A Jet Simmers Look at IL2: Forgotten Battles - by Stephen "HotDogOne" French
It was with a little bit of trepidation that I installed IL2:Forgotten Battles. I mean....Its a prop sim....and I am a jet simmer......it just felt wrong! I was happy when the installer told me everything had gone ok, and I breathed an audible sigh of relief. Now you see, I've played virtually all jet combat sims there have been in the last 7 or so years....and most of my time has been with Falcon 4. After spending 4+ years with F4, I thought I would try something a little different.
Along came IL2: Forgotten Battles, the update to the original IL2 that had much success and fame within the prop sim community, and the wider Flight Sim community too I might add. I rushed through the manuals, key commands (ok – I took the manuals out of the box but that’s about it), loaded her up and went through and set everything to max realism – hey – I fly everything else max realism, why should IL2 be any different? .....boy was I in for a shock!
Oh Boy!
The interface for IL2:FB is very good – and from what I gather is nearly identical to the original IL2. I managed to find my way around pretty easily – although being slightly brain dead (hey you must have noticed that already in the forums!) it took me a while to find the HOTAS controls...... Anyway – mission accomplished, I set up my TM Cougar in its basic DirectX mode, assigned some basic controls like rudder, throttle, prop and mix, added flaps brakes, and for good measure the escape from aircraft command!
Feeling pretty cocky I decided I would start with a quick flight in the He-111. I sat listening to the music – which is pretty neat and gets you in the mood. After a brief wait, there I was sitting in my He-111. At this point let me just digress and mention virtual cockpits in IL2:FB. I never played the original IL2, but these virtual cockpits are fantastic – they add so much to the feel of the sim, even down to the slight vibration that you can see when you are approaching the limits of the flight envelope, in flight turbulence and when you take damage – the cockpit is one of the best I have seen in any sim so far. Ok – back to the story...
There I was, sitting in my He-111... with the engines off....with absolutely no idea how to switch them on. So – I thought – ok engines, must be a key combination with an 'E' involved....nope, after hitting a few combinations I am sat watching my pilot leg it across the field...I think I sat there for about 5 minutes in shock because it was simply awesome to see the crew of my plane all run off and dive for cover – it’s those small touches to a sim that separate the wheat from the chaff. (Just for the fun of it I went back and watched the pilot run about from different aircraft).
Autopilot is a wonderful thing in these situations, so back in the plane with my engines spooling I take a look around. The outside views are as good as the cockpit. Some of the lighting effects I have seen in IL2:FB have been simply jaw dropping. You can see in some of the screen shots below the kind of these lighting effects.
Well- I managed to take off – just about. Gear up, flaps up and off I went. I decided to try some hard turns ..... I did the turns – straight into a stall followed by the ground! Oh boy – this was going to be harder than I thought – I have to use my rudder pedals too! I sat for a while looking through the key controls, and the manuals and felt a little bit more confident for my next flights.
Sim Complexity
IL2:FB – while not having the avionics complexity of something like Falcon4 or Jane's F/A-18, does require a fair amount of concentration to play. For one, if you’re primarily a jet simmer, as I am, it takes some getting used to using your rudders for anything other than fine tuning your gun aim, or taxiing on the ground. In the higher realism modes you need the rudders most of the time, and initially it can be quite tiring.
You also have to learn about taking care of your engine(s), being a WW2 sim, the engines of the day were nowhere near as reliable as modern jet engines are. You need to take into consideration your prop pitch, mixture and throttle settings to make the most of your engines power. In addition, the torque that the prop engines create is faithfully reproduced in the flight models, so as you change power, you'll need to start making compensations for that with your rudders. All this means that the flying part of the game is much more involved, and whilst initially might be a little frustrating, turns into enormous fun.
The flight models felt good – but that’s a purely subjective thing, I’ve never flown in any of the aircraft in the game in real-life, but they felt good. The Hurricane was quite maneuverable, but underpowered compared to the Bf109's and Fw190's. The IL-2 handled like a well built and durable aircraft, which it should, as it’s basically a tank with wings. The Russian aircraft are well represented by numerous types and variants, including the TB2 bomber, one of the more basic aircraft you'll encounter. In total IL2:FB includes a massive 89 human flyable planes of different types and variants.
Tally Ho! Combat in IL2:FB
In many respects the combat part of IL2:FB is very much simpler than the jet sims, however everything happens up close and personal, there are a lot of tracers in this sim, and being in the middle of a dogfight, with tracers flying past your wings really gets the blood pumping. Add to this having to keep control of you plane without the help of a flight control system means it can go down hill pretty quick (experience talking here!)
The AI in IL2:FB seems to be pretty good too. I’ve seen bombers weave, and fighters dodge. On a few occasions I have gone 1 vs 2 in fighters, the enemy seems to have a reasonable grasp of team tactics and I have seen some pretty solid team tactics from my wingmen too. The menu system for controlling your AI wingmen takes a bit of getting used to if you are new to the series, and you tend to forget to control them under some hectic situations – but it really does pay to have a combat plan in mind, and be ready with the keys to order your wingmen to do your bidding.
Graphics
The graphics in IL2 are very impressive, and I've already touched on this in a few of the other sections. I started with a resolution of 1024x768 in DirectX mode, but I've been flying with an ATI-9700Pro at 1600x1200 and FSAA 2x enabled, and it looks very smooth. Frame rates with the new catalyst 3.4’s are better, and make it a joy to fly at higher resolutions.
I'll let the screen shots do the rest of the talking for this section!
General Thoughts
I've been flying IL-2 for about 2 weeks now – so I haven't got much stick time. But that which I have done I have enjoyed very much. It’s bought back a real sense of achievement when you get that kill in a dogfight, or see that enemy bomber with its engine on fire (did I mention that the damage modeling is also very well implemented – I’ve had fuel leaks, engine misfires, wings torn off, rudders shot off...all of which has been visible. The cockpit also accumulates damage as well to add to the effect).
Going back to the graphics in IL2:FB I will mention that there are a few things that I don't like – they’re not major, and they don't affect the playability of the game, but the system for adding trees is basically a set of horizontal transparent textures off set from each other. It looks great from about 1000ft up, but down low you can see it looks a bit off.
A Happy Camper
A happy camper -well yes actually. I have found another sim to occupy my HD. Big thumbs up from this jet jockey – Well done Maddox Games for a fantastic effort.
Stephen "HotDogOne" French
You can purchase the TrackIR which perfectly compliments IL2: Forgotten Battles by clicking HERE
