History VideoGame / Il2Sturmovik

* RareVehicles: The ''1946'' expansion added some speculative implementations of German and Soviet prototype aircraft, most notably the Heinkel Lerche (the aircraft that looks like a rocket/cigar surrounded by a shrouded turbofan).

** ''VideoGame/WarThunder (2012)'' was a standalone multiplayer game that was expanded from this.

* SmallReferencePools: One of the selling points of the series is that it focuses on a lot on the [[TheGreatestHistoryNeverTold criminally overlooked]] theatres of the Second World War.

* AcePilot: Lots of RealLife aces and entire ace squadrons from the era. Also, YOU too can become a celebrated ace (at least in dynamic career campaigns), but you really need the guts and a lot of skill to achieve such status.
** Add 'luck' to the prerequisites. I personally once started off a fighter pilot campaign by shooting down five Japanese bombers in the first mission, taking no actual damage even though my plane was pelted with bullets from their defensive guns. Then, in my first ground attack mission, I took a single hit from an AA gun as I flew low to strafe a truck convoy. I was instantly killed.

* ''IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover (2011)'': The sequel formerly titled ''Storm of War: Battle of Britain''. Likely to bring even more realistic flight models and a new graphics engine that'll bring high-end gaming desktops to their knees for the next few years if maxed-out.

** VideoGame/WarThunder was a standalone multiplayer game that was expanded from this.

* ''IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey (2009)'': A console-exclusive title (though it got ported to PC as ''Wings of Prey'' shortly thereafter). Not officially part of the original series, but generally considered an AdaptationDistillation SpinOff of it for the console audience.

* ''IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad (2014)'': 777 Studios, developers of ''VideoGame/RiseOfFlight'', take over development from 1C: Maddox Games, soft rebooting the series under the "IL-2 Great Battles" flag. The game touts an upgraded engine from Rise of Flight, offering higher graphical fidelity and realistic flight modelling. The game has since been given several standalone expansions, such as ''Battle of Moscow'' and ''Battle of Kuban'', and ''Battle of Bodenplatte''. A second western theater focused expansion called ''Battle of Normandy'' is coming soon. The game has also expanded with a WWI focused expansion titled ''Flying Circus'' and a tank focused expansion titled ''Tank Crew''.

* ''IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad (2014)'': 777 Studios, developers of ''VideoGame/RiseOfFlight'', take over development from 1C: Maddox Games, soft rebooting the series under the "IL-2 Great Battles" flag. The game touts an upgraded engine from Rise of Flight, offering higher graphical fidelity and realistic flight modelling. The game has since been given several standalone expansions, such as ''Battle of Moscow'' and ''Battle of Kuban'', with a western front focused expansion, ''Battle of Bodenplatte'', coming soon, as well as a WWI focused expansion titled ''Flying Circus'' and a tank focused expansion titled ''Tank Crew''.

* NoCampaignForTheWicked: The series not only allows you to fly not only for Germany and Japan, but also for the minor Axis air forces of Finland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Nearly all countries that participated in aerial combat during the war are present in the games, in one way or another. It's also unusual to have a game that lets you play as the Soviet Union (sort of the Allies' TokenEvilTeammate) rather than just the US or Britain. Until later games in the series, it was almost inverted with regard to the Western Allies. Later expansions changed this, but it still holds to a degree--for example, there is still no campaign for USAAF fighters in Western Europe. (There is one for them in the Pacific, but it's not nearly as in-depth as the ones for the USN or USMC.)

* ''IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad (2014)'': 777 Studios, developers of VideoGame/{{Rise of Flight}}, take over development from 1C: Maddox Games, soft rebooting the series under the "IL-2 Great Battles" flag. The game touts an upgraded engine from Rise of Flight, offering higher graphical fidelity and realistic flight modelling. The game has since been given several standalone expansions, such as ''Battle of Moscow'' and ''Battle of Kuban'', with a western front focused expansion, ''Battle of Bodenplatte'', coming soon, as well as a WWI focused expansion titled ''Flying Circus'' and a tank focused expansion titled ''Tank Crew''.

