|
Review - IL-2: Forgotten Battles
Back To Page 1
Installation and Setup
Installation on both of my computers
seemed to take a lot longer than it should. I think the primary
cause for the long install time was due to the CD copy protection
software on the FB disks. I understand the need to protect
software copyrights but I personally do not think this is
the way to do it. The only thing current copy protection software
ever accomplishes is to hinder the fair use of a legally purchased
game. Please don’t think I condone piracy, I ABSOLUTELY
DO NOT! But the simple reality is that actual pirates always
find a way to beat the copy protection... and once again the
consumer, you and me, end up footing the bill in $$$ and frustration.
 The
setup of FB went much faster than the install. There is a
useful Setup utility that provides a fast and easy way to
configure the game for the vast majority of users. It works
well. My only complaint was the lack of some current sound
card pre-configurations in the selections menu. Both the Creative
Audigy/Audigy 2 sound cards are missing from the lineup. Considering
that there have been several complaints about stutter/frame
rate difficulties (possibly related to sound) I am very surprised
that specific hardware configurations for the latest cards
weren’t included. That being said... I used the closest
options and everything generally worked well. The only notable
problem I had was using Open GL. The graphics looked
absolutely outstanding… But I was experiencing random
long pauses. Pauses that lasted for 3 to 5 seconds! Obviously
that’s unsatisfactory for a game, especially one that’s
supposed to be multiplayer. The problem was reduced significantly
when I selected Direct X mode. Hopefully this will be corrected
in a future patch.
Game Play Options
The same basic playing options available
in IL-2 Sturmovik are available in IL-2 Forgotten Battles.
They are: Single Missions, Pilot Career, Multiplay, Quick Mission Builder, and Full Mission Builder.
There are some notable improvements from the original rendition
in the different playing modes.
Single Missions
 As
it sounds, this is where you play a single mission. More
counties are represented than in the original IL-2 game.
The new ones are Finland, Hungary, and the USA. Once you
select the nation you want to fly for, choose the options
you want: the weapons load out, aircraft ‘skin’,
and pilot ‘skin’ are configurable. There’s
also a ‘Markings On’ switch allowing the
national insignia to be turned off, this is very useful
when using a custom skin that already includes national
markings. The only limitation on skin assignment is the
inability to choose anything different than the default
paint scheme for your wingman and adversary aircraft, as
they’re not selectable. A total of 20 single missions
are included but more can be added by using the Full Mission
Builder, or by downloading some of the growing number of
user generated missions available from various fan web sites.
Unfortunately it isn’t possible to use Single Mission
sorties for cooperative multiplayer play in the format presented;
but a few simple edits of the mission file using a text
editor and they can be converted/configured for multiplayer
use.
Pilot Career
The Campaign Mode! This is where
IL-2 FB really differs from IL-2 Sturmovik. FB has both
a Dynamic and the IL-2 ‘Static Branched’ campaign.
The ‘Static Branched’ Campaigns can be created
in the Full Mission Builder by building a series of single
missions and then integrating them into either a ‘Linear
Branched’ or ‘Random Branched’ scenario.
The instructions on how to accomplish this are very clear
in the FB manual. Static campaigns are great fun, but one
of FB’s strongest assets is the new Dynamic Campaign mode.
 To
begin a Dynamic Campaign you create a ‘pilot’,
select the country, the squadron, the appropriate aircraft
type, and the date you want to ‘enter’ the fray.
FB then generates a sortie for you to fly. This sortie is
randomly generated. After you fly it the results will be
integrated in to the next generated campaign mission. They
don’t repeat. The battle lines move historically, and
you cannot change history, but your performance can slow
or speed up the advance. The equipment destroyed or lost
is ‘remembered’ and that will affect what you
see on later sorties... shoot down a significant percentage
of I-16’s and the chances of encountering any more
of that type are reduced. Lose too many wingman and your
squadron will fall below operation strength until replacements
trickle in. Historical Aces are also modeled, and they fly
with appropriate skill. If you’re good or lucky enough
to kill one he’ll not be encountered again. Each pilot
in your squadron has a name, photo and some personal information;
his skill level or value to the unit is dictated by his
combat experience. Naturally, the new replacements are generally
brand new pilots with very low experience levels so it’s
advantageous to try and keep the experienced ones alive.
This makes the Single Mission tactic of using your wingman
as bait in order to get a kill a counterproductive strategy
in Pilot Career mode.
The re-playability of Pilot Career
mode is almost unlimited. It takes a pretty long time to
work through a single ‘Career’. A pilot’s
‘Career’ is comprised of 4 to 8 separate ‘Campaigns’.
A ‘Campaign’ is approximately 30 missions. That
makes the total number of missions flown in a single career
anywhere from 100 to 250 individual sorties. WOW! That is
a bunch! And since each mission is generated randomly there
is sure a ton of re-playability without the fear
of repeating identical missions.
Multiplay
 This
is one of the most important features of any game for me.
I really love to play multiplayer Flight Sims, and FB does
not disappoint in this category. There are two ways to play... Dogfight and Cooperative. Dogfight is just
that, a fight between live opponents, and it allows for
up to 32 players. Pick sides and ‘fight’s on’.
In Cooperative mode you have the opportunity to complete
a tactical sortie with the help of 15 of your friends (for
a total 16 human players). On missions that have crew aircraft
like the Ju-87 or IL-2 the option to be a gunner is available
if you don’t feel like being the driver. There’s
also the ability to use custom aircraft and pilot skins
that download to all the players so your buddies can actually
look at the aircraft and see your face on the pilot looking
back!
There are several ‘Coop’
missions already included in Multiplay, but to be honest,
I expected a few more. Additional Coop missions can be created
using the Full Mission Builder. I was also surprised there
is not more commonality between how the different types
of IL-2 FB missions files are constructed. The Single Missions
and the Quick Mission Builder files are not compatible in
Coop play, although a slight modification of the Single
Missions ‘.mis’ file can make them Coop capable.
The Quick Missions Builder missions cannot be similarly
adapted, which is unfortunate because a quick 4 v 4 Coop
sortie would be fun. It would also be a convenient way to
practice dissimilar BFM with varying adversary aircraft
before meeting human players.
FB has another interesting feature
for multiplay — an indigenous network voice communication
capability. We attempted to use this function several times
and had very little luck getting it to operate properly.
After a while we just gave up and used a popular third party
VOX program that worked very well with FB. To be honest
and fair I must state that I really did not spend too much
time troubleshooting FB’s Network Voice Communication function. Maybe if I had been more persistent I could have
had success with Network Voice, but with other outstanding
VOX software readily available I just didn’t think
it worth the effort.
Connection difficulties were relatively
minor. FB sometimes would not ‘see’ all the players
until we changed the host, then all would be fine again.
The aircraft and pilot skins would take some time to transfer,
occasionally you’ll start a mission with the default
skins on your friend’s aircraft, but after a few minutes
of play, his custom skin would display. There was also one
very weird experience I had with one of the adapted Single
Missions sorties... Invisible bandit aircraft! There were
a couple of enemy aircraft that could only be seen by the
AI aircraft and one of the three human players! I know the
AI saw them because they engaged! It was very odd watching
a fight with only one side visible! I have no clue what
happened and I never experienced that again. Other than
these minor nuances Multiplay was rock solid and pretty
lag free. The maximum number of players I tested was three,
and all had good high-speed cable or DSL connections, so
I really don’t know what the effect 32 players will
have. I would like to try that someday... It could be great
fun!
Go
To Page 3
Click here to go to top of
this page.
|
