IL2: Sturmovik Birds of Prey: Dogfighting Has Never Been So Much Fun
The World War II genre is a rather tried and tested area for a lot of game developers. With so many conflicts and battles to tell, there's always been a rather limitless amount of potential from it. This week saw the arrival of a new contender to the fray, which has been developed by Russian software developer Gaijin Entertainment and published by 1C Company. It focuses more on the aerial battles undertaken during the war and arrives under the name of IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey.
A demo recently became available on Xbox Live, and while the demo is quite short, it certainly allows players to get a taste of the action. There are two available missions to play through and a fairly decent tutorial to show off the basics. The tutorial is straight forward enough and the controls are rather typical of dogfighting games. Movement of the plane is controlled by the left analogue stick and adjusting the throttle and yaw is done with the right.
There are several things that really impress and the most obvious is the actual scenery. There is a huge amount of detail on the ground and surrounding areas and it really gives it that depth of realism. Aside from that, the level of effects in terms of plane damage and smoke particles is especially impressive. Bullets whizzing through the air all have a very polished quality to them. In particular, if a plane is shot, it will sometimes billow smoke as it begins to free-fall. This causes globules of oil to mist up a player's vision; explosions and collisions are equally as engaging.
To further focus on the controls, they feel relatively fluid, although sometimes it feels a little bit hampered. This could possibly be because the arcade mode attempts to compensate for the player in order to make more complex maneuvers doable. The targeting system is also rather impressive. After selecting a target with A, holding the left trigger tracks the target, with the camera positioned firmly over them. This makes it relatively easy to mimic movements and keep the cross-hairs nicely positioned to deliver the shot that will send them crashing to the ground.
The game also boasts two other difficulty modes, with the first being called 'realistic'. It is aptly named and it's easy to notice that the targeting system has been toned down, making it more down to player judgement to hit targets. As well as that the plane reacts much more realistically allowing spins and falls to be quite dramatic should the plane be misused. The AI is also more effective and will attempt to out maneuver players a lot more. As well as this there is simulator mode for anyone more hardcore. This removes everything: radar, targeting, external view all gone. The player has to rely entirely on a cockpit or target-like view. They are still allowed to bring up a map so they know where they actually are, but aside from that everything is firmly placed on what the player can literally see. This of course makes the game exceedingly challenging and there is no correction control on the plane if the player does anything incorrect. Prepare to be put into a spinning nose dive and attempt to fight against the forces of gravity as the plane is propelled to its demise for those inexperienced fighter pilots.
The sound quality in the game is also extremely noteworthy as is the voice talent. In particular some may recognise the distinguished British actor Joss Ackland as the narrator. As well as the fact that the sound is more than engrossing in the first place, the sound track is provided by Jeremy Soule who is famous for a lot of video game compositions, including many of Bioware and Bethesda's titles.
While the franchise has been about for a while on the PC, it is looking set to be quite impressive to console owners bursting for a chance to get into some proper dogfighting. Bolstering online multiplayer as well when it hits the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it looks to get flight fanatics buzzing.
