IL-2 Sturmovik () is a series of World War II combat flight simulation video games originally created in 2001 by Russian video game developer Maddox Games under the brand name 1C:Maddox Games, following its association with 1C Company. Maddox Games left 1C Company in 2011. Since 2012, 1C's new developers are 1C Game Studios (who develops the Great Battles series of simulation games) and Team Fusion Simulations (who develops the Dover series of simulation games). Thus, 1C Company currently owns the IL-2 Sturmovik label and runs three different accumulated generations of IL-2 games (three generations of IL-2 games have been established as three different game engine stages have been developed since 2001).
Along with its sequels, IL-2 Sturmovik is considered one of the leading World War II flight simulators.Spotlight: Ilushin IL2 Shturmovik, Digital age Shturmoviks. Fly Past magazine, pp 54-73. April 2011 The series covers a number of flyable aircraft of Soviet, German, American, British, Japanese, French, Italian, Romanian, Czechoslovak, Polish and other origins. Different games of the series cover different theaters of World War II, including the Eastern Front, the Western Front and the Pacific theater.
History IL-2 Sturmovik games spans three generations :
The first game in the series, IL-2 Sturmovik, was first released on 18 November 2001. This started the original line of IL-2 Sturmovik games which in the present day is officially titled IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 as this was the title of its "Complete Edition" back in 2006, the final compilation of add-ons in the first generation of IL-2 games.
The development of a completely different game engine in the series, introduced in 2011 upon release of IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover, started the second generation of games in the series. Almost immediately after Cliffs of Dover was released, Maddox Games left 1C Company. In 2012 a group of volunteers named "Team Fusion" took over Maddox Games and started working on Cliffs of Dover, fixing bugs and improving the game. This led in December 2017 to the release of a new version of the game (named Cliffs of Dover – Blitz) and in August 2020 to the first add-on in the second generation of IL-2 games: IL-2 Sturmovik: Desert Wings – Tobruk."IL-2 Sturmovik: Desert Wings – Tobruk is Out Now, The new addition to the critically acclaimed aerial combat simulation series takes you over the sands of North Africa, August 6, 2020"
As of December 2012, the other 1C's developer is 1C Game Studios, formed after association with video game developer 777 Studios, mostly known for developing and releasing the 2009 Rise of Flight simulator. The first game of this collaboration, and the latest title in the IL-2 Sturmovik series, started the third generation of games in the series, IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles, which was released in November 2013 under the title IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad.
As of 2017 the entire third generation is titled IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles. In the Great Battles series each game is considered as a "module". All modules share the same game engine and install. Buying a module merely unlocks the relevant content. Content works across modules, so buying one module allows you to fly the planes from that module on the maps and as part of the career of the other modules. The career mode also allows progression across modules.
Modules have been released for World War 2, but there are also 4 modules for the Great War, called Flying Circus. These modules all share the same map. The planes in the Flying Circus are based on a predecessor game by the same studio, Rise of Flight.
Games First generation Second generation Third generation
First generation of games (IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946) Title Year System Publisher Metacritic score (PC) Comments IL-2 Sturmovik 2001 Windows Ubisoft 91/100 Standalone game IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles 2003 Windows Ubisoft 86/100 Standalone game IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles - Ace Expansion Pack 2004 Windows Ubisoft 85/100 Add-on IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles - Gold Pack 2004 Windows Ubisoft Standalone game Pacific Fighters 2004 Windows Ubisoft 76/100 Standalone game Pe-2 Peshka 2006 Windows Ubisoft Add-on Sturmoviks over Manchuria 2006 Windows Ubisoft Add-on IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 2006 Windows Ubisoft 86/100 Add-on IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 - Complete Edition 2006 Windows Ubisoft Standalone game IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey 2009 Windows, 360, PS3, PSP, NDS 1C Company 78/100 Standalone game Wings of Prey 2009 Windows 1C Company 78/100 Standalone game
Second generation of games (Dover series)
The modules all run on Windows and are published by 1C Company.
Title YearSystemMetacritic score Comments IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover 2011Windows 60/100 Standalone game, has been replaced by Blitz IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover – Blitz 2017Windows 70/100 Standalone game, currently the official basic game IL-2 Sturmovik: Desert Wings – Tobruk 2020Windows 85/100 Add-on
Third generation of games (Great Battles series)
All modules share the same installation and game engine. On Steam, Battle of Stalingrad is listed as the base game, and all other modules are DLCs for that game. When buying through the developer's website, any module can be bought by itself and that will unlock the relevant content.
