IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad

 PC
Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
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  1. Multiplayer.it
    Jan 15, 2015
    80
    Last chapter of the famous series IL-2 Sturmovik, Battle of Stalingrad is an hardcore flight simulator during WWII, visually stunning and able to push the genre to new levels of realism and fidelity.
  2. Everyeye.it
    Dec 1, 2014
    80
    It's a game suited for veterans (no tutorial whatsoever), and the realism is all it cares about. If you're into historic combat flight simulator, you should really consider buying.
  3. Eurogamer Italy
    Nov 11, 2014
    80
    IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad is really good and provides lots of fun as long as you have the required dedication to exploit its potential.
  5. Pelit (Finland)
    Jun 14, 2015
    74
    Il-2: Battle of Stalingrad boldly seeks to renew the genre by adding modern game design elements to the admittedly often sterile genre of flight simulators. Unfortunately not only does the bold attempt fail spectacularly, the developers also seem to have completely forgotten what made the original Il-2 a legend. The Rise of Flight legacy shows in the rather impressive visuals and physics modeling, but strangely a lot of its nice features didn't make the cut either and the “sequel” falls short of its predecessor in many ways. [June 2015]
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  6. GameOver.gr
    Feb 10, 2015
    70
    The excellent handling and the immense realism that Battle of Stalingrad offers, manages to balance out the poor single player campaign and some of its design flaws.
  7. PC PowerPlay
    Feb 8, 2015
    70
    The lack of content and generous helping of bugs can be easily forgiven thanks to the developer's high reputation. [Feb 2015, p.16]
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  8. Eurogamer Germany
    Dec 5, 2014
    70
    When a toothless campaign and the restrictive unlock policy are the only real problems a new Sturmovik has, sim fans know they're not making a mistake in picking this up.

Awards & Rankings

36
#36 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
53
#53 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

User Reviews

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User Score
6.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 279 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 147 out of 279
  2. Mixed: 35 out of 279
  3. Negative: 97 out of 279
  1. AstronHaizer
    Oct 23, 2014
    10
    I played Il2- Forgotten battles, I played SB War Thunder, Rise of Fligt etc. So far, Il 2 BOS the best and perspective flight-simulator.I played Il2- Forgotten battles, I played SB War Thunder, Rise of Fligt etc. So far, Il 2 BOS the best and perspective flight-simulator.

    Guys, dont forget how much content there was in Il 2 sturmovik in 2001 y. Almoust nothing,
    Now Il 2 BOS its a platform made to make a game of our dream,but not in one day.    … Full Review »
  2. Einfall
    Oct 23, 2014
    4
    This rendition of IL-2 has a long, long way to go before I would suggest it for purchase by a hardcore simulation fan but I would likelyThis rendition of IL-2 has a long, long way to go before I would suggest it for purchase by a hardcore simulation fan but I would likely recommend it if you are a casual gamer just getting in to the genre.

    On the foundation: The feeling of flight is well captured with the Digital Nature engine, but some of the nuances in flight modeling are questionable at best and are hotly (and normally, unprofessionally) contested by the developer. Second to that, there is no transparency in the documentation used to draw the conclusion on why the VVS historically overperform and don't suffer from production quality issues like it should be modeled, but any changes in flight modeling initiated by the community requires complete disclosure of sources and a whole lot of tooth pulling. The damage model is absolutely horrendous and is built primarily around HP counters and badly modeled break-points, black 2D holes on the wings, no spars in the wing, hitboxes, etc. The simulator is built around a terrible and embarrassing XP system designed to make you toil away to unlock standard loadouts. The "campaign" is a slightly-more-advanced Quick Mission Builder, is not dynamic and completely lacks any form of historical/squadron-based immersion - the only difference QMB and the "campaign" is that AI are placed on the map for you and you are dealt a very generic, repetitive series of missions/briefings that have no effect on the outcome of the battle. Not to mention, repetitive flight paths/objectives. Achieving victory in the campaign is repetitive as the criteria for completion is always the same - meet target at action point, shoot, fly to exit point. AI is deplorably broken and will not function (even when commanded to do so) in the campaign. Hit sounds and feedback do not perform properly and were dismissed with poor excuses about game-engine limitation. Overall, the things that BUILD a flight simulator are ultimately underwhelming and not so convincing.

