Line #18 VideoGame/Il2Sturmovik


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sturmi.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Box art.]]
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4	''IL-2 Sturmovik'' is a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII [[SimulationGame Combat Flight Simulator]] for the PC. It was originally started by Russian game developer [[http://blogs.vizerra.com/.a/6a0120a6e0c3e9970b014e87fa541b970d-pi Oleg Maddox]] as a hobby garage project featuring the famous Soviet [[EnsembleDarkhorse ground attack plane]], which also lent the game its name. [[ArtifactTitle It was kept even after the game got heavily expanded and commercially released]], [[CashCowFranchise spawning this juggernaut of a series shortly afterward.]] The branding has stuck to the point where the formerly-titled sequel ''Storm of War: Battle of Britain'' [[MarketBasedTitle is now]] ''IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover''.
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6	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/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).
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8	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 its 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.
9
10	!!!The series so far consists of these installments:
11	* ''IL-2 Sturmovik (2001)'': The original that started it all. Universally praised by both critics and gamers, it's often credited with resurrecting and revolutionizing the whole combat flight sim genre.
12	* ''IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles (2003)'': The first stand-alone sequel, formerly announced as a mere expansion pack. Focuses mainly on less cited aerial theatres (e.g. skirmishes between the Finnish and Soviet air forces during the Winter War and Continuation War).
13	* ''Forgotten Battles: Ace Expansion Pack (2004)'': The first expansion pack, which added several new nations and lots of other additional content to the first two games.
14	* ''Forgotten Battles: Gold Pack (2004)'': Another expansion.
15	* ''Pacific Fighters (2004)'': The one {{Oddly Named Sequel\|2ElectricBoogaloo}}, adding aircraft carriers and focusing chiefly on the Pacific theatre in all its entirety.
16	* ''IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 (2006)'': The last main installment in the original series, featuring the aforementioned AlternateHistory elements.
17	* ''Sturmoviks over Manchuria (2007)'': A small expansion pack that mostly added a few more campaigns.
18	* ''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 because the developer bought their rights, but generally considered an AdaptationDistillation SpinOff of it for the console audience.
19	** ''VideoGame/BirdsOfSteel'' is a SerialNumbersFiledOff sequel set in the Pacific theater.
20	** ''VideoGame/WarThunder (2012)'' is a standalone multiplayer game that was expanded from this.
21	* ''IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover (2011)'': The sequel formerly titled ''Storm of War: Battle of Britain''.
22	* ''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'', ''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''.
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25	!!This game series provides examples of:
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27	%%Zero Context Example entries are not allowed on the wiki and have been commented out. Add context before uncommenting them.
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29	* ATeamFiring: The Rookie and Average AI pilots in quick battle mode tend to be this. (Though, to be fair, the Average AI only misses you if you're in a turn and only just; if you're flying straight and level, you're screwed.) The Veteran and Ace Pilots? [[ImprobableAimingSkills Not so much.]]
30	* 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, skill and luck to achieve such status.
31	** AceCustom: Besides unique custom plane skins representing a certain ace, there are also a few slightly modified versions of standard Axis and Allied fighters, flown by famous aces of WWII.
32	* AirborneAircraftCarrier: Yes, this [[ShownTheirWork incredibly accurate]] game still managed to work in one of these in a way. The Zveno "parasite fighter" is one of the featured aircraft. It consists of a TB-3 bomber with two tiny Polikarpov fighters mounted under the wings.
33	* AirstrikeImpossible: Missions over heavily defended areas and fronts [[EverythingTryingToKillYou (with lots of AA batteries and patrol planes everywhere)]]. Not very common, but there are some.
34	* AllThereInTheManual: The more detailed instructions on default keys, difficulty settings, flying and dogfighting can be found in the main manual. Then there's another separate manual which is basically a booklet that lists all of the game's flyable aircraft - with detailed information on a specific type's tech specs, weaknesses and strengths, historical info and developer commentary, and pictures showing which cockpit readout and control is which (this last bit of info is useful for those players that want to fly a plane purely "on instruments", using the control panel's readouts and indicators as a {{diegetic interface}}.
35	* AlternateHistory: The main content of the ''1946'' installment, both plane-wise and mission-wise. Despite its speculative nature, it manages to nicely avert most "alternate WWII" clichés and the StupidJetpackHitler and SovietSuperscience tropes. Definitely deserves a Type I on the SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility.
