IL-2 Sturmovik

IL-2 Sturmovik (Ил-2 Штурмовик) is a WWII combat flight simulator video game, focused on the air battles of the Eastern Front. It is named after the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack fighter, which played a prominent role in this theatre and is the single most produced military aircraft design to date. Along with its sequels, IL-2 Sturmovik is considered one of the leading World War II flight simulators.

The original version of the game featured 31 flyable Soviet, German, American, British, French and Polish planes and an additional 40 non-flyable planes (available as opponents).

The game was developed by 1C: Maddox Games and published by 1C in Russia and Ubisoft in the rest of the world, for PCs on November 18, 2001. The latest edition that includes all sequels and patches is version 4.09. The game has been updated frequently, and is the flight simulator video game longest supported by its developer with the demo released in 2001 and the latest patch including new planes and maps released in 2009.

IL-2 Sturmovik and the sequels Forgotten Battles, Forgotten Battles Ace Expansion Pack, Pacific Fighters, Pe-2 add-on, Manchuria and 1946 now contain 347 aircraft, with 256 being flyable. The featured aircraft cover most major aircraft deployed during World War II as well as some which did not leave the prototype stage.

The game includes a multi-player feature which supports up to 100 players online over the free internet matching service Hyperlobby. The All-Seeing Eye also previously allowed members to host multiplayer games.

Sequels
A sequel was released in March 2003, entitled IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles, which greatly expanded the number of simulated planes and battlefields. The Forgotten Battles Ace Expansion Pack followed in March 2004.

In October 2004 Pacific Fighters was released, which can be installed on top of the earlier releases or as a stand-alone game. It expands the action to the Pacific, adding many Japanese and United States planes as well as aircraft carriers and battleships.

Many users of the first three games in the IL-2 series took the option of merging them on their hardware. This was essential to be able to access the majority of IL-2 servers for online gaming. Later a Complete Edition was released, combining the three in one installation.

In May 2006, the PE-2 add-on was released in Europe and North America. This added 95 campaigns, five single missions and five multi-player cooperative missions. Two new flyable aircraft, the Petlyakov Pe-2 (four variants) and the Petlyakov Pe-3 (two variants), as well as a large number of new ground vehicles and artillery were also included. When installed, PE-2 is merged with previous games in the series.

Ubisoft released the IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 compilation pack in stores in December 2006 in Europe and Australia; North American release was on March 13, 2007. In addition to all of the above games, it includes two new games: Sturmoviks over Manchuria and 1946. This raised the total number of aircraft to over 300 with 32 new flyable aircraft, such as Soviet and Japanese aircraft that served during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in 1945, as well as some which never went beyond the design stage in reality. Among others, the package introduced the Yak-15, MiG-9, Focke-Wulf Ta-183, MiG-13, Arado Ar-234, Kawanishi N1K-J, Mitsubishi J2M, Mitsubishi Ki-21, Douglas A-20C, Ilyushin Il-10 and many others. It also features nearly 200 new missions and new maps featuring the Kiev region, new parts of the USSR, China, Korea and Burma. The package is now patched up to version 4.09.

In 2009, IL-2 was available for handheld consoles using the PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, as well as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 under the title IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey. The theatres of war are the Battle of Britain, the Battle of Stalingrad, the Allied Invasion of Sicily, the Battle of Korsun Pocket and the Battle of Berlin.

The next game from Oleg Maddox, Storm of War: Battle of Britain is a sequel to the IL-2 series.

Games in the Series
The following games have been released so far:

Reception
The Il-2 series have received overall good rankings from its first version in 2002 through to Il-2 Sturmovik: 1946 in 2007:
 * Gamespot - Original IL-2 rated at 9.1 out of 10 and the Il-2: 1946 got 8.5


 * IGN rated as "impressive", original IL-2 got 8.3 out of 10 and IL-2: 1946 rated at 8.1 of 10


 * Metacritic gave 91 out of 100 for the original IL-2 and 83 of 100 for the latest installment


 * GameRankings rated IL-2: 1946 at 83 out of 100


 * Igromania rated IL-2: Sturmovik at 10 out of 10

Aircraft
The lists includes only flyable aircraft. Due to intellectual property issues, several important US planes — such as the TBF Avenger — could not be included in the game as flyables. This list is correct for version 4.09 IL-2 1946. Several model variants of the aircraft in the list are not included (such as all the flyable variants of the Supermarine Spitfire).

The latest patch (4.09) includes new flyable planes and new multiplayer maps. A version of this patch is also available which enables the user to access mods from AllAircraftArcade such as different sounds, graphics, maps and extra planes.

