Is Ilya Muromets the Weirdest Flight Combat Game Ever?

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Meet the Muromets, Russia’s commercial airliner-turned-WW1 warplane.

By Dave Rudden

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The early days of air combat were as weird as you’d expect. Hot air balloons-turned-high-altitude-bombers and the U.S. Army purchasing a Wright Model A directly from the inventors of the airplane are weird enough, but the tale of Russia’s first airborne destroyer may trump them all. Ilya Muromets is both the name of the plane and the game, which tells the story of how a commercial airliner that initially housed a saloon, a gaggle of passengers, and a dog became one of the most feared fighter planes of World War I.

1C Games Studios’ wheelhouse is the period between the two World Wars (an era spanning roughly 30 years), but the level of innovation in aviation between Ilya Muromets’ eponymous plane and the kind in the developer’s fellow 2014 release IL-2 Sturmovik – Battle of Stalingrad is a sight to behold. Stalingrad’s ships share more in common with modern-day jets than the strange plane at the center of this World War 1 combat title.

Even if you’re the kind who prefers a third-person perspective when taking part in dogfights, you’ll want an in-cockpit view of the Muromets. This massive biplane meant to transport large groups of people is a sight to behold from the inside. Due to its massive nature, your view can’t capture the entirety of the aircraft, but you can capture most of the majesty as you see the various pulleys in action when you change direction or altitude. Speaking of altitude, you’ll definitely get a feel for height in your flight, since the minimally constructed Muromets has a design in which you can see the ground directly below your feet. Over the course of 10 missions, you’ll pilot this aviation innovator as well as a variety of other early Russian and German dogfighters, waging war in a very large section of Ukraine.

Would you have felt safe riding in this thing?

As the developer promises with its WWII sim, Ilya Muromets will allow for some substantial online content, including multiplayer dogfights and a mission-creator mode that will allow the community to craft their own objectives within the expansive Russian territory.

Ilya Muromets has the backing of the Russian Military Historical Society, who have tasked 1C Games Studios to create an account of how the rise of a superpower and the rise of aviation dovetailed. It’s a tall order (and we’ve still yet to learn how comprehensively a game like this can tackle multiplayer dogfights), but there’s no better pilot for this mission than one of the biggest names in air combat simulation.

Dave Rudden is a former editor for Official Xbox Magazine and GamePro, and a current freelancer extraordinaire. If you want to chat about pro wrestling or commiserate about how his beloved Mets, Islanders, and Knicks are doing, you can follow him on Twitter @daverudden.

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