36	* AmericaWonWorldWarII: {{Defied}}: the series started as a simulator for the Soviet Ilyushin-2 Sturmovik tactical bomber and morphed into a game that features every air conflict in the entire European theatre, plus an expansion devoted to naval aviation in the Pacific.
37	* AntiAir: Lots of various static and vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft weapons. Rookie pilots will quickly learn not to play hero and attack them head-on, instead trying out some evasive maneuvers before diving and spraying the target with a burst of explosive ammo (or rockets, if the plane is carrying any). AA guns are pretty much the ultimate nightmare while storming a heavily fortified enemy airfield and take some skill and practice to be effectively taken out, with minimal losses or damage on part of the player.
38	* AttackPatternAlpha: During all missions, you can give a wide range of orders to your wingmen (if you're commanding any, that is).
39	* AutoPilotTutorial: This game has tutorial videos; however, they also have a fair share of [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome interesting and action-packed moments]] and very often even [[RuleOfFunny a joke or two]].
40	* BattleshipRaid: Quite a few examples, both literal (mainly in ''Pacific Fighters'') and figurative (hunting down bombers, especially [[GiantFlyer large ones]]).
41	* BigBulkyBomb:
42	** There are at least several enormous bombs that one can load onto an aircraft[[note]]The biggest in the game, excluding {{Game Mod}}s, is the Russian 5,000-kilogram (11,000-pound) FAB-5000, which can only be carried by the non-player-flyable Petlyakov Pe-8 heavy bomber (although a recent patch makes the Pe-8 player-flyable)[[/note]]; the blasts from these are so big that, depending on the computer hardware running the game, their detonations can ''slow down the game''. And then there's their destructive power...
43	** Then there is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistel Mistel]]. An entire Junkers Ju-88 light bomber converted into a semi-autonomous flying bomb that is several times larger than the FW-190 fighter plane that piggybacks on it to pilot it to the target area for release.
44	** Fan-made mods add 1950s-era jet planes, armed with Mk 7 and Mk 21 freefall nuclear bombs. Surprisingly, they're less bulky than some of the conventional explosives.
45	* ColorCodedArmies[=/=]ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Axis planes are always blue and Allied planes always red on the map and dogfighting HUD. The basic colour designation never changes, regardless of which faction you're playing for. This can get ''very'' [[DamnYouMuscleMemory confusing]] at times. Flying as a pilot in the Pacific theatre and trying to remember that Red contacts are Allies, and blue contacts are Japanese planes, takes some getting used to after being conditioned to associate the US Pacific Air Force with blue planes, and Japan with its token red sun flag.
46	* ComingInHot: The higher the realism settings, the higher the chance of returning to base with a barely flyable machine (or not returning at all). The game's manual even advises the player to drop any remaining bomb, rocket or fueltank payloads before attempting an emergency landing. If the bottom of your fuselage is seriously damaged, chances are that your undercarriage will literally fall to pieces once you try to deploy it for landing. With a bit of luck, you can still land though - [[CaptainCrash gliding slowly downward and skidding a bumpy ride on the fuselage]]. Of course, if you don't feel that skilled, [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim you can always just bail out with a parachute]].
47	* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: The AI pilots' flight model is simplified, and even though this has been toned down in the many patches, they still don't suffer from blackouts or engine overheating. They also have superior performance in general, but thankfully this is not a problem in multiplayer...
48	** AI pilots - and AI gunners - are absolutely unaffected by turbulence and G-forces, which leads to a curious situation where the most dangerous opponents in single player mode are modest attack aircraft with a rear gunner, as they can perform evasive maneuvers whilst delivering a continuous stream of lethally accurate fire to your pilot's head. Whether this was intended to make the IL-2 itself more survivable (the real airplane suffered horrendous losses) is debatable.
49	* ContinueYourMissionDammit: The superiors in your flight or squadron will chastise you a bit if you steer too far away from the main waypoints of a given mission or from your fellow wingmen. Subverted in that they don't keep harping on about it ad nausea, nor do they reprimand you for it. They just alert you to not get lost or too far behind or too far ahead (since staying together as a group increases the chance to carry out the mission successfully and within a realistic timeframe).
50	* CoolPlane: If you're a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII military aircraft buff, you'll consider these games as outright TechnologyPorn.
51	* CoversAlwaysLie: A rare ''{{inverted\|Trope}}'' example of this trope : The IL-2 is not the only plane you can fly in the first game (let alone the series), but the cover art and title seem to imply the exact opposite.
