take that into consideration.
Next is an issue many will have even before they get the game: sticker shock. It cannot be stressed enough that Il-2 only comes with one module: Battle of Stalingrad. This includes eight aircraft, one map, and the singleplayer career for the module. Other maps are available to play on multiplayer servers and you can play as a gunner for other players on vhicles you don't own, but everything else is paywalled. Modules (including the Great Battles, Flying Circus, and Tank Crew) range from 49.99 to 79.99 USD, collector aircraft (independent of the major modules) range from 19.99 to 24.99 (for one vehicle!), and singleplayer campaigns range from 9.99 to 12.99. While the game and its modules are on very frequent (and often quite deep) sale, these prices are not accessible to the grand population and, frankly, the 'worth' of many modules is soured by the initial price tag regardless of quality.
Another problem is simply that once a piece of content is out, further support of it is entirely up to the developer's discretion. I do understand that 1C is a small and dedicated team and I respect them immensely for continuing the lifespan of Il-2 with plenty of fresh updates and regular community posts, that is not what I have an issue with. Instead, I have an issue that we're only looking forwards. Modules, with a few exceptions, do not receive new vehicles or major content updates, they remain as they are. Because of that, certain gameplay elements have either been forgotten or are no longer important/impactful. Tanks are one of the biggest examples of that for me.
On paper Il-2 has one of the best tank simulator experiences; seamless multicrew with fully modelled vehicle interiors on maps as large as those enjoyed by their fellow aviators. Unfortunately, those very same points are the reasons for its downfall. Because the game must remain playable for those in the air, they are not only similar maps to the air maps, they *are* the air maps. Like War Thunder and other flying games, ground elements are given less detail and polish for the obvious reason of optimisation, which is perfectly acceptable. However, with a module dedicated entirely to the ground, it is quite disappointing to go from a well-modelled tank interior, crack open the hatch, and peer out to see a landscape that looks like it's fresh from Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator (1998) with ground physics to match. It is not, in fact, a good idea to cross the Hohenzollernbrücke on the Köln map, your tracks, engine, and transmission will object.
Tanks have, unfortunately, not received any significant update or attention, so they very problems that turned people away from Clash at Prokhorovka in the first place will continue to indefinitely since it will more than likely never receive a major overhaul or polish. For tank multicrew I would far better recommend Hell Let Loose or Squad 44, arcadey and jank as they are. If anything, I would have preferred to see Il-2's tanks released as a separate game (like Il-2: Korea soon will be) with focused, bespoke maps.
Aviation, my biggest concentration, I have very little problem with. Systems function and, though some flight models could use some work, I can confidently continue flying while battling against my own hardware. Can I recommend Il-2 in the future? Maybe, but I don't think much will improve even as the game's content and quality continues to rise. If you want it, buy it on sale and hope one of your friends owns more modules than you, because I most certainly cannot recommend buying any bundles and especially not everything (that is 1,518.44 at full price at the time of writing this!).
Just my two cents. I will come back to edit this later.
