IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz

About

IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz is a combat flight simulation game set in World War II. It offers an immersive and authentic flying experience with detailed aircraft models and realistic flight physics. The Blitz edition includes improved graphics, additional aircraft, and new gameplay mechanics for an enhanced experience. Players can engage in thrilling aerial battles over the skies of Europe and take part in historic missions and campaigns against enemy forces.

Genres & Tags

Simulation

Play Modes

IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz screenshot

66%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,283 reviews

graphics90 positive mentions

stability45 negative mentions

The game offers an immersive experience with realistic flight dynamics and detailed aircraft models.
Team Fusion has significantly improved the game since its initial release, making it a solid choice for WWII flight sim enthusiasts.
The community is friendly and supportive, providing help for new players and enhancing the multiplayer experience.

The user interface is clunky and outdated, making it difficult to navigate and set up controls.
Joystick support is problematic, with many players struggling to get their controllers recognized and configured properly.
The single-player experience is lacking, with poor AI and no dynamic campaign, making it less engaging for solo players.

graphics
205 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
54%
2%
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many praising their realism and detail, particularly in cockpit views and aircraft modeling. While some users note that the visuals are a significant improvement over older titles, others point out that certain aspects feel dated, especially given the game's roots in earlier technology. Overall, the graphics are considered a strong point, contributing to an immersive experience, but there are calls for further enhancements to keep pace with modern standards.
- “The graphics are outstanding - the most realistic I have seen.”
- “This sim has excellent graphics, audio effects, physics, and damage models enabling the most immersive experience possible.”
- “The graphics are extremely impressive, both terrain and vehicles.”
- “And despite having graphics from 2011, the FPS drops a lot, sometimes to 10 FPS despite running it on a 6600 XT.”
- “The graphics are awful; controls require mapping of hundreds of commands as there are no defaults for even the most common joysticks... what a complete waste of time.”
- “The interface is klunky, and the graphics are dated.”
story
192 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
88%
4%
The game's story aspect is described as having a believable and well-written narrative that enhances immersion, particularly through mission briefings and radio conversations. However, players express a desire for more off-mission story content and dynamic campaigns, as the current offerings are limited and often require editing to play as allies. While the mission builder allows for customization, it demands scripting knowledge, which can be a barrier for some players looking to create engaging narratives.
- “There's a believable, well-written story that I would recommend reading properly between missions for the full experience.”
- “If there was more off-mission story material during the campaigns, that would be incredible.”
- “The campaign missions are nice; I get a good sense of achievement after finishing each one properly.”
- “The game comes with campaigns that are not dynamic and cannot be modified; they are preset and you cannot change your loadout or mission parameters.”
- “On the other hand, single player content is lacking (there are campaigns and missions, but no career or dynamic campaign generator, which the developers promised almost a year ago).”
- “The missions that come with the game are poor.”
optimization
59 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
39%
37%
24%
The game's optimization has seen significant improvements over time, transforming it from a buggy and poorly performing title into a visually stunning simulation with better frame rates and smoother gameplay. However, many players still report issues such as stuttering, poor controller optimization, and performance drops in multiplayer, indicating that while progress has been made, optimization remains inconsistent and problematic for some users. Overall, the game offers beautiful graphics and improved performance, but it still struggles with optimization challenges that can hinder the experience.
- “The game has been greatly optimized and the graphics are beautiful.”
- “The good news is that in terms of raw performance, the game runs a lot smoother than it used to.”
- “Not least by seeing the performance issues solved: I got far better FPS on this state-of-the-art combat flight simulator than ever on my old and beloved 'IL-2 1946'.”
- “I have to be honest here, the negative reviews regarding the poor controller optimization are 100% valid.”
- “Notably, this game performs ~150% worse fps-wise than IL-2 Great Battles, plus stuttering that makes air combat impossible.”
- “Poorly optimized and barely playable.”
stability
47 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
96%
The game's stability is a significant concern, with numerous users reporting persistent bugs, crashes, and issues with controller configuration. While some improvements have been noted in recent updates, many players still experience freezing, particularly in single-player modes, and multiplayer functionality remains unreliable. Overall, despite its visual appeal and potential, the game is often described as a "buggy mess" that requires considerable troubleshooting from players.
- “Apart from that, it runs great, being able to deal smoothly with a lot of in-game objects at once, more so than other current games.”
- “I refunded this game once because of the flightstick mapping issues. I recently re-purchased the game because I believed I found a solution to the flightstick mapping, but lo and behold, the game won't even launch. It's a known issue by Team Fusion, and their answer is player troubleshooting, not fixing the known issue but rather passing it off to the players that paid for their product.”
- “This game is a mess; the controller configuration is a mess, apart from other potential glitches and bugs.”
- “While flying a plane is actually good fun in this game, every other aspect of the game is useless, unstable, buggy, or not finished.”
gameplay
46 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
39%
48%
13%
Gameplay is a mixed bag, with many players praising the immersive flight mechanics, stunning graphics, and attention to detail, while also expressing frustration over the cumbersome joystick setup and lack of clear instructions. The game offers a realistic simulation experience, appealing to those seeking depth, but it suffers from limited content and outdated elements compared to newer titles. Overall, while the core gameplay is solid and engaging for dedicated sim enthusiasts, the initial setup and learning curve may deter some players.
