Korea Flight Sim Gets Persistent Player Progression as Final Early Access Update

The guns on the Korean peninsula fell silent on July 27, 1953. 73 years later, and the fighting is about to start in earnest, this time over a persistent virtual battlefield.

As part of its brief early access period, flight simulator Korea: Il-2 Series has introduced its most anticipated feature by a long shot: the pilot career.

The main campaign mode in the game has been added as part of update 0.003, four weeks after the early access period kicked off, marking the last major milestone on the road to release on August 4.

Understanding the Commander Career

The new campaign mode, dubbed Commander Career, will look familiar to those who have played 1CGS's earlier releases, especially Il-2: Great Battles.

After choosing which aircraft you wish to fly, you are greeted by an operational map where you can select the different units that operated it during the war. When you select your unit, you get to create your virtual pilot. In Korea: Il-2 Series, the backstory you choose for your pilot comes with certain personality perks that affect the wingman during your tenure as a unit commander.

The new pilot career mode operates in the gray zone between a dynamic and a story campaign. Your choices as commander of your squadron or regiment have an outsized effect on your unit, either leading it to glory or an unceremonious trip to the rear if you take one too many beatings. At the same time, one single squadron won't change the course of the war, so the frontlines will still follow a historically accurate strategic picture.

In its current iteration, Commander Mode lets you assign and play 19 types of combat missions. According to the developers, this list will be expanded following the August 4 release, especially as the aircraft roster is expanded via future DLCs. These are the current mission types available at the moment:

• Bomber intercept (divided into day and night)
• Heavy bomber intercept (day and night)
• Airfield defence
• Area sweep
• Combat Air Patrol
• Heavy bomber escort
• Attack (vehicle column, armored column, artillery, frontline, railway junction, airfield, troops)
• Traffic interdiction
• Close Air Support
• Airfield ferry

Like any self-respecting combat flight simulator, these can be reduced to go here and shoot planes down or blow something up, or prevent someone else from doing that to you. In the future, however, we might get some much-needed depth.

What's Next for Korea: Il-2 Series?

The most obvious progression for Commander Mode is the new mission pool, and there are some hints about future aircraft here. In the dev diary, 1CGS mentions "missions against enemy naval forces" and "artillery spotting" as upcoming types.

The former is a nod to the worst-kept secret in the world, the post-launch DLC that will introduce five new aircraft and is almost certain to focus on American carrier-borne aviation. The latter could mean a lot of things, but it has me hoping for the return of an Il-2: Great Battles Workhorse.

Introduced in 1929, the Polikarpov Po-2 started its life as a modest utility biplane, flying training, leisure, and cropdusting missions in peacetime. Following the outbreak of World War 2, it was pressed into service as a liaison, artillery spotting, air ambulance, and most famously, a night bomber.

Despite being well past its prime in 1950, the Po-2 fought to the end of the Korean War, and even managed to bring down an American jet, becoming the only biplane to do so in history.

The developers have stayed quiet about specific future additions to the lineup so far, but if you're in the team and you are reading this, the biplane mafia is watching. You know what to do.

With Commander Mode deployed, the next big feature for Korea: Il-2 Series is an update of the AI system. As it currently stands, this is an improvement over Great Battles, but still below expectations. 1CGS acknowledges that "much remains to be done to make AI-controlled aircraft behave more realistically in air combat," and the hope is that this will be addressed in the final release.

Korea: Il-2 Series is out on early access via its official page, with a Steam release scheduled for August 4 with the 1.0 update.