We’ve been asking to see some gameplay and we have our first gameplay trailer for the Korea IL-2 series release. The sim, slated to arrive sometime in 2026, has shown lots of video before but this is the first one that starts to put some of the pieces together for us. Let’s have a look.
MiG-15bis versus the bomber stream
It seems apt that the first gameplay trailer we’re seeing for the series is showing off something that many have been asking for – a big bomber interception mission!
If you want to watch it for yourself first, watch it, let it percolate, and then let’s do the breakdown after that.
Breaking it all down
But first we get a look at the opening menu screen. Museum, Careers, Campaigns, Single Missions and Multiplayer are along the bottom. I don’t know if Fly Now replaces Quick Missions but I’m hopeful that we still have a quick mission system in place – easily one of my most played modes in the Great Battles Series. There’s also Settings, Tracks, About, Exams and a Task Planner. Some of those features are still a little murky for me so it’ll be interesting to see more about each of them.
The first thing that happens is the mouse clicks through into the hangar and we get a good look at the MiG-15bis model with various interactive bits and pieces. This is the culmination of a feature that was mentioned years ago as a way to expand the hangar experience into something a bit more interactive. We love our airplanes and this is a great way to really show them off.
Then we go into what I think is museum mode.
Over on the variants tab we’ve got different loadouts, interceptor, ground attack, and long range with different types of loadouts setup. There’s also liveries with 16 liveries covering a wide variety of schemes for the MiG-15bis. Like to see that variety.
There’s also the cockpit layout tab which helps provide details of what the cockpit looks like. It together with characteristics, flight manual and historical data should be interesting to look at. If this section is as useful in practice as I think it will be, this will also help to redress some of the historic weak points in recent combat flight sims of just not having enough training information for new (or returning) simmers.
Then the mouse button hits Fly and we get a short gameplay focused, but still somewhat cinematic, experience with a MiG-15bis flying intercept of some B-29 bombers. This is, of course, not something that the Great Battles series was really able to do with large bomber formations often causing excessive performance loss. The new sim has some new tricks as we’ve been reading about for quite some time.
With lots of engine condensation trails taking up the sky, the MiG-15bis starts firing its weapons and causes some damage to a B-29. We also get a pretty good look at both the cockpit and the exterior model of the aircraft in action. In these cinematic shots, with a zoomed in field of view, you can see the visual step forward for the 3D model. Its not as dramatic as IL-2 1946 to Great Battles but its still there. The cockpit looks really nice too.
Looking around at the rest of the scene we see the Korea map and the clouds. I have the impression that the cloud technology has taken another step forward though it still has the same kind of Great Battles appearance. They look good though I don’t think, at this point, that its industry leading. We’ll have to see as this whole trailer is marked still as work in progress.
Atmospheric haze looks very convincing but also it covers up some of the ground details so we’ll have to look for more trailers (hopefully something ground attack oriented) to get a feel for how low flying is and how it may differ visually in action from the Great Battles series.
In the next segment, still in the MiG-15bis cockpit and we get our first sound effects from the cannons. They sound appropriately punchy in the limited appearance that they make. A B-29 takes quite a few hits there.
As the MiG-15 flies past, we see out the wing that the B-29 is trailing smoke and fire. It looks good, and I think the fireball is better than we’ve seen before for the series. Hard to say at this point but Great Battles does have very good damage effects and things appear to be either the same or a step forward.
Back in the cockpit, the next sequence has the MiG-15 pull in on the tail of an F-80 Shooting Star. Here we see the AI dropping its external fuel tanks (how long have we waited for those!) before taking some hits. On the next pass, it looks like the 37mm lands a hit on the tail which separates. I’m a little less convinced by the clean separation, its something that happens in Great Battles too, but I think I was hoping to see more effects around that. Maybe I’m being too fussy there.
The trailer ends fairly quickly after that.
Final impressions
Overall I’m very glad to see this trailer emerge. It was sorely missing in the pre-order announcement and this helps build confidence in the new sim and how its going to be able to deliver on some fun gameplay experiences that are either the same as or better than before. Or at least, that’s what we all hope.
The setting of Korea provides for some interesting and different experiences too but there’s a lot that is, obviously, familiar as well. Things are looking relatively polished and impressive overall though I suspect that some will have hoped to see the series step even further forward visually.
What we still need to get a good feel for is how some of the tech improvements look like down low during ground attack missions. We’ve seen some really cool demos but I’m keen to see that all come together.
I think I had hoped for something longer, that said I can see them doling out a number of these gameplay trailer revealing more and more of the experience. If that’s what the intent is, great, I’m all here for it!
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