IL-2 Sturmovik (video game series)

IL-2 Sturmovik (Russian: Ил-2 Штурмовик) is a series of World War II combat flight simulator video games originally created by the Russian video game developer Maddox Games under the brand name 1C:Maddox Games, following its association with 1C Company. After the 2011 release of one of the titles in the series, IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover, Maddox Games definitely left 1C Company. As of December 2012, 1C's new developer is the brand name 1C Game Studios, formed after association with video game developer 777 Studios, mostly known for developing and releasing in 2009 the Rise of Flight simulator. The first game resulting of this collaboration, and latest title in the IL-2 Sturmovik series, is IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad, released on November 19, 2013. Along with its sequels, IL-2 Sturmovik is considered one of the leading World War II flight simulators.^[1]

The series covers a number of flyable aircraft of Soviet, German, American, British, Japanese, French, Italian, Romanian, Czech and Polish origin. Different games of the series cover different theaters of World War II, including the Pacific theater and the Eastern Front.^[2]

Games

IL-2 Sturmovik series

The original IL-2 Sturmovik series, from IL-2 Sturmovik (2001) to IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey (2009), features a number of games using the same engine, but featuring different battlefields and aircraft:

IL-2 Sturmovik

IL-2 Sturmovik came out in 2001, featuring 31 flyable aircraft and focusing on the Eastern Front.^[3]

IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles

The first sequel Forgotten Battles was released in March 2003. In addition to the content from the original game, it added a number of simulated planes and battlefields and introduced the Continuation War theater.^[4]

Ace Expansion Pack

The Forgotten Battles Ace Expansion Pack was released in March 2004, adding several new planes and European battlefields.

Pacific Fighters

Released as a stand-alone expansion pack in October 2004, Pacific Fighters features the Pacific theater, with theater-appropriate aircraft, as well as aircraft carriers and battleships.^[5]

PE-2

In May 2006, the PE-2 (domestically known as Истории пикирующего бомбардировщика, "Stories of a dive bomber") 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.

IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946

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 46. 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.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey is an IL-2 port created by Gaijin Entertainment. It was released in September 2009 for PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, as well as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In December 2009, the game was made available for Microsoft Windows under the title Wings of Prey.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover

In March 2011, 1C released a sequel to the original IL-2 series (although running its own game engine) under the title IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad

In November 2013, 1C released another sequel in the series, titled IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad, this time running the Rise of Flight game engine.

References

External links

• IL-2 Sturmovik at Ubisoft
• Official Forums
• SAS IL-2 Modding Community Website
• M4T IL-2 community website