- “Sure the flight models lack here and there compared to box and you only have 2 maps but what you get in return is just so much more important for immersive gameplay: lots of moving ground and plane AI without making the game engine slow down, you can actually use x16 timeskip in singleplayer, (mostly) clickable cockpits, far better visuals, engine modeling, damage model, hit registry, easy to use mission editor to set up your own missions, AI actually not behaving like idiots in dogfights.”
- “Blitz delivers rocking gameplay on consistently crowded servers, beautifully and authentically rendered aircraft with meticulously accurate flight models and gorgeous graphics.”
- “If like me you're looking for as realistic as possible an experience with deep immersive gameplay then I would recommend this game.”
- “I tried this as I tried the IL Sturmovik 46 game years ago; nothing has changed, it still has very bad outdated gameplay and still expects you to play with a keyboard and mouse unless you are prepared to spend time altering all the necessary settings needed to get a controller to work.”
- “I tell you what, I reckon a lot of people stopped the game after getting confused by the menus and difficult mapping, thereby becoming negatively biased towards the sim and putting the gameplay and meat of what it is in bad light: the simulation itself.”
- “There is no clear explanation of game mechanics, plane start-up, and map navigation tools requiring the player to search for this information online, on forums, and YouTube.”
atmosphere
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
57%
21%
21%
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its immersive WWII flight experience, enhanced by impressive graphics and realistic flight models. While many players find it to be one of the most atmospheric flight sims available, concerns remain about the AI's lack of improvement, which detracts from the overall single-player experience and the game's ability to create a rich ambiance in multiplayer.
- “The game has great atmosphere and graphics, and I like the flight models (handling) the best.”
- “For those who love flight sims, there is no more atmospheric and immersive sim out there than this.”
- “If you ever felt IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad lacks some kind of WWII atmosphere.”
- “The AI has had zero work, both in ability and giving orders, so they are still essentially useless and bug-ridden, thereby continuing to render single player a horrible experience and making it difficult to employ effectively in multiplayer to add ambience and atmosphere.”
- “If you like WWII flight with atmosphere and immersion, this is the one.”
grinding
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be quite tedious, particularly in terms of menu navigation and maintaining flight control, which requires repetitive adjustments. While some appreciate the game's value and the developers' efforts, the overall experience is marred by the excessive effort needed to manage basic functions, leading to frustration.
- “I honestly can get past the fact that the menus look like screenshots edited in paint, but the fact that so much stuff is missing and extremely tedious is unacceptable.”
- “The menu navigation is tedious.”
- “UI is tedious to navigate through.”
music
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
33%
33%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews; while the home screen music is praised for its epic and emotional range, the in-game soundtrack is criticized for being lackluster compared to the original IL-2 Sturmovik. Users express a desire for more variety in the music as they navigate through options, and some find the sound menu's limited adjustments unsatisfactory. Overall, the soundtrack is noted as incredible, but inconsistencies in quality detract from the experience.
- “The music on the home screen is excellent, sometimes patriotic and epic, sometimes sad and calm.”
- “The soundtrack is absolutely incredible.”
- “Getting into the game, things feel a bit lazy; the UI looks like something out of a Unity game, and the music is terrible compared to the original IL-2 Sturmovik.”
- “The sound menu only allows you to adjust voice and music.”
- “More rotating music as we browse through all the planes and options and configuration would be nice.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game offers impressive replayability, largely due to its engaging content and the evolution of AI behavior, which enhances the overall experience. While some players have raised concerns about accessibility and AI functionality, the developers have made significant improvements that keep the game feeling fresh and playable compared to its earlier version.
- “The content is mind-blowingly replayable despite the game having very specific English and German planes.”
- “Like it or not, the TF team has done a great job to keep the game more playable than the far-abandoned original version.”
- “The AI has progressed since I last reviewed the simulation, showing realistic behavior that enhances replay value.”
- “My main issues with the game were accessibility, replay value, and the AI. Pinguim noted that the AI can be made to land by using the command 'abort mission'. Even though I couldn't yet test this, I noted the behavior of two friendly AI Hurricane MKs after being shot by enemy bombers: one of them had a fuel leak and the other's engine seemed to have malfunctioned. They both returned to friendly territory and ditched their planes in a rather realistic manner. This shows to me that at least in some respects, the AI has progressed since I last reviewed the simulation.”
- “Like it or not, the TF team has done a big job to keep the game more playable than the far-abandoned original version.”
- “Content is mind-blowingly replayable despite the game having very specific English and German planes.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is characterized by quirky elements, such as amusing British planes and a comically oversized FPS counter during loading screens. While the game is noted for its bugs, these issues are seen as humorous rather than detrimental to the overall experience.
- “A team of modders made this after 1C abandoned the original in an unplayable state. It's a great sim, albeit still very buggy. It's not game-breaking or experience-ruining, just funny, like the giant Steam FPS counter in the loading screens.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional response to the game is largely negative, with users expressing deep disappointment and frustration over its initial release, particularly due to performance issues and various other problems, leading some to abandon the game entirely for years.