The game, along with its 3 main sequels and numerous expansion packs, features literally hundreds of planes (most of them flyable), dozens of detailed gameplay maps in every possible theater of the war and also the opportunity to fly as some of the less famous Axis and Allied powers (e. g. [[UsefulNotes/FinnswithFearsomeForests Finland]], [[UsefulNotes/DutchmenwithDestroyers the Netherlands]], [[UsefulNotes/NewRomanLegions Italy]], [[UsefulNotes/TheBiteofDracula Romania]], [[UsefulNotes/Hungary]], [[UsefulNotes/SlovakswithSappers Slovakia]], [[UsefulNotes/AussieswithArtillery Australia]], [[UsefulNotes/KiwiswithCarbines New Zealand]], and the [[UsefulNotes/GaulsWithGrenades French]] and [[UsefulNotes/PoleswithPoleaxes Polish]] [[LaResistance resistance]]). The expansion pack ''IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946'' features several AlternateHistory campaigns [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cklXJA4HcQ with many American, German and Russian prototype planes]] that never made it into service during the war (many of them early jet fighters).

The game, along with its 3 main sequels and numerous expansion packs, features literally hundreds of planes (most of them flyable), dozens of detailed gameplay maps in every possible theater of the war and also the opportunity to fly as some of the less famous Axis and Allied powers (e. g. [[FinnswithFearsomeForests Finland]], [[DutchmenwithDestroyers the Netherlands]], [[NewRomanLegions Italy]], [[TheBiteofDracula Romania]], [[Hungary]], [[SlovakswithSappers Slovakia]], [[AussieswithArtillery Australia]], [[KiwiswithCarbines New Zealand]], and the [[GaulsWithGrenades French]] and [[PoleswithPoleaxes Polish]] [[LaResistance resistance]]). The expansion pack ''IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946'' features several AlternateHistory campaigns [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cklXJA4HcQ with many American, German and Russian prototype planes]] that never made it into service during the war (many of them early jet fighters).

The game, along with its 3 main sequels and numerous expansion packs, features literally hundreds of planes (most of them flyable), dozens of detailed gameplay maps in every possible theater of the war and also the opportunity to fly as some of the less famous Axis and Allied powers (e. g. [[UsefulNotes/FinnswithFearsomeForests Finland]], [[UsefulNotes/DutchmenwithDestroyers the Netherlands]], [[UsefulNotes/NewRomanLegions Italy]], [[UsefulNotes/TheBiteofDracula Romania]], {{UsefulNotes/Hungary}}, [[UsefulNotes/SlovakswithSappers Slovakia]], [[UsefulNotes/AussieswithArtillery Australia]], [[UsefulNotes/KiwiswithCarbines NewZealand]], the [[UsefulNotes/GaulsWithGrenades French]] and [[UsefulNotes/PoleswithPoleaxes Polish]] [[LaResistance resistance]]). The expansion pack ''IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946'' features several AlternateHistory campaigns [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cklXJA4HcQ with many American, German and Russian prototype planes]] that never made it into service during the war (many of them early jet fighters).

The game, along with its 3 main sequels and numerous expansion packs, features literally hundreds of planes (most of them flyable), dozens of detailed gameplay maps in every possible theater of the war and also the opportunity to fly as some of the less famous Axis and Allied powers (e. g. {{UsefulNotes/Finland}}, UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands, {{UsefulNotes/Italy}}, {{UsefulNotes/Romania}}, {{UsefulNotes/Hungary}}, {{UsefulNotes/Slovakia}}, {{UsefulNotes/Australia}}, UsefulNotes/NewZealand, the UsefulNotes/{{Fr|ance}}ench and UsefulNotes/{{Pol|and}}ish [[LaResistance resistance]]). The expansion pack ''IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946'' features several AlternateHistory campaigns [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cklXJA4HcQ with many American, German and Russian prototype planes]] that never made it into service during the war (many of them early jet fighters).

* BizarreAndImprobableBallistics[=/=]BulletsDoNotWorkThatWay: The devs are just as studious about projectile physics as the are about everything else.

The difficulty and accuracy of the flight mechanics are extremely scalable, making the game accessible to [[HardCore pros]] and amateurs alike. You can [[http://www.whiteknight77.net/images/il2settings1.jpg easily customize the difficulty and realism]] of flight and air combat, turning the game either into a semi-realistic arcade dogfighter or a punishingly realistic NintendoHard flight sim. The game also offers a lot of freedom for creating custom missions and campaigns in it's simple and intuitive LevelEditor, and is generally opened to adding player-created custom content (including the possibility to add your own skins for the various aircraft or new music and sound files into the game). There's a giant fan community and tons of {{game mod}}s in addition to the official releases. It's no secret that part of the series' success lay in a dedicated modding community worldwide. A large part of the original modder projects even became official parts of the later sequels.