Allies

 * A-20 (both in US Havoc and British Boston version)
 * B-17 Flying Fortress (Using Mods)
 * B-24J Liberator (Using Mods)
 * B-25J-1NA Mitchell
 * B-29 Superfortress (Using Mods)
 * Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 & BI-6
 * Brewster Buffalo, both US and British version
 * DAP Beaufighter Mk 21
 * de Havilland Mosquito
 * F4U Corsair "Whistling Death"
 * F4F Wildcat
 * F6F Hellcat
 * Hawker Hurricane Mk II, both MG and cannon versions
 * Hawker Tempest
 * Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik
 * Ilyushin Il-10 Sturmovik
 * Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Goudkov LaGG-3
 * Lavochkin La-5FN
 * Lavochkin La-7
 * MiG-3
 * MiG-9
 * I-250
 * Polikarpov I-16
 * Polikarpov I-153 Seagull
 * Polikarpov I-185
 * Petlyakov Pe-2 Pawn
 * Petlyakov Pe-3
 * P-38 Lightning
 * P-39 Airacobra
 * P-40 Warhawk/Tomahawk/Kittyhawk
 * P-47 Thunderbolt "Jug"
 * P-51 Mustang
 * P-63 Kingcobra
 * P-80 Shooting Star
 * PZL P.11
 * Supermarine Spitfire
 * Supermarine Seafire
 * SBD Dauntless
 * Tupolev TB-3 4M
 * Yakovlev Yak-1
 * Yakovlev Yak-3
 * Yakovlev Yak-7
 * Yakovlev Yak-9
 * Yak-15

Axis

 * Aichi D3A1 ("Val")
 * Ar-234/B Blitz
 * Avia B-534
 * B-239, Finnish version of the Brewster Buffalo
 * Dornier Do 335Pfeil ("Arrow")
 * Fiat G.50 Freccia ("Arrow")
 * Fiat CR.42 Falco ("Falcon")
 * Focke-Wulf Ta 152H
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger ("Shrike")
 * Fokker D.XXI
 * J8A Gladiator
 * Hawker Hurricane Mk.I pre-war export version
 * Heinkel He 111H
 * He-L-IIIB-2 Lerche
 * Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger ("People's Fighter")
 * Horten Ho 229 (a.k.a. Gotha Go)
 * IAR 80 and 81
 * Junkers Ju 87 Stuka
 * Junkers Ju-88A-4
 * Kawanishi H8K ("Emily")
 * Kawasaki Ki-61 ("Tony")
 * Kawasaki Ki-100 ("Type 5 Fighter")
 * Kawanishi N1K2-Ja ("George")
 * Macchi Mc.200 Saetta ("Lightning")
 * Macchi Mc.202 Folgore ("Thunderbolt")
 * Macchi Mc.205 Veltro ("Greyhound")
 * Messerschmitt Bf 109
 * Messerschmitt Bf 110G
 * Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet
 * Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe ("Swallow")
 * Mitsubishi G4M ("Betty")
 * Mitsubishi Zero ("Zeke")
 * Mitsubishi J2M ("Jack")
 * Nakajima Ki-43 (Oscar)
 * Nakajima Ki-84 (Frank)
 * Nakajima Ki-27 ("Nate")
 * SM.79
 * Ta-183 Huckebein

Combat areas ("maps")
The original "IL-2 Sturmovik" came with several maps depicting the main battle areas of the Eastern Front, including The first Add-On "Forgotten Battles" provided some further maps: "Pacific Fighters" came with a plethora of maps for the Pacific Theater of Operations, such as: The last Add-On "1946" brought two more maps, Later, some patches came with maps created by voluntary players: Also, a lot of imaginary or generic landscapes were designed, like "Pacific Island", "Mountains", several "Deserts" and "Italy", mostly on smaller maps.
 * Moscow (summer and winter)
 * Berlin
 * Kuban
 * Crimea
 * Stalingrad (summer and winter)
 * Prohorovka
 * Kursk
 * Leningrad (summer and winter)
 * Hungary (summer and winter)
 * Normandy (multiple versions)
 * Pearl Harbor
 * Okinawa
 * Midway
 * New Guinea
 * etc., pp.
 * Manchuria
 * Kiev
 * Kurland (autumn and summer)
 * Bessarabia
 * Western Norway
 * Slovakia (version 4.09)

Unofficial expansions
During the years many 3rd party addons arrised from several publishers. The most known companies were :


 * Just Flight
 * PlusWave
 * X1 Software

Together with another group of companies they have released a huge list of expansions for the game. Adding many campaigns and single player missions and skins.

A number of addons to mention:


 * The Last Days
 * Wings Over Citadel
 * Battle Over Europe
 * Ostfront
 * Wings Over Jungles
 * Wings Over Waves
 * The Fires Above
 * Rebirth Of Honor
 * Operation Barbarossa
 * Banzai
 * Operation Overlord