IL2-Korea Appreciation thread

[Dash,Polder]

Flew past the search lights stationed near the ends of an airfield, and the lighting power carts are spewing exhaust smoke out.  Parked up next to the base flag pole and the flag flutters in the breeze, its not static.  This game really is taking my suspension of disbelief to a much higher level. 

[YoYo]

Cool things that also changed after release - new explosion effects from AAA, maybe too grey but they look great and we have better smoke from the exhaust pipes. Nice changes!

[YoYo]

Aside from the campaign's unfortunately poor performance, when we're at the airport, taking off with our flight key, and over the target (VR), the idea of management, as well as fictional missions in which we don't participate but monitor reports, is brilliant. I really liked it; it's a really cool idea! 👍

 

[BoeingVertol]

Thank you for the game!  I have to admit that I scoffed at the price at first, but don't regret buying the deluxe edition direct from your store 1 bit.  I have already gotten more than my money's worth in entertainment value thus far.  Anxiously anticipating more content, but learning the F80 from top to bottom is keeping me plenty busy at the moment.  I also appreciate you having some respect for your customers not requiring mandatory DRM/internet connection to play at all times.  Picking up Flying Circus next sale you have as well.  Thanks again for your hard work on this amazing title!!

Edited August 12 by BoeingVertol

[Viking1]

I came into the sim today not sure if I felt like flying, and suddenly noticed the sky. Its as ubiquitous as the ground of course, but wow.. its stunning a lot of the time and the variation is incredible. Simply an outstanding job on these environmental factors. It's hard to believe but the sky generally is as good, and often BETTER, than in FS2024. There are more kinds of clouds than I have the language for.

Edited August 15 by Viking1

[AndreiTomescu]

Have you noticed that the clouds are ....burning, flaming somehow at their top edges? It's like the clouds are actually made of gas, not just some drawings.

Dunno how to explain this, just fly above clouds, very close, and you will notice this effect, like a candle effect.

[GiftGruen]

Yes, indeed, clouds and ‚sky colors‘ are pure beauty. 

[mazex]

I have been flying most sims since Fighter Pilot on the Spectrum in 1984. This is probably the best...

My computer is unfortunately dual booted in Linux running ML training jobs so it annoys me that I cannot play now. For me the VR works rather OK with a 9800 X3D / RTX 5080 and a Pimax Crystal Light using the VR preset, the FFB is great and the landscape, aircraft and especially all the small details everywhere is awesome. The first sim that actually feels like a living world. No other sim beats a strafing run in IL2 Korea...

It will be great to see where the journey continues after they have managed to get to version 1.3 or something. The Pacific is already there and carriers are coming soon...

[robzerg]

On 8/18/2026 at 10:42 PM, mazex said:

I have been flying most sims since Fighter Pilot on the Spectrum in 1984. This is probably the best...

My computer is unfortunately dual booted in Linux running ML training jobs so it annoys me that I cannot play now. For me the VR works rather OK with a 9800 X3D / RTX 5080 and a Pimax Crystal Light using the VR preset, the FFB is great and the landscape, aircraft and especially all the small details everywhere is awesome. The first sim that actually feels like a living world. No other sim beats a strafing run in IL2 Korea...

It will be great to see where the journey continues after they have managed to get to version 1.3 or something. The Pacific is already there and carriers are coming soon...

Lol, I only go back as Air Combat Emulator on the ZX Spectrum (1986)! That game had the most maddening anti piracy - you had a special plastic prism which you had to squint through to decipher a scrambled mass of patterns on the screen into letters. It only worked about 1 in 4 times, and if you got the answer wrong 3 times in a row the computer would reset and you'd spend the next 20 minutes reloading the game from scratch! We've never had it so good 😂

[Valis]

1 hour ago, robzerg said:

Lol, I only go back as Air Combat Emulator on the ZX Spectrum (1986)! That game had the most maddening anti piracy - you had a special plastic prism which you had to squint through to decipher a scrambled mass of patterns on the screen into letters. It only worked about 1 in 4 times, and if you got the answer wrong 3 times in a row the computer would reset and you'd spend the next 20 minutes reloading the game from scratch! We've never had it so good 😂

Lenslok!

DI's Tomahawk and Elite had it too. I never had a problem with it (thank God).

[AndreiTomescu]

1 hour ago, robzerg said:

the ZX Spectrum (1986)

Oh, my God, you had to say that....my first "console"/computer.....had that in the '90. Do you have any idea what owning that in a communist/fresh "democratic" country ment??? You were king of the hill....loading games from an old tape recorder.....funny fact: didn't know till late the damn machine had colour output, since i didn't have colour TV at start!!!

those memories.....and now i look at the surroundings in Korea game and it looks like looking down the window.

Wounder where we'll be 30-40 yrs from now? Me, probably dead. 🙂 

But still, Fallout or Star Trek ?

Better to just enjoy Il-2 now and just wait for the near future.

[Viking1]

4 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

Wonder where we'll be 30-40 yrs from now? Me, probably dead. 🙂 

Can't wait to try the full neural interface. Probably need a shot of dramamine first.

[AndreiTomescu]

In @Jaegermeister campaign, in a mid campaign mission, you are announced there is a hidden boat on the river. But besides the one running on the water, there is one, hidden UNDER some bridge, all wrapped up in weeds!

After 3 rockets, the metal bridge from above collapsed and sunk the boat.

I wonder in what game you get such level of detail and realism!

