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Multiplayer

Il-2’s strength has historically been multiplayer. Despite a community that will bicker over the smallest details for ages, Il-2 Sturmovik has staked out a top spot in the online sim community. The AI and campaign problems are not issues in this venue and there is the added thrill of having to compete against real pilots.

Focke-Wulfing

Nice strafe

Good bomb

The most common multiplayer servers host dedicated Axis vs. Allied multiplayer matches, where each side has an objective to achieve – one that is usually completely ignored in favor of head-on combat. Organizing a flight to escort bombers to strike an objective in Il-2: FB is about as effective as giving orders in Counterstrike – it’ll just land you a load of flames. With the huge maps involved, it’s key to join servers that already have a large population of pilots or else it may be a long time coming before you find your opponent.

Multiproblems

Forgotten Battles has solid netcode, making lag a non-issue for broadband players – although we encountered more disconnects than we cared for. One of the key problems with multiplayer is the Ubi interface. While we originally reported that it does not include detailed server setting information, in fact it does. However, it remains unpopular with Il-2 pilots due to its somewhat clumsy operation, fixed 800x600 window size and Gestapo-like questionnaire.

Massive AAA

Evade, evade!

Trains away

The game lobby offers all necessary information, however. Simply hovering the mouse cursor above the joystick icon next to a server will provide those details in short order. This brings us to a major problem with the Il-2 community itself - it's quite fragmented. Everyone has their own favorite settings and while players are flexible, there is only limited overlap between fans of certain styles.

In the interest of realism, many will turn all the options on. They’ll disable padlock, turn on head shake, disable external views, force the cockpit view, etc. Realism is great, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the game. In the game the player can't move his head and look around to follow his target – but a real pilot could. He can’t sit up in his seat to try to get a look over the engine cowl at a plane that dived out of sight – but a real pilot could. So what settings server operators use to balance simulator limitations are always subject to debate and there is no standard around which the community can rally.

Hyperlobby hosts thousands of Il-2 players, and these happen to be the established, hardcore crowd. It's rather unfortunate that the Ubi.com crowd is quite small, as this discourages new players from investigating multiplayer further; they may give up on the game before hearing of Hyperlobby.