52	* DangerDeadpan: {{Subverted\|Trope}} hilariously. Your fellow wingmen speak in a cool-headed, deadpan, professional manner most of the time - but just wait until you get into a particularly difficult dogfight or someone gets shot down... MoodWhiplash and RuleOfFunny ensues. One of the Japanese "shot down/bailing" quotes is a particularly {{Narm}}tastic scream.
53	* DiegeticInterface: Wholly possible if you turn off the various HUD elements and use your cockpit control panel and readouts as your main or only source of information for flying and fighting.
54	* DieselPunk: To a degree, especially in ''1946''. It's got a more realistic than RuleOfCool tone, though.
55	* DoABarrelRoll: And many other manoueveres, both basic and advanced - whether you're dogfighting or just plain flying around. Needless to say, they're depicted as realistically as possible, in keeping with the series tone.
56	* DodgeByBraking: The realistic version of this trope. Also one of the basic manoeuvers while dogfighting in the game.
57	* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Averted. Though the game is deliberately minimalistic in its presentation (it doesn't even have cutscenes in the classic sense), the mission briefings and squadron documents seen in every campaign will remind you of how many of your wingmen were KIA or went MIA (not to mention the number of enemy kills you've achieved). And to further shatter the reassuring notion of AMillionIsAStatistic, in this game, TheDeadHaveNames. Not only that, they also have their personal photos, records and awards - in the exact same way as you, [[{{Deconstruction}} putting the concept]] of [[WeHaveReserves soldiers as replacable cogwheels]] into an [[WarIsHell unnerving and unglamorous perspective]].
58	* DuelToTheDeath: Happens frequently after encountering a large enemy squadron or WorthyOpponent AcePilot.
59	* EagleSquadron: There are some examples of this, but they're already more official variations of the trope (e. g. British pilots helping the US in the Pacific theatre) or have something to do with the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease Allied lend-lease project]].
60	* EnemyExchangeProgram: Seen constantly, just like in the real Second World War. Often results in the Allied and Axis side both using some of the same aircraft models or brands.
61	* FightingForAHomeland: The Finnish, French, Polish and Soviet air forces would be the most clear-cut examples. Many additional fan-made [[GameMod mods]] also feature pilots of foreign occupied nationalities serving in the RAF (e. g. Czechoslovak fighter and bomber pilots). The French, Polish and Finnish air forces also double as LaResistance - the French forces being the {{Trope Namer\|s}}, of course...
62	* FirstPersonGhost: Played straight in cockpit view. Averted in all external views, where you can see the pilot characters clearly. They even make slight movements during flight.
63	* GameMod: Thousands of new planes, paint schemes, maps, new sound and graphic effects packs, you name it. (Though installing them into the game can be quite a headache, since there are several similar but different applications for doing so created by various mod teams. Also, you have to make heads or tails of which version of the game you have and whether it's properly patched up, otherwise you're screwed.) The game boasts an impressive worldwide modder base, probably one of the largest ones continually in existence.
64	* GreyAndGrayMorality[=/=]MyCountryRightOrWrong[=/=]WorthyOpponent: Part of the appeal of the campaigns is that they focus on the life and work of military pilots from their own personal perspective, [[AvertedTrope instead of]] [[AuthorFilibuster shoehorning in a discussion on the politics of the war into a mission's backstory]]. The regimes that some pilots serve might be reprehensible dictatorships, but it's not ultimately the pilots' fault, nor are most of them gleeful, monstrous killers. Sometimes, the nations and factions portrayed are caught in complex and decidedly non-black-and-white political situations (e.g. [[TruthInTelevision Finns, Romanians]]), and often, even [[PopularHistory "the good guys"]] have to carry out examples of IDidWhatIHadToDo in order to score a victory that might end the war sooner. As far as the player is concerned, [[MyCountryRightOrWrong everybody is just doing his job]] [[ShowDontTell and experiencing first-hand]] [[SceneryPorn that even among the clouds]], WarIsHell.
65	* HighAltitudeBattle:
66	** Not as many as you would think, though a few missions involving bomber-busting start off in quite high altitudes.
67	** More common in multiplayer as long as there are a few moderately experienced pilots around. Follows naturally from two or more pilots trying to achieve energy advantage over the other, or attempting to use their aircraft's high altitude performance to their advantage. These fights are usually of completely different nature than low or medium altitude dogfights and furballs. The low air density up high means the engines are also producing less power and thrust, but the airplanes need to move faster to produce sufficient lift. Luckily, low density air also reduces the drag, but maneuvering becomes much harder and slows down the aircraft rapidly, so the emphasis is usually on flying as cleanly and economically as possible, and the one who manages to gain an energy advantage usually wins. This can result in prolonged, high-tension battles, compared to fast-paced, action-packed low altitude furballs.