[sandmarken]

The funny thing, and I think it was on purpose, the leader just reports that it's there. So I was unsure if the small boat was part of any war effort or just some poor fishermen at the wrong place. None of my wingmen attacked them but instead dropped all the napalm directly on the small village north of the situation. It was already a mess leaning towards a war crime, so I made short work of the boat before also helping to burn that town to the ground. After that, I went with the guns for that other boat, and I swear I saw the fishermen jump out! 🤯🤯

What a mission! 

[Viking1]

By November,  1951 all B29 raids were scheduled as night missions. Anyone flown the MiG15 campaign far enough to see this? If you have  share some screens!

Edited August 23 by Viking1

[AndreiTomescu]

6 hours ago, sandmarken said:

So I was unsure if the small boat was part of any war effort or just some poor fishermen at the wrong place

I have damage report active from settings. So I can confirm that the hidden boat was loaded with munitions, since besides getting "pinnace destroyed" message, I got "ammo boxes destroyed" msg at the same time.

Dunno about the other boat, that was sailing on the river.....might have been in the wrong time and place. But that one was nalpamed by other wingman, so it's not on me.

Have you noticed the hidden boat looks? Hidden in vegetation. Very immersive looks.

[sandmarken]

Yepp very cool! The best detail of the campaign so far

[AndreiTomescu]

Very good damage model (Il-2 GB also has very good damage model, but this is better, much more complex).

So: during a successful attack upon enemy troops,

 

while performing a low, really low rocket attack, since the radar guided gyro is malfunctioning, and still have to do old-fashioned ww2 style ones 😞 , the enemy attacked me with some...trees, covert ones, since the aforementioned weapons (the trees) were green, not red.

One tree ammunition successfully hit my left wing, and, after some wobbling, I discovered that i've developed a....crack.

     

Since I had only MG ammo left, the game warned me about some catastrophic damage to the plane and I really wanted to go home, I reduced speed, avoided any hard G maneuvers, and after waiting for a couple of minutes for my wingmen to earn their beers, gathered all group and ordered us all home. (no losses despite heavy AAA).

 

After some time, on the way back, I have noticed that the exhaust temps keep rising, striving above 700 celsius, despite the engine running low, at 50-60. No idea why, probably also some damage?? 

After a nice landing, no flaps as to reduce wing load, started to check the visible damage.

The lower part was much more affected:

Still the wing served its purpose till the safe landing.

To be noted the plane was registered as lost, and written off from roster. Had to take a plane from other pilot, one less successful, until some new planes might arrive. 

[Veritasvincitx]

On 8/18/2026 at 5:42 PM, mazex said:

I have been flying most sims since Fighter Pilot on the Spectrum in 1984. This is probably the best...

My computer is unfortunately dual booted in Linux running ML training jobs so it annoys me that I cannot play now. For me the VR works rather OK with a 9800 X3D / RTX 5080 and a Pimax Crystal Light using the VR preset, the FFB is great and the landscape, aircraft and especially all the small details everywhere is awesome. The first sim that actually feels like a living world. No other sim beats a strafing run in IL2 Korea...

It will be great to see where the journey continues after they have managed to get to version 1.3 or something. The Pacific is already there and carriers are coming soon...

I agree with you one hundred percent on this sentiment. I've said it several times on this forum and elsewhere, but I've been in the flight sim game for a long time. I'm jn my mid-forties and my first flight sims were Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0 and, in that general time frame, I was gifted my first combat flight sims - Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (SWOTL). Those games did some heavy lifting for me for a few years. I would rush home from school to crank up the family PC to play SWOTL after reading a memoir of a WWII ace all day at school. 

I haven't had this much fun playing a PC combat flight sim since those days! It's so immersive and the graphics are incredible. Choosing to cover the Korean War was brilliant - a first since Rowan's Mig Alley. There's lots of room for growth and some historical accuracy fixes I'd like to see that I'm confident the developers will tackle. But, this is by far the best sim we've had in ages, in my opinion. 

Also, as someone who has been involved with aviation for almost as long as I've been flight simming, with quite a few hours in high performance aircraft, they nailed the "feel" of aircraft like the F-51D. The instantaneous power response, the trimming, just the feel of the aircraft, it's the best I've encountered. This is my opinion, of course. But, all in all I couldn't be happier with the initial release and can't wait to see where it goes. I'm already stoked for Deck Ops. Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to be peeled away from my beloved F-51D to hop in an F4U (love me some piston engine action). It'll certainly be a new challenge to land on a carrier. Cheers! 

[BlitzPig_EL]

One of the first things I will try is to get that Essex class cranked up to 32 knots into the wind, and land a Mustang on it.  Just because.

[Uther]

4 minutes ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

One of the first things I will try is to get that Essex class cranked up to 32 knots into the wind, and land a Mustang on it.  Just because.

Get a cyclic, you'll probably be landing it like a helicopter.  😁

[Veritasvincitx]

4 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

One of the first things I will try is to get that Essex class cranked up to 32 knots into the wind, and land a Mustang on it.  Just because.

Hey, now there's a man talking my language! I'd join you for that challenge.

My history geek, have to know it all brain just did a quick Google search and, yep, a P-51 did indeed land on the USS Shangri-La in 1944: 

https://youtube.com/shorts/_2Y4-iAZqNM?is=ut2bfv3Zzr86NIwb

 

 

Edited September 7 by Veritasvincitx

[BlitzPig_EL]

4 hours ago, Uther said:

Get a cyclic, you'll probably be landing it like a helicopter.  😁

You must have the Mustang  confused with a 109.