IL-2 Sturmovik™: 1946

I've owned this game for a long time. I own it on GOG but I also have the original IL2. It's sat on my shelf for years and occasionally i would give it another go only to get frustrated. Just taking off was tricky and I would always spend a while setting up my game pad...after-all...a game pad is pretty much the same as using a joystick right?....HELL NO. For the first time Ive installed this game and shelled out for a joystick which was a big decision for me....I tended to think of a joystick as the ultimate geek purchase. I was concerned that if I bought one id have to give away all my cool stuff and start wearing pocket protectors. I wasn't ready for nerd status....i dont even like Harry Potter. Turns out that a joystick totally trasforms this game....It's pretty much now the most nail biting hard-core game im playing and it's over 10 years old. The combination of Joystick in one hands and mouse (to swivel your head) in the other gives you one of the most realistic feelings you can get in a game. It really does start to blur the line between game and reality. When you look down you see the in-game joystick move exactly in synch with the real one in your hand. Every cockpit dial and lever is realistic and functional. Keeping track of your guages is vital. The game may be a few yeas old but it still looks great and the flight mechanics feel real and substantial. It's a true simulation and a real adrenaline rush when you're in a dog fight with 4 enemy fighters. So...I get it now..I get why it's still the number one combat flight simulator....and yes it's better than Microsoft Combat simulator. So to cut a long story short here's what i suggest you do. First buy the game, trust me, you'll be playing it aq very long time. Second, get a joystick. Seriously....just for this game..it's worth it...but while you're at it you can get 'Freespace 2' as well and use it with that. Honestly..I've played this game many times for years but I never got waht all the hype was about till i used a joystick (a gamepad doesnt cut it in this case)........believe the hype, I'm gonna be playing this game for a long time.

This is one classic I didn't think I would see browsing through the catalog... Damn. This is an epic WWII flight simulator that is easy to learn, but hard to master. A perfect game for any fly boy who has a thing for the skies. The graphics may look dated for the time, but the game play goes unmatched. If you or a loved one has a flight stick and a love for flight, get this game. Seeing this here, it makes me wonder... Will I see Lock On next in the catalog? That would be an epic find as well. *hint hint*

I first played IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, when it was released here on GOG. Before I tried many other flight sims like, MS Flight Simulator, Falcon 4.0 with BMS Mod, DCS Warthog, but they couldn't make me hooked on. The main reason is, that they have a steep learning curve. Yes, they are very realstic but it's more a kind of work than fun flying a plane. In IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 you can choose how realistic you like the game and turn the realism up step by step. But even if you choose the most realistic option in IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, as a beginner you will be able to take off with any plane and fly around really quick. The reason that I see is, that you mainly fly older planes that are not that hightec, with may boardcomputers to operate and hundreds of buttons to press. If you play a flightsim with modern planes you can spend many hours in learning how to operate the boardcomputer before you can even think of starting the engine or txiing out. Your first flight is far away. So I can say IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 is more about the fun of flight, not about learning how to operate computers, which do the job for you. The graphics of the game might not be top-notch for todays standards but they are still decent. Where other flight sims might be focused on a specific planetype, in IL-2 Sturmovic 1946 you can fly a lot of different planes and play different roles on a plane. For example on a bomber you don't need to be the pilot, you can also play for example the gunner. The flying will then be overtaken by the AI. I recommend installing the HSFX Mod which adds a lot more content to the plenty of content the game already has. So the game won't become boring any time soon. How you can install this Mod, you can read in forums here on GOG. I can't say much about the realism of the flight physics in this game because I'm not a trained pilot and I never flew a plane myself. But I can say, that the physics in this game seem to be plausible. So it's the best flight sim for me so far.

I will not be buying this game from GOG because I already own the DVD but if you do not already have this game I cannot recommend it too highly! I would not really call this a "Good _Old_ Game" as it is still in the shops and is quite capable of stretching a modern PC and graphics card to its limits when played at high levels of detail and high screen resolution. The IL-2 game series still has a very large active online fan base, one of the best sites to try for user missions, aircraft "skins" and other goodies is "Mission For Today" at http://www.mission4today.com. This edition consists of the content of all the games in the IL-2 series since the second one, "IL-2 Forgotton Battles" and contains an absolutely staggering number of flyable aircraft. If you own the very first IL-2 Sturmovik game, you can copy missions from that game into this one and they work fine. On the most realistic setting this game is the next best thing to actually flying a WWII aircraft so it is no suprise that it is very popular amongst real life pilots and aircraft enthusiasts. When I was lucky enough to really take to the air (and take the controls) in an ex-RAF light aircraft, the layout of the cockpit and the function of the controls was all so familiar from my IL-2 experience. The only thing that you do not get in the game is the sinking feeling as you are pushed back into the seat by G-forces as you do barrel rolls and loops! The only downside to this game is that it is too realistic! Even taking off and landing takes skill, practice and patience, then you have to practice gunnery, bombing and strafing before you have a hope of being effective in combat. If you just want to whizz around and blow stuff up I would probably recommend something like the Descent or Freespace series instead.

I have it running fine in 2024 on Windows 11. Clearly YMMV but it is working for me. Some slight graphics glitches and OpenGL doesn't work any more, but otherwise golden. I got around the annoying HOTAS IDs shifting by using Vjoy and Joystick Gremlin to rebind my devices to a single virtual joystick, and set keystrokes instead of using the ingame control configuration. If you have a webcam, take the trouble to install Opentrack and get that configured, just using the built in Neuralnet tracker with 2 axis enabled only works perfect for me. Head tracking improves the gameplay by heaps, you can keep your eyes where you want them. Single player is plenty of fun, there are countless planes and campaigns, not as detailed as e.g IL2 Battle of Stalingrad but the gameplay is about as good. If you want to play the campaign you're looking at playing about 30 minutes per mission where you might shoot down two planes if you are lucky, or survive destroying a couple of ground targets. It is not as involved as DCS, you can turn off complex engine management (I do) and fly with relatively simple controls. I wish they would modernise the UI and do some QOL stuff to fix basic graphics glitches and the keybinding UI, the game itself is great, runs incredibly smooth and has more content than you'll ever get through!