68	* [[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou The IL-2 Is About to Strafe Your Tank]]
69	* JustAStupidAccent[=/=]AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Averted. The pilots of every featured nation are voiced by genuine native speakers.
70	* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Make sure to evacuate your aircraft after emergency landing, or [[https://youtu.be/ZGAkYI8790c?t=13m40s even after towing off the runway]], as enemy fighters will have ''no'' reserves about strafing a landed airplane.
71	* NoseArt: Both in the form of actual nose art and selectable skins for the planes. The markings on your plane depend on the nation/faction you're flying for and can be turned off if you wish.
72	* NoSwastikas:
73	** In most wider releases, Luftwaffe aircraft will not carry the black and white ''hakenkreuz'', nor do Finnish planes do not carry the historical Von Rosen cross, a light blue swastika on a white circle (despite the fact that the adoption of the Finnish roundel cross predates the adoption of the swastika by the NSDAP by several years, and in any case was done to honor the Swedish count Erik Von Rosen's donation of aircraft during the Finnish Civil War). Soviet aircraft use a five-pointed red star roundel, which could have unsavory connotations for many (though, aside from being Russian-produced software, similar stars make up the roundels of current Chinese, Vietnamese, Kazakh, North Korea, Belorussian, Tajik and of course, Russian Air Forces, making it a very common element). While the original Russian software release features German and Finnish swastikas, other countries, such as Japan, were given modified or otherwise inaccurate insignia. In any case, [[GameMod multiple texture pack options exist to make corrections or allow the player their choice of roundels]] among insignia assets, and for aircraft skins (which are separately handled), many community-created skins for aircraft also prefer historical accuracy over [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory inoffensiveness]].
74	** A humorous subversion appears in the case of smaller countries allied or [[TheQuisling subservient to the Axis powers]]. Romania, Slovakia and Hungary have stylized aircraft crosses unique to the era of their WWII regimes. These ultimately have the same connotations as Nazi Germany's swastikas, but the censors seemingly took a double standard approach in their case (probably because of the "MyFriendsAndZoidberg" status of the countries in the Axis). Anyway, this leaves these countries having more period-accurate insignia than the bigger players in the war. The insignia aren't completely uniform though : The skins donated to ''Forgotten Battles'' by Slovak modders feature both the roundels of the [[TheQuisling WWII regime]] and the local LaResistance.
75	* OfficialFanSubmittedContent: As already mentioned a few times, a lot of the extra content - including new theatre maps, working planes and voice acting - was submitted to the developer by modder teams from various countries, as part of a contest for expanding the series scope with the addition of smaller countries and their distinct air forces of the WWII era. Most of this fan content was released in two smaller expansion packs or in free DLC and official patches.
76	* OldSchoolDogfight: The series is set during a time period where planes really did carry only line-of-sight weapons and got into dogfights regularly.
77	* {{Overheating}}: One of the many realism elements that can be turned on or off is the overheating of your aircraft's engine(s). Luckily, if your engine has only just started overheating, you can always cool it down by simply lowering your speed (thus lowering the strees on your engine, until it cools down). And if worst comes worst and your engine catches fire, [[{{Lifelines}} you can quickly cool the engine with a key command assigned to the on-board extinguisher (roughly two doses available before you run out of extinguishing fluid)]].
78	* {{Roboteching}}:
79	** Some of the German fighters in ''1946'' (the Ta-152C, Ta-183, and Lerche) carry X-4 guided missiles. Of course, as the setting saw the beginning of guided weaponry, these missiles have to be manually guided to their targets.
80	** A patch for ''1946'' adds in several more actual WWII-era guided weapons (namely the German Hs-293 anti-ship missile and Fritz-X radio guided bomb, and the American Razon guided bomb and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_(guided_bomb) Bat]] anti-ship guided bomb). Although the first three also have to be manually guided, the Bat is a "fire-and-forget"-type weapon.
81	* SceneryPorn: Even on lower settings, the graphics in each game try their best at awing the player by the detailed and fluent surrounding environments. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYmpqgwLUJA Observe.]]