    For the MP guys: Digital Nature has difficulty providing the large-scale multiplayer experiences that we have come to expect in the IL-2 series and equally proves to be the largest limiting factor for the entire experience. If you are expecting SoW, SEoW or any other large-scale/dynamic multiplayer experiences, look elsewhere. I am not convinced the engine will ever support them.

    777 as a company is deplorable and incredibly difficult to work with or give the benefit of the doubt to, due to all of the times they managed to shoot themselves in the foot. Their communication is poorly translated (from Russian) and the cultural differences between Russian society and the Western consumer will leave you feeling undermined and dismissed if you are ever granted an audience to make a claim. Jason, their American business partner (and the only major redeemer to their communication), has had to clean up their publicity/business mistakes more than once.

    TL;DR - Stay away for years. It will take that long to mature, if it ever does.    … Full Review »
  3. MarxStax
    Oct 23, 2014
    3
    NOT a remake of the classic.

    Sadly 777/1c has used the IL2 name in an attempt to sway people who loved the original to buy this. The only    NOT a remake of the classic.

    Sadly 777/1c has used the IL2 name in an attempt to sway people who loved the original to buy this. The only thing in common with the old IL2 is the name and its a WWII flight game.

    This is not a good sandbox type sim. This is not an immersive WWII air combat sim. Its very linear, and very strict. You can forget it being old IL246 with updated graphics. You can forget doing a COOP campaign, or a good SP dynamic campaign. You can expect a HUD that is out of star wars, and a campaign about as fun and interesting as watching grass grow.

    The devs are trying to get the War Thunder crowd, and having the sim crowd pay for development.

    Good:

    1. Graphics are nice. NOT CLoD graphics, but better than old IL2.
    2. FM are ok. Not great but passable.
    3. Land graphics are nice. It IS all snow, but its done well.
    4. 8 regular plane is nice.

    Bad:

    1. SP campaign is horrible. Its a bunch of quick missions. No historic squads, no pilot info, no squadmate info, and no dynamaic campaign. Blow up and airfield in one mission, its back the next.
    2. Always on connection. You have to be connected to the 777servers to play the SP campaign, and access your profile.
    3. No full mission builder. Forget making your own missions. They *might* release one later down the road....maybe.
    4. No Dserver for MP. Again they might release one later....maybe. For now enjoy the slim list in different timezones, and mostly just quick dogfights.
    5. Unlock and XP. Yes, in order to unlock different loadouts you HAVE to the play the SP campaign. This even goes for online players. You are forced to play the boring SP campaign to get weapons and skins.
    6. Graphic presets. No custom graphics settings. Why? According to the devs people are too dumb to set up their graphics options.
    7. Hollywood smoke and damage effects. No planes go down without huge plumes of smoke and fire. To the point of over the top.
    8. Simplified damage model. Hitboxes without internal componet damage.
    9. Old digital nature engine running the game. Using DX9 tech. Severely limits how many objects can be in a battle. Dont expect to see large bomber formations, or large scale ground/air battles.
    10. Limited modding. User made mods have to be approved before it goes into the game, including skins. This is another reason for the always on master server.
    11. The development team. 80% of "founders" who bought the early access game did not want XP and unlocks. Everyone gave them feedback, but they basically said too bad. You play the game the way we want you to. Same with the graphics presets, and no custom setting in campaign. They think they know better on how you play the game than you do.
    12. No triple screen support. There is not one "sim" from racing to flying that has been out for the last few years that does not support triple screens. Well, here you are.
    13. Price. For what you get, simple dogfight MP, random generated quick mission campaign, a quick mission builder, no dserver, no full mission builder, and no way to pick your graphic settings, its just a shallow game.

    The only saving grace is hoping that next year modders can make this game more of what made old IL2 fun. Considering the restrictions by the devs, that might not ever happen. We can hope.

    In the meantime CLoD with Team Fusions patches, and IL21946 with HSFX mods, are much better (and way cheaper) alternatives to get a good WWII sim fix.    … Full Review »
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