When it comes to games or flight sims based around the ‘Forgotten War’ of Korea, none really leap to mind, so news that 1CGS is working on a follow-up to the iconic IL-2 series of flight sims and basing it on the Korean War is exciting on a number of levels.
It really does seem like flight simming is being born again. DCS World has never been as popular, MSFS has reached 15 million players, more and more companies are getting in on the act of creating actual flight controller hardware to play with, and now we are getting a new combat flight sim from some of the best in the business. What a time for simmers to be alive.
Despite nobody really ‘popularising’ the Korean War it has led the world now, even some 75 years on to the situation with North and South Korea so it is of huge historical importance.
The devs have released the first of a planned series of dev blogs and in it explain some of the aircraft we can expect to see including jets from the first and second generation of the technology as well as piston-engined aircraft such as the F-51D Mustang.
The team will recreate the air forces of the USA, North Korea, USSR, and China to accurately represent the war that could quite easily have turned into WWIII.
Where things sound like they are going to get very interesting though is that in the main game mode, you won’t just be a pilot, you can actually take on the role of a commander of an entire unit, managing personnel and planning combat missions.
An entirely new game engine is being developed to run the sim, rather than just tweaking the old one to bring it up to modern standards.
All we have is a 2025 date right now but we are going to be following the progress of Korea closely in the coming months.