82	* SeeTheWhitesOfTheirEyes: {{Justified\|Trope}}, since this is the most reliable way of scoring a OneHitKill against enemy aircraft, especially if you're dogfighting aboard a fighter against other fighters. It also eats up much less ammo compared to attempts of shooting someone down from a far greater distance (like, say, a mile or two).
83	* ShootTheFuelTank: [[ZigZaggingTrope Played straight with some aircraft, subverted with others.]] It all depends on what class, type and specific model of aircraft are you shooting at. Each has different [[FlawedPrototype design weaknesses]], including vulnerable [[AttackItsWeakPoint (and well exploitable)]] construction flaws.
84	* SinkTheLifeBoats: Shooting parachutes. You can shoot the pilot, leaving his lifeless body dangling on the chute. Or you can shoot the chute, [[VideogameCrueltyPotential sending the poor devil plummeting to his death]].
85	* ShownTheirWork: This game is among the most realistic combat flight simulators ever made, particularly if you fly on max difficulty, and the devs are studiously careful about historical accuracy as well.
86	* SomeDexterityRequired: The flight models are generally very twitchy and unforgiving of hamfisted flying. If you don't handle the stick and rudder with finesse, you WILL get the aircraft into a nasty stall or spin that you can only recover from after massive altitude loss-if you don't get shot up while trying to recover. In addition, gunnery is very difficult and will require a steady stick. This is especially true if you turn on all the realistic settings. The whole game can be controlled easily via keyboard, but joysticks are generally the better controller on higher and more professional difficulties.
87	* [[StormingTheCastle Storming the Airbase]]: Missions focusing on bombing enemy airfields and airbases, particularly their AA guns, supplies and parked aircraft.
88	* SubsystemDamage: Individual cockpit instruments can be shot out, in addition to control surfaces, engines, fuel tanks (they may just leak instead of outright exploding), and of course, the pilot.
89	** The most recent patch added support for realistic pilot injuries: Your avatar can injure each limb separately, which affects how well the plane can be controlled. You can also bleed to death, fast or slow depending on how heavily you are losing blood, and non-lethal head injuries create a red haze on your view.
90	* TechDemoGame : Especially when it first came out in 2001. Amazingly, if you purchase the final ''1946'' edition of the game and crank up all the graphic settings to "perfect", the game can ''still'' put quite a bit of strain even on a current high-end computer. Not bad for a game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB8JY96cQK8 that started development]] in the second half of TheNineties.
91	* WideOpenSandbox: While every mission (whether standalone or a campaign/career one) has a fixed set of main and optional objectives and recommended waypoints, the gameplay and your route to victory can be completely nonlinear, based on the player's own preferences. The stock campaigns have a marked "choose your own adventure" angle and the two different mission editors (one for quick battles and one for full missions) can leave the player with multiple possible goals.
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94	!!This series also completely (and notably) [[AvertedTrope averts]] the following aviation tropes:
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96	* AirJousting: However, there is one rare situation where this can become TruthInTelevision - when an enemy aircraft is coming directly toward you at high speed. The one who manages to shoot a burst of ammo at his adversary first, comes off as the victor in these instances...
97	** Mind you this Trope is ''encouraged'' by some RealLife dogfighting Dictas (like [[BigBookOfWar Dicta Boelke]] for one) but only in certain circumstances like when there are a bunch of fighters on your six.
98	** Most experienced pilots in multiplayer avoid head-on approaches like a plague because they put both aircraft in equally great danger of getting hit by bullets or the other plane, and instead elect to avoid the head-on and try to gain an advantage in angles or energy to get into good firing position.
99	** By contrast, head-on approaches seem to be the only thing that inexperienced players ever do at the start of the engagement.
100	* BizarreAndImprobableBallistics: The devs are just as studious about projectile physics as the are about everything else.
101	* BottomlessMagazines: Ammunition and fuel for your aircraft is not infinite and you have to keep an eye on them while flying a mission. However, a lot depends on what you've switched on and off in your realism settings, so you can play the whole trope straight if you like.
102	%%* CriticalExistenceFailure
103	* EasyLogistics / InfiniteSupplies : Particularly averted in the dynamic campaigns, where much is made of the fact that even moving a war front even with the strategic help of air power can take quite some time and that aircraft and pilot lives are invaluable, the loss of even a single one being a hindrance to the war effort. The latter trope comes up particularly painfully in the campaigns where the defenders are isolated from outside help or reinforcements, e.g. the Dutch campaign in Indonesia.
104	* EveryBulletIsATracer: A lot of them are, but not all.
