Rating: (ratings will now be at the bottom of the review)
Background: IL- 2 Sturmovic: Birds of Prey* is named after the Soviet IL2-Sturmovik, called by some "the Flying Tank," which helped check the tide of the Third Reich's advance in the skies over the Eastern Front in WWII. Luftwaffe pilots feared it for its toughness and firepower, and the Wehrmacht dreaded its air-to-ground attack capabilities, although the console version doesn't so much as concentrate on the Eastern Front as it delivers the entire war whittled down to small battles excerpted from history. You get to fly one in the game, but would-be pilots also get to handle a few others in their fights against the Luftwaffe.
The Good: Making up for the lack of visual flair elsewhere, the battle damage is very impressive, leaving holes and scarred paint in its wake, with a broken wing tearing away from a corkscrewing fighter as it falls to the earth and oil splattering the cockpit as you fly through a black plume of smoke. Bullets leave trails behind them, massive clouds of smoke rise up above burning streets, and just about every plane in the game has a unique cockpit filled with authentic details.
The Bad: Birds of Prey makes you go through a mandatory tutorial mode before you can take to the skies, although the lessons remain firmly grounded in the game's serious spirit. There aren't any stunt bonuses for flying beneath bridges, and there aren't giant zeppelins, fanciful weapons or upgradeable planes either. You'll fly with what you're given for a particular mission, although what the enemy will throw at you can wildly vary. A training mode is also available, allowing the player to craft his own challenges down to what kind of planes that he wants to face.
Also, rather than feature a single pilot's story, it includes fictional excerpts from each theater. Between each major battle theater, period film footage is played while the narrator fills in the details for the next fight, such as Stalingrad or the Battle of the Bulge, Nazi Germany's last major offensive in the West. Kinda feels like a lecture..
Online multiplayer is somewhat empty during the day, although the evening hours provided a few more pilots who were ready to mix it up in the four game types. Dogfight pits everyone against each other, Team Dogfight does the same thing but with teams, and Strike has both teams attacking the opponent's ground targets while defending their own. Capture the Airport is a unique type of mode where players need to fly down and land at an airport to capture it, much like a flag-based objective map. The more airports that have been captured by your side, the more "tickets," or points, that you'll be able to earn.
So Basically: IL- 2 Sturmovic: Birds of Prey isn't for everyone, especially not players who expect this to be the next Ace Combat or something. Its emphasis on traditional dogfighting without frills, along with its low-key presentation, may seem a little dry alongside Jeremy Soule's stirring soundtrack, but the realistic bent of its flight mechanics and gameplay will find an audience among flight sim enthusiasts and would-be WWII pilots who want a reason to plug a flightstick into their console.
Final Rating: 7.0
*info/pics also from worthplaying.com
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