It’s time to take to the controls of your Spitfire as you defend the troops on the ground with your aerial offensive. That’s right, it’s another game set in that turbulent era known as World War II, but don’t let that put you off in any way. IL-2 Sturmovik – Birds of Prey has plenty to offer as you take to the sky in what is far more than just a pretty flight simulator.
Back in the year 2001 the first IL2 Sturmovik was released for PC. Game reviewers the world over were jumping out of their seats to make the claim that it was one of the best WWII flight simulators of all time. Now you don’t have to sit beside your PC to enjoy the same thrilling action; Birds of Prey has come to the PS3 and takes full advantage of all the console has to offer. That includes some truly spectacular graphics and a great competitive multiplayer option, boasting four different game modes such as Team Deathmatch and Dogfight.
It doesn’t matter whether you were a huge fan of the original game or whether this is the first flight simulator you’ve ever loaded into your console; a series of tutorials and a variety of different game modes will help you to be successful in your efforts to take ownership of the skies. You’re actually not given a choice as to whether or not to undertake these tutorials; they need to be completed in order to unlock the different modes of gameplay available. Fortunately this isn’t a hardship, even for veterans, as the tutorial missions are short and introduce you to the necessary controls.
Once you’re trained up you can jump straight into the main campaign that offers a choice of three different game modes; arcade, realistic and simulation. These modes increase in difficulty, with arcade offering you the ability to never stall your aircraft and to be loaded with an unlimited quantity of ammunition. The realistic mode opens the door to the chance of stalling and watching your plane plummet dramatically toward the ground in an uncontrollable spin, unless you are able to react quickly to save it. You’ll even find that your plane of choice will handle more, well, realistically; taking damage will affect its performance and you might find that turning on a wingtip, fine in the arcade mode, could seriously hamper your flight due to issues such as engine torque.
If that’s not enough excitement for you then up the difficulty setting to simulation and prepare for some real flight sim difficulty. You’ll lose anything that wouldn’t really have been with pilots fighting during World War II, aside from a small map. That means no instruments telling you how high you are, what speed you’re travelling or where those enemy fighters determined to knock you out of the sky might be lurking.
The variety of gameplay on offer, combined with an incredible array of historically accurate planes that you can send hurtling through the sky, makes for a game that will appeal to a wide variety of players. Although the frame rate may struggle during battle sequences and the missions might not offer the variety of some games, this is still a truly fantastic title that any lovers of flight simulators should consider.