105	* HighSpeedMissileDodge: Since only one or two planes (from ''1946'') are equipped with guided missiles, the aversion of this trope also applies to machine gun fire from close distances.
106	* HistoricalHeroUpgrade[=/=]HistoricalVillainUpgrade[=/=]VideoGameHistoricalRevisionism : While none of the canon (i.e. released) missions and campaigns allow you to do things as excessive as the bombing of Hiroshima, everything else is fair game and the political implications of fighting for a specific faction are barely ever brought up. The games don't focus on the politics of WWII, but on the personal experiences of common pilots. Given this focus, GreyAndGrayMorality abounds.
107	* HollywoodTactics: Just try dogfighting or doing an attack run in the way it's usually portrayed in most films, and you'll soon find yourself plummeting to the ground in a burning (or ''[[NightmareFuel exploding]]'') aircraft.
108	* HyperspaceArsenal: Only if you turn off Limited Ammo in the realism/difficulty settings.
109	** Can be fun though, especially if you're piloting a plane equipped with any form of rocket - MacrossMissileMassacre, anyone? [[AwesomeButImpractical Too bad that rockets always need a few seconds to recharge between salvos]]...
110	*** [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments That's nothing compared to the mayhem of carpet bombing everything in sight with your infinite loadout of bombs.]]
111	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Played straight by some individuals on multiplayer, though. There are people who can genuinely manage astonishing feats of virtual aerial gunnery.
112	* ImprobablePilotingSkills: Well, even on the hardest realism settings, you can still try to pull off very risky maneuvers and other insane daring-dos, but don't be surprised if your plane starts falling apart or malfunctioning afterward...there's a reason each plane has a value called "'''V'''elocity '''N'''ever '''E'''xceed".
113	* InVehicleInvulnerability: Pilot kills are actually one of the best ways to shoot down enemy aircraft. Though rare and purely a matter of lucky aiming, InstantDeathBullet [[BoomHeadshot headshots]] through the canopy are actually possible.
114	* LawOfInverseRecoil: Firing your forward-facing machine guns in-flight will slow you down, albeit only a tiny bit. Higher caliber rounds carry more momentum, and thus propel you back with a higher force. Also counts as an inverse of RecoilBoost.
115	* 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 (which tends to be thought of as 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.)
116	* [[OneManArmy One-Man Air Force]]: Played straight only when you turn off Vulnerability, Limited Ammo and Limited Fuel.
117	* PinballProjectile: Bullets behave very realistically. Most of the time, you will ''not'' have problems with them accidentally bouncing off anything. For the simple reason that most of the time, ''[[SomeDexterityRequired you will not be hitting anything with your stream of bullets]]'' (especially if you keep gunning from ineffective distances, where your bullets are very easily affected by gravity).
118	* RammingAlwaysWorks: It kind of does, but is almost impossible to achieve properly. And if you don't have Vulnerability turned off, [[StupidSacrifice it usualy means curtains for you as well as the enemy]].
119	* SightedGunsAreLowTech: The only way you can fire effectively at anything is with the use of your gunsights in the cockpit view. In addition, the gunsights ''need to be switched on first'' and ''occasionally even manually tuned'' to work properly at all.
120	* SmallReferencePools: One of the selling points of the series is that it focuses on a lot on the criminally overlooked theatres of the Second World War.
121	* StandardHollywoodStrafingProcedure: Played realistically. Unless you have invulnerability turned on, there's no way you can attack a fully functional anti-aircraft gun the same way you would attack an unarmed column of supply trucks. You need to learn different manouevers and tricks for different types of attacks.
122	* SuicidalOverconfidence: Chase a bomber close enough and they'll outsmart you by dropping their payload and starting evasive action, [[ArtificialBrilliance sometimes even before you start firing]]. Damaged fighters will disengage and try emergency landing. Every plane crew will bail out when enough damage is done, even when it's still flying.
123	* TranslationConvention: The radio voices always have pilots speaking their native languages. Good thing you have subtitles to work with and that all radio chatter is virtually identical, albeit in a different language.
124	* VaporTrail: Although averting the trope in meaning, all aircraft in the game start producing contrails at altitudes over 7,000 metres, where the water vapour on the exhaust gases condenses into visible trails. There are also oil trails, fuel trails and different kinds of smoke trails depending on the severity and type of damage, and if your plane is on fire you will be pulling a long tail of fire.

Context VideoGame / Il2Sturmovik