Each module generally comes with its own map and a collection of planes. The modules all run on Windows and are developed and published by 1C Game Studios (1CGS).
Battle of Stalingrad has a Metacritic rating of 74/100, although this reflects the state of the game on release and is very outdated given how much development there has been since to the game engine and how much additional content has been released.
World War 2 Flight sims
Title Year Comments IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad 2013 Base game on Steam IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Moscow 2016 IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Kuban 2018 IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Bodenplatte 2019 IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Normandy 2022 IL-2 Sturmovik: Odessa and Leningrad - Siege and Liberation 2025
World War 1 Flight sims
Title Year Comments IL-2 Sturmovik: Flying Circus - Volume I 2019 Map shared between the FC modules IL-2 Sturmovik: Flying Circus - Volume II 2023 Map shared between the FC modules IL-2 Sturmovik: Flying Circus - Volume III 2023 Map shared between the FC modules IL-2 Sturmovik: Flying Circus - Volume IV 2024 Map shared between the FC modules
Other
Title Year Comments IL-2 Sturmovik: Tank Crew 2019 Map can also be used for flight
Original 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.
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..IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles was a payable product that did not require the original 2001 game to be installed. A relevant new feature in Forgotten Battles was the campaign system that for the first time in the IL-2 Sturmovik games started the dynamic mode.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles - Ace Expansion Pack The Forgotten Battles Ace Expansion Pack was released in March 2004, adding 20 new modelled aircraft, 10 of them flyable by the player and with three new maps battlefields (Ardennes, Normandy, Pacific). Not a standalone game, the Ace Expansion Pack was a payable product which required that Forgotten Battles was previously installed.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles - Gold Pack The Gold Pack was simultaneously released with the Ace Expansion Pack. The Gold Pack reunited Forgotten Battles and Forgotten Battles - Ace Expansion Pack in one single standalone installation game. It was intended to purchasers who never before have bought any game in the IL-2 Sturmovik series.
Pacific Fighters
Released as a stand-alone expansion pack in October 2004, Pacific Fighters focuses on the Pacific theater, with theater-appropriate aircraft, as well as aircraft carriers and battleships.
Pe-2 Peshka In May 2006, the Pe-2 Peshka (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 Peshka is merged with previous games in the series. Pe-2 Peshka was a payable and downloadable patch, mainly intended to players who had accumulated all previous add-ons and patches of the series.
Sturmoviks over Manchuria Sturmoviks over Manchuria was a downloadable add-on, mainly focusing on the Manchuria region and the border between the USSR, China and Japanese-occupied Korea. With this new add-on the player could fly aircraft related to the conflicts that broke out in this region at the end of the Second World War. Sturmoviks over Manchuria was a payable and downloadable patch, mainly intended to players who had accumulated all previous add-ons and patches of the series.
IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946
Ubisoft released simultaneously both the IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 add-on (DLC) and the IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 compilation pack (in stores) in December 2006 in Europe and Australia; North American release was on 13 March 2007. The standalone compilation DVD takes its title from the add-on. In addition to all of the above games, the compilation includes the three new add-ons released in 2006: Pe-2 Peshka (released in May, see above) and the two add-ons newly included in the package: Sturmoviks over Manchuria and 1946. 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. Referring to a purely hypothetical continuation of World War II in 1946, the 1946 add-on introduced a few aircraft which in real history never went beyond the design stage (the Heinkel Lerche and the Focke-Wulf Ta 183, for example). Among others, the IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 compilation pack introduced the historically existing Yak-15, MiG-9, MiG-13, Ar-234, N1K-J, J2M, Ki-21, A-20C, Il-10 and many others. It also features nearly 200 new missions and new maps featuring the Kiev region, new parts of the USSR, Manchuria, 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. In November 2017 an improved version of the game with the name of Cliffs of Dover – Blitz was developed by Team Fusion Simulations with permission by 1C Company. In August 2020 Team Fusion Simulations released the first Blitz add-on, Desert Wings – Tobruk, set in the skies of North Africa during the Western Desert campaign from 1940 to 1943.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles